I came across this great discussion on the NY Times Learning Network, asking students to share what they think about the effect of photoshopped celebrity images in the media. The blog mentions the attempts by several countries to force advertisers to reveal when an image has been altered using a scale of 1-5 for the degree of alteration.
I read through the first page of comments (there are four pages at this point) and it was both heartbreaking and hopeful. Girls talked about how terrible they would feel about themselves after exposure to a retouched, impossible face and figure in a magazine. Boys and girls both talked about the beauty of "real" people. Instead of ivory tower academics discussing the theoretical impact of false beauty standards, here are the targets crying "foul!" all by themselves.
It's a good read when we start to get discouraged about fighting the good fight for body acceptance.
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All comments may be moderated. If you think you're entitled to free speech, you are, on your own blog. This is my blog. I have opinions that are often subjective, and as I'm not running a documentary or research organization, there's nothing wrong with a little subjectivity. I also have the right to not approve or delete comments I find mean-spirited, idiotic or encouraging what I consider objectional, dangerous, or plain stupid practices (such as weight loss or cosmetic surgery, changing your body to please others (i.e. "dieting"), spreading hate, etc.). If you voice disagreement with anything I say, and you do it in an intelligent matter with clear research citations to your claims and conclusions (popular media articles don't count) I will probably allow the comment. I will also probably debate you and try to refute your claims. If at any time that devolves into stupidity or attack, I will start deleting your comments. If you disagree with what I say by spouting pseudoscientific popular opinion, displaying prejudice or hate, or otherwise acting like an ass-hat, I will delete your comment. That's pretty much the policy, subject to change without notice :-)