"natural" beauty

[tzikeh]

This is a very short flash animation which shows a woman sitting down in front of a mirror, and being transformed (in fast-forward and time-lapse) through makeup, hairstyling, and Photoshop into the face on a billboard ad for a brand of cosmetics.

I suggest watching it, and if you have a teenage daughter or daughters, or *know* any teenaged girls, have them watch it. Showing it to teenage boys might not be a bad idea either. Grown women too. And grown men.

I imagine your pets won't care, but what the hey.

Comments

[lydiabell.livejournal.com]

DAMN.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

[ratcreature]

That's crass. I wasn't startled so much the make-up etc. but that the photoshop manipulation was rather extreme, what with not only retouching the complexion or removing the last wrinkle, which I expected, but making her neck extra long and the eyes unnaturally huge.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

:nod: explains part of why I've always thought my eyes were too close to one another, anyway. Wow.

The photoshop was insane.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Quite effective. I love the neck-stretching!

I wrote about the Dove campaign last year when it first came out. I still feel ambivalent about it (they are still using images of women to sell products that are supposed to make us "more beautiful"), but it sure is a hell of a lot better than what most cosmetics manufacturers throw at us.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

The neck-stretching... I did not expect that. The photoshopping in general I knew about - perfect skin, etc. - but moving the eyes!?!

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

There was another of these (click the link to see the popup in Flash) making the rounds of the feminist blogosphere a few months ago that showed the degree of manipulation that happens, but this one was even more extreme in some ways.

[lumenara.livejournal.com]

The extent of the photoshop manipulation is what surprised me. Retouching work is expensive; I understood that clients normally hire someone who doesn't require that much post-production for the look they want.

Sorry, I've been catching up on this season's Top Model, which is a great way of looking at how skewed the industry standard is-- both in the problems that they express awareness of, and in the things they do and say without realizing.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Hm. I've never watched the Top Model thing, but yeah, I bet the contradictions are interesting.

[anoel.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's insane. I never realized how extensive that process is and all the changes they make.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I expected a lot, but this was... more. Yeah.

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link!

We've been following the Dove campaign in my marketing and PR courses but I hadn't seen this particular film before. I'll definitely screen it in class.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Oh cool! You're welcome.

[deaver.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Scary how they took a very lovely looking woman and made her look like a rather bland doll.

[amy_vic.livejournal.com]

Holy crap. That's...extreme.

[tripodella.livejournal.com]

Okay...the neck stretching thing was just too creepy.

[blktauna.livejournal.com]

LOL haven't you lot ever see what they do in photoshop to the bodies?

Retouching is so much easier now than with mechanicals, and they do mass surgery. Its rather disgusting.

I don't like skinny on anyone so models have always been no more than grotesques to me. I'm really mystefied as to why people like this look.

[the-star-fish.livejournal.com]

Wow. Disturbing. But thanks!

(My roommate's cat was fascinated, FWIW. *g*)

[starwatcher]

.
My best friend in college was studying graphic design. She told me once that the average human body is nine times the height of its head -- but when you draw model, you're supposed to draw the body twelve times the height of its head (without adding a proportional amount of weight).

Right. This is a "look" we can easily match.
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