Celebrities are you real?

I recently came across a video online showing the dramatic changes that can be done to your body by using Photoshop. The video had an over weight girl in it and showed how Photoshop can change a persons entire look. She went from being an over weight mess to a skinny beauty. Or so everyone seems to think. Women are getting pressurized to become skinny because of this stupid software called Photoshop. Why should we look up to people like celebrities with their 'gorgeous natural looks' when in fact we are being drowned in a Photo shopped culture. Most photos of celebrities will have been photos hopped to make them look immaculate when in real life they look like any other person.






I felt this photo below was ideal to put into my blog and also this very post. The picture of Mischa Barton who had clearly been photo shopped works perfectly in synch with my blog. The warning in front of the photo of her is clearly slating all celebrities who use photo shop and to not believe what you see, as most likely 99% of it has been photo shopped. The warning also states that the picture may damage self-esteem, which in reality it actually does. The pressures digital media have put on woman to look amazing at all times has had a huge toll on how women see themselves.

Celebrities are photo shopped all the time to make them look 'perfect' but in the real world no one is perfect. Digital media have managed to turn our society into a vain and body conscious place where no one can be happy with their looks unless they have a tiny frame and a perfect face. The photo portrays exactly what photo shop does and how it makes people feel about themselves. I think this picture sums up perfectly how much photo shopping is done and that all magazine covers are not real, they are in fact totally fake.

Gaga, put some clothes on yeh?

So, I was watching the music channels with a few of the guys this weekend. Now being a massive fan of chart music this was the perfect way to keep the boys off the Xbox for once! Feeling pretty good about myself we began the countdown with MTV to the top video of the week. Happy with the choices so far we reached number 3. Then for four minutes I watched a woman in her skimpy bra and pants, her tiny skinny frame dance promiscuously all over the plasma screen on the wall. I have to say, hearing all the things the guys were saying about her 'amazing' figure really made me feel insecure. This was the moment when I realized how disgraced I was with the video. I sat there with my size 10 figure wandering how the hell I could ever compete with a body like hers.

This was a harsh but true reality. Knowing that the music and media industry have allowed these explicit images on our TV’s and online at any time makes me worry. If I can be affected so badly by one video, who's to say every other girl doesn't feel the same? The way women are being portrayed in the media is not acceptable. Dancing in your underwear for a music video shouldn't be allowed especially if it is also getting leaked online where a younger audience have full access to these provocative, sexualized music videos. This may seem a bit drastic but I strongly believe woman should be forced to at least wear more than just skimpy underwear when producing these videos as this isn't sending the right message to the younger generation who look up to these celebrities. There has to be a point where someone stands up and stops this unnecessary promiscuous behavior. These women are being portrayed as sex icons, and are portraying that you must be skinny to be sexy to be wanted by men, which is not true. Celebrities should realize that they are role models for young girls and should take a minute to think about what they are putting out to the public online and on TV. The number of teenage girls with eating disorders has risen dramatically over the years and with extreme pressure from digital media to be slim they are starving themselves to get this 'desired' look, which is extremely unhealthy. If something isn't done about this, then the way women portray themselves will never change and we will be on a down wards spiral when it comes to image.


Below is a video link to Lady Gaga’s Born this way. Take a look and you'll understand what I mean by wearing nothing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq_b_urf3rA


Accessing these kinds of videos is extremely easy to do through websites such as YouTube as you can upload music videos or other videos and easily access these provocative music videos. Majority of today's music videos can be found on it and with such easy access to provocative music videos it's no wonder that digital media can have a huge influence on the way woman feel about their bodies and image. Having a society that is body conscious orientated leads to these provocative videos leaking online where many different ages of people can access them. This is worrying as children as young as seven are now watching these videos online and becoming aware of this 'skinny' culture. These videos should have an age limitation if seen as too promiscuous or inappropriate for children. You wouldn’t let your children dress like these celebrities so why expose them to this at such a young age. It’s concerning that nowadays children are becoming more self conscious about what they look like when what they should really be doing is playing outside and enjoying life.

This book Sexual teens, sexual media: investigating media's influence on adolescent sexuality by Jane Delano Brown, Jeanne R. Steele and Kim Walsh-Childers shows an inside of how woman and teenagers who watch TV that is image orientated feel about their appearance and body image after watching the programes. The book's findings show that by watching just 30 minutes of TV that is image orientated can change the way a woman feels about her body. Dissatisfaction and depression are two huge problems that woman have to over come when watching these TV programes as they don't feel that they are as slim or good looking as these characters in the programmes. It's been proven that watching shows like 90210 and Gossip Girl woman are more likely to feel ashamed of their bodies than watching Eastenders or Hollyoaks where the actors are of a range of sizes and woman generally feel comfortable within their bodies.

The significance of using this specific book is to show how watching something for such little time whether it be online or on TV can have such a great impact on the way woman feel about their bodies and their appearances. The book fits in well with the blog as this part is about body image and woman's body image.

Yes, It's my turn to talk.

I'm the first one to tell you that looks don't mean anything.. Then two minutes later you'll most likely find me perched in front of the mirror fixing my make up and straightening my hair.  Hypocrite I know.

In my opinion I believe that beauty isn’t what the digital media tells me it is..  (skinny celebrities not eating and getting photo shopped) but woman who embrace their natural beauty.  Take my friends for example, they stress over their looks and weight all the time, always wanting to look their best and be “the ideal weight” when in all honestly they are beautiful the way they are and I wouldn't change any one of them in the slightest.  People come in all shapes and sizes and if digital media wasn't so against normal sized women then I don't think we would have half the problems we do with eating disorders in women.. and men!  

Earlier this year Russell Brand put a photo up of my girl crush Katy Perry with no make up on his Twitter.  Although it was taken offline later that day seeing her natural was great as it shows they don’t look perfect 24/7.  I know we don't look as amazing as we could with a full face of make up on but I admire her for letting her real beauty show.  We all look different with no make up on or our hair not done.  Therefore I'm posting this photo that I took myself for her and for all the other woman who don't feel like they can be naturally beautiful.  Not saying Im beautiful because Im FAR from that but I want to show myself that I do have that inner confidence and beauty to stand up against the digital media and show them that they are wrong.  That natural beauty is the future.

I posted this picture of myself with no make up on to prove a point. Yes, these two photo's below are a contrast of me with make up on and with no make up on. Although I hesitated to put this picture up on my blog at first I think doing so has encouraged me to feel more confident in my own skin. I mean if I'm not prepared to do something so little as put a picture of myself with no make up online then I can’t criticize what the digital media is doing.  Standing up against the stereotype of what is perceived as ‘beautiful’ may encourage other women to feel more confident within their own skin and embrace their inner beauty.

(This picture was taken from : http://www.insanemom.net/russell-brand-twitter-photo-katy-perry-makeup-picture/2468)

Photoshop. Dove- Evolution

This video of a model that is getting prepared for a photo shoot is a prime example of how fake all advertising campaigns are by using digital media. The model goes through her make-up and hair routine, getting primed by stylists and make up artists to where she ends up looking fantastic. But as the video goes on her finished picture is then changed dramatically by photo shop experts who will in turn spend days fixing the one picture to what they presume is perfect. Her neck is lengthened and slimmed down, her eyes and eyebrows are moved into a different position and tidied up, her face is slimmed and her hair colour and make up is touched up. These photos on billboards and advertised on TV are therefore NOT real. By using this digital media experts can totally transform pictures to create real pieces of art. Although these pictures are usually expected to be going into adverts or magazines the way this technology can be used is amazing. For example Photoshop should be used on wedding photos or family portraits as these pictures are very special to people and people will want to look their best getting these photos done and if they feel the stress of having to look amazing at all time they may end up not looking their best so using photo shop in this instance should be acceptable. However photo shop shouldn't be allowed to be used over excessively when creating magazine covers or adverts as the look of the person of the front is totally transformed to look thinner which puts pressure on todays society to be extremely thin and creates low self esteem for teenagers.



I chose to add this picture in at this time as the video is about photo shopping so felt that the picture was relevant to the current post. The photo above represents the logo for Photoshop. Throughout my blog there have been references to Photoshop continuously and with the growing use of photo shop in digital media increasing dramatically over the last five years I felt it was a good topic to focus on. The use of this picture is to indicate what the Photoshop icon is and what it looks like. Just using a picture of the photo shop logo allows individuals to be able to recognize it. Although the logo for photo shopping is a plain blue background with P and S on it, it infact is totally the opposite from plain and simple. Photoshop is a very complicated programme and takes a lot of time and effort to master as it can take days for the experts who work with it to perfect just one image.

Photoshop & Britney Spears

This is a photo-shopped picture of Britney Spears. As you can see her body has been sculpted slimmer, her tattoo removed and her cellulite has been covered up so it isn't visible. Pictures like these show just how natural celebrities are but with their photos always getting photo shopped within the media no one would second guess that these celebrities don't actually look like this.

Photoshop is used regularly in the digital media industry for adverts and modeling photos for designers, these photos have been regenerated and tampered with to make the people in them look sexy and make their bodies look amazing as in this industry sex sells. Hence photos are usually photo shopped before they get anywhere near to the public seeing them as they want the people in the photos to look their best as the sexier they look the more people will want to buy the magazines they feature in.

Photo manipulation is most commonly found in advertising to enhance the way people look in photographs. The pictures take a long time to get right as it takes a team of people to put just one 'perfect' picture together.

Photo taken from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1265676/Britney-Spears-releases-airbrushed-images-digitally-altered-versions.html



The magazine stand is full of women's magazines where the people on the front cover of all the magazines have been photo shopped. Having these digitally photo shopped images in front of us all the time can begin to have serious effects on people. Having to look at people on the front covers who look perfect at whatever angle you look at it can be very overwhelming when your not feeling the best about the way you look. Woman are faced with this dilemma day in day out because of these magazine stands being the main focus of how woman should look. The digital media is portraying woman in such a way that being skinny and gorgeous is the only way men will find you attractive, which in reality should not be the case.

The Slim Image

This short and sweet slide show portrays the dangerous effects that digital media is having on the youth in todays society. These outrageous facts on eating disorders in young people are extremely worrying and it is very unlikely that these statistics will decrease anytime soon.

With eating disorders on the rise and digital media not addressing this growing problem the youth of the future are in for a nasty ride. If digital media used real, natural woman of a healthy size then half of our problems would be solved. With girls admiring these skin and bone models its no wonder that normal sized girls get bullied and picked on for their weight. Portraying women in such a way that majority of women today think they are overweight is not the right message to be giving to younger generations. Women of an average weight now feel its compulsary that they be a smaller size as society is telling them that skinny is beautiful and if you aren't beautiful then you are worth very little, which is completely wrong. Beauty is natural.


A scary reality.

0855955 The Slim Image

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