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| Yes | 57% | 17 votes | Total: 30 votes | |
| No | 43% | 13 votes |
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As a species humans have imagination. Sometimes we allow it to run away with us. As a result we build images of perfection about ourselves, other people, our lifestyle, how we should and ought to look and be. The sad thing is perfection is an impossibility. What makes us human, vulnerable and lovable is just that, our imperfectness. Coming to terms with reality is far more healthy.
Young people, and sometimes the not so young, often agonize about the correct way to do things; how to look their best, how to appeal to those they want to attract. As a result we turn to magazines for fashion ideas and what is currently being worn.
Fashion magazines have the job of selling clothes and accessories. To do that they make them as attractive as possible. On an individual who is overweight it's difficult to make items look universally appealing. The result has been that anorexic children have been coerced into thinking that skinny is beautiful. After that the technicians improve even further on nature by removing the tired look to the eyes, the awkward tooth, that fold of skin which is the normal result of bending, a perceived suggestion of a bulge which perfection says should not be there. The result is a strong sense of inferiority induced in the rest of us. Magazines play at theatre creating illusions and suggesting imagery which is unreal. In the theatre we can suspend reality but magazines who airbrush models can make this a dangerous exercise.
The message to the rest of us is, this is what you should look like. It takes no account of life, build, lifestyle, jobs or anything else that each of us has to do. Being slim is more healthy than being overweight but the operative word is slim, not skinny or anorexic with bones showing sharply. Women naturally have curves as a result of subcutaneous fat which is necessary. Slim means not carrying extra unnecessary fat but we need some to stay healthy. Young girls are chosen because they have fresh, unlined skin but the images in magazines is of someone suffering to maintain an unnatural thinness. The gauntness is repelling not attractive and an unfair influence of young people.
That apart, the message for all of us is distorted. No one has everything perfect. Models are chosen for their smile, their elegant feet, attractive hands, slim bodies. They stand in a body models for film actors. The magazines would do a far greater service to all of us if they helped us to understand how to accentuate our good features and down play our less than perfect bits. Unfortunately the universal fashion cry of thin distorts the reality.
Wallace Simpson, who married Edward VII, apparently said you can never be too thin or too rich. There are adverse sides to both if you think carefully.
Learn more about this author, Rosemary Redfern.
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No
When walking past a magazine stand, perfection is smiling at us from twenty different covers. They all have that same toothpaste-y smile, the flawless skin, the perfectly styled hair. Inside the magazine, it's no different. Skyscraper-sized legs with the width of a toothpick, smooth skin, not a flaw in sight. Looking at this, we realize in the back of our minds that the picture is photo-shopped. But still our self-esteem is hurt. We feel less and less confident, the more we look at this unachievable perfection. One way to make us feel better about ourselves again, is by banning magazines from airbrushing their models. Instead of the photo-shopped glamour, the hard reality will be staring at us from the stands. But is that really what we want?
The reason why magazines show images as such, is because they are selling a product. They show us that product in its best light, in which it gives its full potential, it's maximum beauty or greatness. This way, the product becomes most attractive to us to buy. It's simple marketing. Showing imperfections makes the product look imperfect as well, and that also goes the other way around.
Whilst promoting their products, nowhere do they encourage anyone to take them as an example. We live in a society controlled by the media, and this media surrounds us with an unrealistic beauty image. But it all starts with ourselves. We determine how much we let that image affect us. We decide whether or not we let promotional idealism change the way we look at ourselves. Teenage girls may get the feeling that being really skinny is beautiful, but magazines are not to blame for the insecurity that makes them want to change at all. They could just look at the pretty pictures and remain unchanged. Just because the media surrounds us with it, doesn't make it the standard.
If we would all accept that beauty lies within and there is no need to attempt perfection, airbrushed models in magazines wouldn't hurt us. We would be happy with what we have and content that something unachievable is not going to be achieved. It takes a sense of understanding.
Magazines should be allowed to turn their models into anything they want to sell their products. Our personal response to it apart from buying their product- isn't their responsibility.
The truth is, we enjoy looking at that unrealistic beauty. We use it as a goal to strive towards, we use it as distraction from cold reality. Because if we'd want to see reality, we'd just open our eyes and look around.
Learn more about this author, Emilie West.
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