Airbrushing For The Masses:
This item is shamelessly stolen from the latest edition of the online Canadian leftist magazine 'Straight Goods'. See the links section at the bottom of this blog.
Everyone is at least vaguely aware that the pictures of women portrayed in various magazines are "idealized" ie they are fakes. The art of retouch has advanced light years from the early days of the "photo-sweatshop". These days it is possible to make anyone look like anyone else with the mere click of a mouse button.
Straight Goods features a story about two campaigns that let the viewer follow the process through its devious pathways. The first is sponsored by the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs as part of its 'Girl Power' campaign. Visit the website- http://demo.fb.se/e/girlpower/section1 to see how you can view before and after pictures of each alteration on a popular magazine cover. The second, strangely enough, is a corporate sponsored site, the Dove Soap's 'Real Beauty Campaign'. This site- http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.ca demonstrates the tricks of image manipulation used for fashion shoots in an even fuller manner than the first, though with less humour.
Now, Molly says, this may be an idea. They could make my tail appear longer, my fangs sharper. I could lose that green and orange tabby and becomes a calico. My eyes would glow with something other than red-eye. Dream on Molly.