This very thought struck me when I saw an ad for a filter application on my Tumblr newsfeed just this morning. "Perfect skin," the ad promised, "You will look your most beautiful for all of your Instagram selfies!" The ad featured a before and after picture; the before was of a beautiful woman with beautiful skin, her only blemishes being freckles. I thought she looked like a natural woman who was a real showstopper, and she reminded me of the models of the nineties with their natural effervescence. The after picture looked like a cartoon. The woman didn't even look like a human! Her face was over-edited and over air-brushed, and she looked like a blank canvas. I thought, "What happened to being natural anyway? These people can't be serious." It turns out that they are serious, and apparently their idea of beauty is not only unnatural, but one dimensional.
I myself am all for Instagram or SnapChat filters! They're cute and fun, and who hasn't taken a Snap disguised as a puppy? Whatever you want, it's not any of my business which ones (or ones you don't) choose. I feel the same about makeup! Choose what makes you happy, and if having a full face of makeup is it, then go for it. That is not what this article is about. No, my real feelings of disdain lie with those who believe that photoshopping something to make it completely unrecognizable is "perfect."
The ad for the app brought up some carefully stamped out adolescent feelings of jealousy and insecurity from lookingat those beautiful models on the covers of magazines. I asked myself, "Why can't I be like that?" or "Why can't I look like that?" It took years to finally figure out that those women don't look like that either, and that is thanks to various airbrushing and photoshop techniques.
The recent outrage in the media over airbrushing and photoshopping female celebrities perfectly described my point. Kerry Washington, who I think we can all agree is a naturally beautiful woman, was on the cover of AdWeek magazine this past April, and she was brave enough to call foul on the fact that she felt that her cover and spread in the magazine was over-edited and photoshopped. I saw the photos, and they didn't really look much like her at all. However, there was just enough resemblance for people to understand that Kerry Washington was on the cover, and to encourage people to buy the magazine. Many other celebrities have spoken out as well; women such as Beyoncé Knowles, Lady Gaga, Kate Winslet, and many more. This is a real issue that needs to be addressed.
The characteristics in our face are what make us who we are! Whether it's our freckles, the dark circles under our eyes, or the redness around our nose and chin, everyone has something on their face that is purely them. Our faces are meant to have some sort of dimension to them; we're not supposed to look like a 2-D image! Makeup is a beautiful thing that can certainly enhance our natural beauty and give us more confidence, but photoshopping and editing ourselves to be beyond recognition is not the answer. This topic is part of a much larger problem, body image and lack of self confidence, one I hope to delve deeper into in the future. After all, what did happen to natural? We should all learn to accept ourselves and our weird, uneven, and often times bumpy, exterior.
