The people in the magazines do not look like the people in the magazines…

Sometime last week I read a comment somewhere, about how the person who wrote the comment, couldn’t understand how some people that they see in the magazines are able to stay as skinny as they look like they are. Someone else replied that some of the people that are actually extremely skinny, have suffered from eating disorders in the past, and are possibly still suffering today. That is part of the equation, but not all of it.

I’m going to tell everyone something that I wish I had been told years ago. The people that you see in the magazines do not look like the people in the magazines. Allow me to explain.

What you see in the pages of a magazine is an idealized version of a person. Probably most, if not all, of the pictures that you see in magazines have probably been “photo-shopped” They will take a picture of someone and then they will “fix” it via digital software. They will make someones hair look good. They will change the color of someone’s dress. They will make someone’s waist, or bottom, or legs, or arms look smaller than they actually are in real life. What they sell you as the ideal body in the magazines does not exist.

But this also goes beyond that. Even before this person has their picture taken, they are made to look “better” than what they naturally would. When celebrities go shopping for clothes, they don’t just pick something up off the rack, bring it home, and have it fit perfectly. They have their clothing tailored to fit them perfectly. That’s why everything looks better on them.

Also, you don’t see what’s going on underneath those perfectly tailored clothes. You don’t know how many layers of Spanx they are wearing to look as slim as they do. You don’t see that fact that they may have used tape to bind themselves and keep themselves looking “perfect”. And any number of other tricks that are used.

They also have an army of people to dress them, and do their hair and make up.

Then even after all this, the image is still “retouched” in order to create the perfect woman. Or man for that matter.

The standard that has been set up for the perfect female/male is a fraud. Is it impossible to achieve without going to dangerously extreme and unhealthy measures.

And it’s time to reject it.