Celebrities
Check Out This Image of Mariah Carey Before And After Photoshop
Animated gif image displaying Mariah before and after Photoshop
Reported by Krystle Crossman
Did you know that 91 percent of women in America are unhappy with how their body looks? Did you know that 40 percent of women are considering having plastic surgery because they don’t feel like they look the way that they should to be considered beautiful? These are sad facts, but they are completely true. Women feel pressured every single day to look like the celebrities that they see in the magazines and on television. Even images of celebrities with slim bodies and perfectly toned skin grace magazine covers in the supermarket as people stand in the check out line to purchase their items.
Recently some “untouched” images, i.e. images that have not been edited using image editing software like Adobe’s Photoshop, emerged from a photo shoot with Mariah Carey. Although she still looked amazing in her unfiltered images, her looks were apparently not good enough for the magazine that scheduled the photo shoot. The images that were portrayed in the magazine were touched up almost beyond recognition. The real photos show a beautiful and confident woman. After the images were edited, Carey’s photos portrayed a flatter stomach, tanner skin, hair with more volume, thinner legs, and a larger chest.
What is this false display of beauty teaching young girls about real beauty? Edited images portray an almost impossible standard that many people feel that they have to meet in order to be acceptable in society. Retouching of photos certainly is not a new practice but the extremes that are being used these days are going above and beyond. Young girls look up to celebrities and see these edited images of them. As a result, they may feel pressured to take drastic measures in an attempt to achieve what they think is a perfect body or look. Fortunately there are many local, national, and global campaigns launched by companies like Dove that are telling young girls and women that Hollywood’s perception of beauty is not real. Real beauty is in the eye of the beholder, not what the magazines tell people it is supposed to be.
