We’re
all aware that every image we see in an ad or on a magazine cover is edited in
Photoshop but it’s still shocking to see it. She was beautiful before they
edited the image…and now she doesn’t even look like a real person. The
excessive use of Photoshop is unethical and needs to be addressed. While this
is largely up to companies to change their design tactics, there is something that you and I can do as
consumers.
The excessive use of
Photoshop is unethical as it causes serious issues for many Americans, such as
low self-esteem and eating disorders. While it’s completely acceptable to use
Photoshop to change a background or remove a stray hair or even a pimple, it’s
unethical to use it to alter a woman’s body or face.
One of the most
successful photographers of this century, Peter Lindbergh, lamented the use of
Photoshop in an interview with a New York Times reporter. He said: “My feeling
is that for years now it has taken a much too big part in how women are being
visually defined today. Heartless retouching should not be the chosen tool to
represent women in the beginning of this century.”
Young girls who grow
up seeing these Photoshopped images too often succumb to eating disorders that
destroy them physically and mentally. According to the National Association of
Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, 24 million people in the US suffered
from eating disorders in 2003. That number can only be rising. In one study,
47% of girls in grades 5th through 12th said that magazine covers made them want
to lose weight. Girls as young as 11 and 12 are influenced to want to change
their bodies to fit these impossible and often false standards. Eating
disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness and claim
countless lives every year, from starvation, suicide, or other related health
problems.
The National Eating
Disorders Association states that while there are many factors that contribute
to the development of eating disorders, the cultural glorification of thinness
plays a large role. We live in a society that celebrates being thin. You’ve all
seen those commercials for dieting pills or drinks. Now I’m in no way saying
that people shouldn’t strive to be healthy. But when editors use Photoshop on
an image, they cut out the muscle as well as the fat to get the impossibly thin
look they want. Girls aren’t growing up with images of women who are muscular
and strong, but ones who are skinny and vapid.
Several companies
are making changes to combat this issue, but the consumers can take action as
well. Some magazines and companies have stopped using Photoshop and are
promoting showing genuine realistic photos.
Seventeen magazine
took a pledge in August of 2012 to never use Photoshop to edit girls’ bodies or
faces. A petition on Change.org that was started by a 14-year-old from Maine
gained 84,000 signatures. Not only is this proof that one person can make a difference,
but also it demonstrates that it is possible for a company to change. The girls
in the magazine look more like your friends and classmates than the people you
see in other magazines.
And Seventeen isn’t
the only one. Aerie, American Eagle’s lingerie store, premiered a new ad
campaign in the Spring of 2014. Their new slogan is “The Real You is Sexy” and
they emphasize that they don’t Photoshop the bodies of the girls in their ads
at all. Their bodies look realistic in their poses.
Consumers can make a
difference by endorsing companies that aren’t overusing Photoshop and spreading
awareness about this issue. By choosing to buy Seventeen magazine or choosing
to buy your underwear at Aerie instead of a competitor, you’re funding their
company. Other companies might change their design methods in an attempt to
gain customers. I’ve grown up reading Seventeen magazine, but now I make sure
that I buy every month’s issue. I also shop at Aerie more frequently than I
used to. An even simpler way for consumers to help is to spread awareness. Talk
about it with your friends or little siblings. Write about it on your blog.
Sign a petition on Change.org or start one yourself!
By addressing this
problem, we can promote a better ideal of beauty and decrease the number of
people who suffer from eating disorders and other self-image related problems. 20% of people suffering from anorexia
will die from the disorder or its complications, according to the ANAD.
Eliminating the unethical use of Photoshop would actually lead less girls and
women to die from eating disorders. It wouldn’t be able to save every girl but
even if it saved one life, if it saved one girl from destroying herself
emotionally and physically, it would be worth the change.
The unethical use of
Photoshop has spawned many problems, among them a near epidemic of eating
disorders with over 8% of Americans suffering from them, but it’s not too late
for change. If more companies followed Aerie and Seventeen’s example and
stopped using Photoshop to alter people’s bodies and people stood up and shared
what they knew, this could change.
I would like to ask
you to do four things to help change this problem.
1. You can spread awareness about this issue.
If you hear a friend compare himself or herself to a person in an ad or a
magazine, speak up. Share what you know with your little siblings and cousins.
2. If you see a petition about the use of
Photoshop like this one, sign it. [Show change.org petition.] Petitions like
the one Julia started can have real consequences like Seventeen magazine ending
their use of Photoshop.
3. Buy from companies, like Aerie and
Seventeen, that don’t overuse Photoshop when you can. Consider it putting your
money where your mouth is.
4. And lastly, not to sound like some kind of
motivational Oprah figure, don’t compare yourself to the images that you see.
They aren’t real and comparing yourself to them can be psychologically
damaging.
The use of Photoshop
is an important issue that affects all Americans, regardless of their gender or
race or religion. And you can do something about it. So please help me in
saving our generation and future ones from ignorance about the manipulation we see
every day.
Works Cited
Botelho, G. (2012,
July 6). Seventeen magazine vows not to alter images, to 'celebrate every kind
of beauty' CNN. Retrieved October 3,
2014, from http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/05/us/seventeen-photoshopping/
Eating Disorders
Statistics. Retrieved October 3, 2014, from http://www.anad.org/get-information/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/
Factors That May
Contribute To Eating Disorders. Retrieved October 3, 2014 from http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/factors-may-contribute-eating-disorders.
Krupnick, E. (2014,
January 17). Aerie's Unretouched Ads 'Challenge Supermodel Standards' For Young
Women. The Huffington Post. Retrieved
October 3, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/aerie-unretouched-ads-photos_n_4618139.html
Tim Piper. [Tim
Piper]. (2006, Oct 6). Dove Evolution.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U.
Wilson, E. (2009,
May 9). Smile and Say ‘No Photoshop’. The New
York Times. Retrieved October 3, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/fashion/28RETOUCH.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0