I don’t understand why magazines bother with the trouble and expense of photographing live models and then airbrushing the hell out of the raw material…

Why not just use an Identi-Kit(tm)? If you want artificial… use REAL artificial!

I would love to see a group of people form to discuss how we can actually start changing the way we teach our children what beauty is. Check out this discussion I just started on Change Everything http://www.changeeverything.ca/what_is_beauty

Interestingly, the Axe bodyspray brand (you know, the bikini-girl ads and lowbrow fellatio jokes?) is part of the portfolio of the very same brand development manager as Dove.

I blogged about it here…

http://www.optimuscrime.com/?p=1310

Okay - just watched.  WOW! The girl in the picture barely looks like the ‘real’ model. Love that trick how they make her eyes bigger.  I am sending this link to my sisters - they NEED to see this.    Peace.

There may be a possible connection to this in a short piece in the Social Studies column of the Globe and Mail today. (The article itself requires a subscription to the site.)

The Dove ad also explains why actresses and models seem diminished and less attractive when seen in person, with very few exceptions. The airbrushing and enhancing doesn’t translate to the red carpet run for the Academy Awards.

No wonder women don’t like pornography very much. Not only does it not have any attraction for them, but it also diminishes them in the eyes of their partners.

Here’s the quote:

“Men rate themselves as being less in love with their partner after looking at Playboy centrefolds than they did before seeing the pictures of beautiful women,” wrties Michael Levine in Psychology Today. “This finding is all the more surprising because getting someone aroused normally boosts their attraction to their partner. But seeing beautiful models wiped out whatever effect the men might have experienced from being sexually aroused. The strange thing is, being bombarded with visions of beautiful women (or, for women, socially powerful men) doesn’t make us think our partners are less physically attractive. It doesn’t change our perception of our partner. Instead, by some sleight of mind, it distorts our idea of the pool of possibilities.”