Photo editing is an application used to crop and touch up images. Photo editing is used in magazines to alter people’s images to make them look more appealing to readers. The issue of using photo editing in magazines is that they are displaying unrealistic images of celebrities which are negatively influencing readers to want to look like this.
This issue of photo editing exists today as magazine companies want their magazine to look appealing to readers and to do this; they edit the images of models and celebrities in their magazines to make them look more attractive. It is unfair and disrespectful for those whose bodies are being altered as well as the readers who feel pressured to meet this standard. Photo editing in magazines is having a major impact on younger readers. According to petapixel.com, in the US, it is estimated that 8 million people struggle with an eating disorder and 95% of them are between the age of 12 and 25. This issue is mostly caused by photo editing. This image of the model in the Ralph Lauren ad shows how her image has been photo edited to make her head appear wider than her waist. This unrealistic image of the model makes readers feel as if they have to look like this even though it is not realistically possibly. This is exposing readers to unrealistic body images which are causing them to feel like this is the ‘perfect’ body. Teenage girls tend to feel bad about themselves when they look at photo shopped woman as they feel that they do not match up to their beauty. Even though the images are unrealistic.
Julia Bluhm is a fourteen year old who was sick of looking at ‘fake’ images in magazines. With the help of SPARK Movement, Julia launched an online petition for Seventeen Magazine to include one unaltered, Photoshop free spread every issue. Julia’s petition received over 80,000 signatures from all around the world. Because of Julia’s petition, Seventeen Magazine stated that “they would not digitally alter body sizes or shape faces of young woman featured in their editorial pages” and that they would “celebrate every kind of beauty”. The issue of photo editing shows how Julia Bluhm was so strongly against photo editing in magazines that she started a petition of her own which was successful. The successfulness of Julia’s petition also shows how so many other people around the world are against photo editing in magazines. But, should it take a fourteen year old girl for us to realise that photo editing in magazines is damaging the minds of younger readers?
Photo editing in magazines is deceiving readers on what their celebrities look like in reality. Here is a photo edited image of Madonna. Teenagers will look at this and think “wow her skin is so clear and perfect”. But in reality, this is how Madonna looks. We can see Madonna’s wrinkles and skin has been edited drastically to hide her imperfections. Here is a photo edited image of a model on a magazine cover. Teenagers will look at this and think “I wish I was that