I find that the media, whether it be high-fashion advertisements, magazine articles, television programs, commercials etc. no matter what, always promote that thin, thin, thin is in, in, in. No matter how many times people say: "Love yourself, love who you are, every one is beautiful", the truth of the matter is that what we see in the world is that thin is always beautiful and we should all be just that. (Not my feeling) We are forced to believe that we need to be a stick to get somewhere in life.
In this article, fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg believes that there should be no censorship when it comes to magazine and advertising photos. I however, disagree. I am on Boyer's side, the French legislator, who believes that all photos that have been altered in any way should have some type of disclaimer telling the consumer that these have been touched up and this is not the actual photo or body of the person. Advertisements affect people in every aspect of life, from what we listen to, eat, wear, drive, anything and everything. With this law, we know that these photos have been tweaked and that it is not the real thing so we don't have to feel that bad about ourselves.
I think Von Furstenberg contradicts herself as she says, "Beauty is health -- health, beauty," she added, "My whole philosophy in life and in my work and everything is to enjoy the woman that you are and to believe in it." If she believes in that, then she would not have her photographs tweaked to falsely advertise her designs or models. She does not believe in the law of censorship. She also states, "The pictures, the snapshots that you take of your family -- you crop them, you take something away. That's just part of what we do automatically" But the pictures we crop and adjust of our families are not being plastered all over the world, they are for our personal use and I do not agree with how she makes the comparison to the high-fashion advertisements. The advertisements which are tweaked that are covering our newsstands are sending bad messages about self-image, not our family photos.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/02/10/fashion.photos/index.html?iref=allsearch
I completely agree with you! It's like that DOVE evolution video on You Tube where they TOTALLY change the model from how long her neck is, her cheek bones, how far apart her eyes are! The fashion and make-up industry goes way to far to make people want to go underneath the knife. They create a perfect model, when we ALL KNOW no one is perfect. I also agree with you that the consumer should be informed when a picture is re-touched up to the extreme. It's wrong and people still wonder why plastic surgery is as popular as it is!
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you Courtney. The way women and even men now a days, are portrayed in magazines is just unrealistic. No person is perfect and that is how they are portrayed in these magazines and people actually believe it. I also think that if there are pictures in magazines that make people look beautiful and glamorous then the readers of that certain magazine should be aware of the fact that this is not what this person actually looks like and you should not strive to make your body look like this. Everyone should just be happy with what God gave them!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Courtney. Magazines are promoting this image of women only being sexy if they are thin and perfect. This only adds to the every day women, looking at the magazine, becoming more self-conscious about themselves. The media is making women think that if they do not look like super models then they are ugly, which is not true. No one looks that good in person. We all have flaws and shouldnt have to fix them the "fake" way, such as airbrushing and plastic surgery.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you critiqued Diane Von Furstenberg's last statement. You're right in the fact that it has now become a self-esteem issue world wide. I was watching a clip from the Tyra show the other day and girls in elementary school were saying how they aren't pretty enough, light-skinned enough, and need to lose a certain amount of weight. This problem wasn't around 10 years ago as I was growing up, but since technology advances people find new uses to make things look better. I do believe there should be a disclaimer, but also I think the models should form some type of an event or come together to address this issue.
ReplyDeleteI think this issue is only getting worse. Dove alone can't change things with their current campaign.
I agree completely. It's sad how fashion magazine have to focus more on the size of the model than how the general public will view it. I think there should be a disclaimer like you said, but I'm not sure if it will work because everyone still has it in their minds that being that skinny is the only way to feel beautiful. There has been more scrutiny lately on ads that are touched up too much. It is becoming noticeable and it would be nice if they would all just stop touching up completely. Maybe there should be a photoshop ban on all fashion agency so that they can advertise real beauty and nothing fake because that's all that they should when they photoshop too much.
ReplyDeleteWhile DVF is a fashion icon, I do think she needs to work a bit on her communication skills. Is she trying to say that heroin chic models are healthy? Is she trying to promote the "health" of bodies that partially get to where they are because of drugs like ephedrine? It's very odd.
ReplyDeleteI like that you took the stance that you did and I agree with Boyer. I don't necessarily think that all ads require a disclaimer, but I do think that people could use the reminder every now and then, you know?