Re: "Photoshopped to Perfection"

Hi, Rob --

> Funnily enough this issue
> was in the news in the UK
> today, with a political party
> calling for the banning of
> unrealistically airbrushed
> images in material aimed at
> young girls - 
>http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/dont-beef-up-keiras-bust-lib-dems-take-aim-at-advertisers-over-altered-images-1766549.html

Many thanks for this!

I shall include a link to the online article in my revised gallery
exhibit.

My $0.02 re. the posted responses at the bottom of the page: I too
think that training in "media literacy" (sometimes called "critical
literacy" over here) is generally a good idea, but I'm not at all sure
it's going to solve girls' problem with unrealistic body images.

The media studies professor quoted in the _LA Times_ article (Gigi
Durham) hinted as much:

	"Even those [girls] who are more savvy, she adds, are still
	affected. 'They know that no one really looks like that, but
	they still say, 'I wish my waist were that small.'"

In my experience, once these sorts of images come to dominate our
visual culture, even the most critical of us are susceptible.

The unreal soon becomes the new real, largely because it's so familiar
and over-represented in our visual subconscious.

I don't believe we can legislate or analyze our way out of this.

Rather, I think the answer is for each of us to expand our visual
field (meaning that girls "pore over" a lot more images than just
celebrity/fashion "magazine photos").

Deborah
(here spouting more armchair pop psychology than your usual
cultural-studies scholar ;-)
_____

Deborah Taylor-Pearce
[email protected]






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