Fake

I recently read an article about an anorexic girl who strongly believes that airbrushing should be banned when photographers are editing images for the public eye. The 21 year old from Warrington suffered from anorexia throughout her teenage years and had been given 48 hours to live. She says her eating disorder was made worse by photoshopped pictures of celebrities in magazines. This made me think, why do so many girls aspire to look like magazine models? What is so good about being skinny and glamourous? Also, why is it so acceptable that so many young girls are making themselves thinner just to look like these women?

"The Home Office review Sexualisation of young people has recommended that airbrushed images used within the media should be indicated with a symbol, and that age restrictions should be introduced on 'lads' magazines'.

Unite/CPHVA Health Visitor Forum chair Maggie Fisher stated: 'These recommendations are a good way forward. Airbrushed images of models are giving children and young people a false view of how "normal" people look, and are creating a unhealthy environment where we are not valuing individuals who are perceived as "less than perfect".' I completely agree with this view, and the fact that photography is having such a big impact on young people today is almost disturbing. From smoothing skin and getting rid of wrinkles, to enlarging muscles and slimming waists, airbrushing men and women to almost ''perfection'' has become the absolute norm in the advertising media. These images don't reflect reality at all, yet from a younger and younger age, people are aspiring to these impossible bodies. 

The art of airbrushing is so simple that there is no excuse for an image to hit the front of a magazine without a little tweaking. Add a little tan, nip a little waist, slightly larger breasts and wallah! But...I think the impact of the airbrushing is not completely realized as almost every women's magazine uses it to change the way the models look. But why? What is so wrong with a natural body? I suppose it is just one of those questions that is yet to be answered...