Now if you can't zoom on the device you are reading this on, you may not even notice at all, but I made the photos as large as I could. How can you even possibly deny the amount of editing that has been done to these photos? I don't even know where to start, but for some reason I was just disturbed by this this morning. If you look at the outside of their legs, the lines are just blurred entirely, there is a fuzzy stop to their legs and butts. The blonde woman had her entire behind erased! If I were her, I would be highly disappointed with the way I looked! She actually doesn't even have a buttcheek, maybe has a slight pooch on the right, but that's it. Now look at where her thighs cross! Whoever edited that should be fired, both legs get cut off and squished together, but her legs are supposed to be crossed. It looks entirely too fake once you notice that. Then there's the fact that any tiny trace of a freckle, sunspot, or maybe a little dimple has been entirely deleted.
The girl in the top photo is trying to stick her butt out, but she doesn't have one and is just leaning forward. What is the point of that? Showing off that you don't have a butt? I just don't understand. The more you can zoom in the more you can see how very edited these photos are, every detail looks so digitalized! I mean, why do we even need models anymore if we are just going to change every single contour of their body? Why not just digitally create them? I'm sure that could be done.
I'm sure there are a few women out there who have bodies similar to this, but that is very uncommon. No one has an entirely flawless body. The question is, why does the media shove these images in women's faces? Does the perfection make women want to buy those panties? I'm not sure. I am definitely guilty of shopping at Victoria's Secret, and obviously I am subscribed to the Facebook page where I am constantly seeing their ads. Until now I've never really noticed HOW MUCH they are edited! Do we expect that when we buy these products we will look more like them? Why would we want to look like some of them?
So many women see these ads every day of their lives and compare themselves to them. Sometimes I think Victoria's Secret is awesome, the brand can be empowering for women! It makes them feel sexy, you just cant deny that, and I am ALL for women feeling sexy! The problem: Is Victoria's Secret cashing in on this by making this unrealistic body image? They photoshop women to be 100% flawless, so women see the ad and COMPARE THEMSELVES to these fake images. Then they feel like they have too much cellulite or their butt is too big, maybe even too small--either way you look at it, they are making beautiful women compare themselves to digitalized images. Then those women feel like if they buy that product they will be sexier. Victoria's secret is just commonly associated with sexy; if you buy it and wear it, it is likely you might feel more sexy. They are cashing in on this, big time! Think about ads you've seen for other brands of lingerie, maybe the models looked more like everyday women--did you want to go buy that product? I don't think so.
We fall for this, and even worse, I'm still going to shop there. That sexy feeling is not going to change, but women need to realize what they are comparing themselves to. What I want to know is if Victoria's Secret knows that they have this huge contradiction in their brand. They give women this power to feel like a sex goddess, but they give them false images of what that actually looks like. They lower self esteem in order to get a profit, but is this intentional? Maybe they just want their models to look perfect and they aren't taking into account the way they affect the consumers.
No matter what intention Victoria's Secret has, many brands use heavy amounts of photo-editing. Women need to be aware that the images they are looking at in all of this advertisement is extremely unrealistic. If we, as consumers, look at ads with a more critical eye, maybe we will think twice about the products we buy and the way the ads make us feel about ourselves.
Clearly Lena Dunham is not in advertisement or lingerie modeling, but she has every bit to do with this when she is shameless of her body image on her show. Hannah, as we have seen in a previous post, is often seen stripped down, and completely unedited and exposed. This is a sharp contrast to the thousands of other images women see on televison (and other media). Even Jessa and Marnie, who are gorgeous, have flaws that you can see throughout the show. If there were more producers, or actors that were willing to look "imperfect" on screen, the self-esteem of women everywhere could be increased dramatically.
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