Perfect Body
Alexis Scott
Mrs. Esch
PVCC Literature and Composition
5 December 2014
The Perfect Body From an early age, women are constantly shown images and messages that emphasize the idea that the only way to be happy and successful in life is to be thin. It is almost impossible to open a magazine, shop at the mall, listen to the radio, or turn on the TV without being confronted with the message that being fat also equals being undesirable. In a society filled with photoshopped images, plastic surgery, and ads that advertise unnaturally thin body types, women are under too much pressure to have the “perfect body”. Magazines are a huge market for advertising. They are filled with advertisements for clothes, jewelry, perfume, and many other fashion products that entice the reader to look at them. Although the ads are designed to help sell the product, this process involves the use of photoshopping. Magazines covers typically portray women and men that are seen as “healthy” by the industry, but they are not realistic. A twenty three year old Australian model, Meaghan Kausman, was asked to participate in a photo-shoot for the brand of swimwear known as Fella Swim. After agreeing to do the shoot, the photo of her got put on their website but was drastically edited. She spoke out against the company that ‘altered a photo of her body to appear several sizes smaller, saying she was “extremely shocked” to see the photoshopped image online after agreeing to participate in a photo-shoot for the swimwear brand Fella Swim. “I saw that they had practically cut me in half. So it was pretty mind-blowing,” the model said. “I think my jaw dropped for about 5 minutes. I was really, really taken aback that they felt the need to do that and that they could take the creative license to alter it because of what they thought would fit into their cultural ideal of what beautiful was”(“Model Slams Swimsuit”). Rather than showing the realistic version of the model that is helping the company
Mrs. Esch
PVCC Literature and Composition
5 December 2014
The Perfect Body From an early age, women are constantly shown images and messages that emphasize the idea that the only way to be happy and successful in life is to be thin. It is almost impossible to open a magazine, shop at the mall, listen to the radio, or turn on the TV without being confronted with the message that being fat also equals being undesirable. In a society filled with photoshopped images, plastic surgery, and ads that advertise unnaturally thin body types, women are under too much pressure to have the “perfect body”. Magazines are a huge market for advertising. They are filled with advertisements for clothes, jewelry, perfume, and many other fashion products that entice the reader to look at them. Although the ads are designed to help sell the product, this process involves the use of photoshopping. Magazines covers typically portray women and men that are seen as “healthy” by the industry, but they are not realistic. A twenty three year old Australian model, Meaghan Kausman, was asked to participate in a photo-shoot for the brand of swimwear known as Fella Swim. After agreeing to do the shoot, the photo of her got put on their website but was drastically edited. She spoke out against the company that ‘altered a photo of her body to appear several sizes smaller, saying she was “extremely shocked” to see the photoshopped image online after agreeing to participate in a photo-shoot for the swimwear brand Fella Swim. “I saw that they had practically cut me in half. So it was pretty mind-blowing,” the model said. “I think my jaw dropped for about 5 minutes. I was really, really taken aback that they felt the need to do that and that they could take the creative license to alter it because of what they thought would fit into their cultural ideal of what beautiful was”(“Model Slams Swimsuit”). Rather than showing the realistic version of the model that is helping the company