The "Ideal" Woman
One of the main things that advertising does is "surround us with images of ideal feminine beauty" (Kilbourne 2010). This is unhealthy a) because ideal feminine beauty entails that one is young, white, and thin, and b) because "failure is inevitable" as this image is "based on absolute flawlessness" (Kilbourne 2010). Not only that, but it redefines women's purpose, boiling being a woman down to "constantly striving for an unattainable ideal of beauty and approval in the eyes of men" (Newsom 2011). This ideal also results in "Fatphobia," where "fatshaming is, somehow the one acceptable form of bigotry we have in this society," and thinness is the only accepted form of beauty (Stewart, 2012). Therefore, women are left unable to live up to an impossible ideal.
In this before-and-after shot we see the power of photoshop. In the final product this woman's eyes and lips are significantly bigger, while her ears and shoulders are significantly smaller. Her face is impossible to achieve because it is not real.
Here we see just how skinny American media wants us to be. This thin and healthy model has been turned into an a skinny and starved model all through a computer program. Her waist and hips have shrunk while her eyes and lips have grown.
Jean Kilbourne pointed out that this model's pelvis has been digitally decreased to the point of being smaller than her head, a phenomenon which is anatomically impossible (Kilbourne 2010). Not only was this model digitally altered to look skinny, but she was altered to look anorexic. While telling the young girls of America that they need to be thin and white to be beautiful is mentally damaging, telling them that they must look anorexic is physically unhealthy as well.
This photograph of Kate Winslet was photoshopped without her consent. Upon release Ms. Winslet made a public statement declaring that her legs are at least twice this size in reality and that she did not approve of the message being sent through this photo. While she was responsible enough to own up to her true size, we see that the media changes all women, no matter how naturally beautiful.
Brittany Spears had these before-and-after photos released in an effort to educate girls against eating disorders. We see that in the first photo her waist was made smaller, as well as her hips and legs. They also got rid of her muscle definition, something which all true dancers have. In the second photo they made her taller, decreased the size of her legs and buttocks, erased the wrinkle on her neck, made her thinner, and decreased the size of her bicep.