Body image issues? Check this out. NVR
This is a copy of a bulletin that Miss AmandaBrooke (vegwebber) sent me on myspace
It's great!
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Datum 21.Aug.2007 4:14
Thema: Really cool before & after photos!
Haupttext: OK, this just seriously boosted my mood today!
Go to this website, and see the before and after photographs of famous stars when they are photographed and then 'touched up'!
http://www.iwanexstudio.com/
(go to 'Portfolio', click on any of the photos, and then run your mouse over it to see the before! click on the photo again to close it)
I know photos for magazines and whatnot are touched up, but its just nice to be reassured that celebrities look pretty normal most of the time.
Penelope Cruz's is the most startling, however notice that Halle Berry looks pretty much amazing before and after!
Bitch!
That's amazing. The airbrushed pictures don't even look human! It reminds me of a line from that movie Gia:
"And me? I'm some kid from Ohio, reading fashion magazines, looking at your picture and thinking I'm supposed to look like that. And going f**k**g crazy because I don't. Because nobody told me it was a lie. Because the magazine doesn't come with a label that says, "Caution: This is a lie. Nobody looks like this." Not even you."
I sent the link to all the women I know, thanks for posting this!
This reminds me of a French film I love called "La Degrace" (The Graceless One) about a young girl in the "ugly duckling" phase--she's the daughter of rich, successful and attractive parents who find her uncomfortable because she's brainy etc. as well as "graceless". There's a scene where she's talking to the housekeeper about the armful of fasion mags she's carrying. The housekeeper asks why she buys them and the reply is: "Are you kidding, these are the most beautiful women in the world!"
I love the housekeeper's retort: "Yes, well, but they'll get old and wrinkled eventually, just like the rest of us--but for them it will be a lot more traumatic."
I grew up with a terrible body image (thanks, mom >:() and it was very freeing to recieve a package of childhood-to-college photos and realise there was no "fat girl" in any of those pictures. I guess I was just very tall for my age, and "too big" for my mother's comfort. She wanted slim little willowy kids and got girls who give the world assurance of woman.
I always look at those tall, amazon-esque women and think how beautiful they are with their height and curves. Curves are beautiful.
JoBlo.com wrote a great column bashing the "thin is in" image, and it was refreshing as it came from a site that constantly posts pictures of female celebrities proclaiming their hotness. I agree with him that celebrities like Kate Winslet and Monica Belucci are great role models and examples of how beautiful curves are!
http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=7173
Once again I'd like to comment that the retouching is not just making the celebs thinner it's reshaping their body entirely. Anyone can be thin, anyone can weigh "X" pounds. But the proportions of your body and the placement of your hips or ribs or jaw isn't going to move.
It's not just, "Look these stars aren't so thin!" Or that curves are beautiful (yes, they are!) ...
The main thing to me is that these stars don't even exist.... the bodies you see are not real, they aren't their bodies or anyone else's.
I'm with you Jennifer- these stars don't even exist. Everyone I know who has seen it thinks that Penelope Cruz looks great before/after, but they completely reshaped her bust and waist! Boobs all outta whack there!
Anyone remember when Kate Winslet was on the cover of GQ, and when it came out she was pretty shocked to find that they had COMPLETELY redone her- thinned her legs, elongated her body. But instead of letting it happen, she spoke up:
'When British GQ recently retouched a cover shot of Winslet to make the shapely actress appear thinner, she went public with the information.
"Those pictures were so digitally retouched," she whoops. "I'm not 6 feet tall, for God's sake. I'm 5 foot 6. And I don't even know what I weigh - I'm probably about 130 pounds - and on the magazine, I look 100 pounds.
"I know lots and lots of young women go out and buy these magazines. I didn't want them to think, 'Kate Winslet has let us down; she's lost 30 pounds!' I don't want anyone thinking I'd want to look like a rail. I'm normal weight, and I'm comfortable with how I look." '
Gotta love that chick!
Amanda, I remember those photos and Kate's response! Good for her, speaking up. Why would anyone touch her up; she's so beautiful!
Once again I'd like to comment that the retouching is not just making the celebs thinner it's reshaping their body entirely. Anyone can be thin, anyone can weigh "X" pounds. But the proportions of your body and the placement of your hips or ribs or jaw isn't going to move.
Maya Angelou put it best: "There are three things in life no one can change: the length of your legs, the width of your hips, and your parents' natures."
wow, this is eye opening...this makes me feel a little better since I've been feeling kinda blehhh lately, thanks JH :)
I wonder how the celebrities feel after their bodies have been altered since their original form wasn't "good enough"...
grrrrrr, this totally irriates me to no end. >:( I knew that reshaping/retouching took place on basically every single photo that goes into a magazine but to see the before/after is just disheartening. No wonder alot of women have such low self images/esteem, no wonder so many women starve themselves in hopes of looking like a celebrity. Those bodies aren't real!
I think what makes me even more ticked is that barely any of those celebrity women speak up like Kate Winslet did. Most are happy to portray something fake! Get real for goodness sake! Get freakin real! Why be so ashamed of the body you were given? :-\
I wonder how the celebrities feel after their bodies have been altered since their original form wasn't "good enough"...
anyone see the ugly betty episode about that?
I wonder how the celebrities feel after their bodies have been altered since their original form wasn't "good enough"...
anyone see the ugly betty episode about that?
That was a great episode. I felt so bad for the model when her agent or whatever was talking about how "fat" she looked right in front of her, like she wasn't even there.
I love that show, btw.
Ahhh "Betty la Fea", love it, love it.... ;D
I FINALLY after almost 25 yrs of marriage got a decent "head shot" of Dh taken by my erstwhile BGF (we won't go into why no longer...never mind, issues). She wanted to touch up the photo and I yelled NO!! I want to remember him as he is, the guy I love. I have no visual memory to speak of, which means I get lost easily and also that I can't remember what even my nearest and dearest look like about an hr after we're not together...so I need a photo of him as he is, warts and all. (Not that he has any warts, but you get me.)
OH but yabbit, I don't mind photo retouching! As long as it's not too much. Retouching not RE-DOING!
*ahem* Take out that pimple of mine please! ;)
I don't want my freckles taken out.
But pimples, yes.
I found it interesting that Cameron Diaz's oblique muscle definition was edited out...the whole retouching/recreating thing is so subjective. I'm sure she worked hard for that definition...just for it to be clicked away, to allow for a softer (were they hoping for more feminine?) look. Other times, a woman's soft curves are whittled away. Where's the line, what's the deciding factor on what stays and what goes? What the heck is the media trying to feed us?
who doesnt love curves?
bony hips < soft pushy hips
I thought Kelly Clarkson's was one of the most edited...even her eyes are open wider, everything.
Thanks for the link!
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