Airbrushing And The Media

Today the Girlguiding Association has issued a petition to demand that adverts and photos should carry a warning if the picture has been airbrushed.  When I was young and not so young, I used to look at pictures in the fashion magazines and marvel at the length of the model's legs or the flawless complexions of the women of all ages. After reading these magazines, I would often feel like a frump
.
This is a good example of what we psychologists call "beauty and the beast " thinking. If you see a someone with lovely hair or legs to die for, you automatically think that your own hair and legs are inadequate. These horrible feelings do ebb away but the drip feed effect of believing that there are people out there who are effortlessly perfect will have an effect. We lose the ability to figure out the essence of our own loveliness; we discount it.
So what kind of damage will the media cause? The people most at risk of developing anxiety and distress are the people who"internalise" society's images of perfection and compare themselves all the time to an impossible ideal. Many people dont "internalise"- they admire perfection but find no need to try to live up to it.

Societies have always valued images of perfection and have brought these to the attention of the public through art and sculpture. The images of Rubens and the statues of Michaeangelo celebrate the human body at its best for the time rather than the mundane and everyday reality. Which woman could ever look like the Venus de Milo without a little bit of nip and tuck? The media is just another artform and perhaps we should not try to make it reflect the world as it really is.  Yet I am torn. I treat all the collateral damage, people who are going crazy inside because they hate the way they look. So I would like to see an airbrush kitemark. Yet I value art and freedom of expression; I dont particularly want to look at pictures of Mrs Bloggs next door in her new Dior suit. What matters most is that girls and boys are media wise and know that what you see isnt really factually real. This kind of wisdom starts at home, with parents who find the time to talk to their kids about these and other matters. For information and help visit http://www.eating-disorders.org.uk