Chasing the fantasy figure could kill you
Madonna
Published: Apr 21, 2010 19:48 Updated: Apr 21, 2010 19:58
A disturbing report written for the UK’s Liberal Democratic party has highlighted the relationship between eating disorders and digitally altered images used in advertising.
Lead authored by UK-based academics Dr. Helga Dittmar and Dr. Emma Halliwell, and signed by 44 leading academics, doctors and clinical psychologists from the UK, the US, Australia, Brazil, Spain and Ireland, the report was submitted to the Committee for Advertising Practice on Nov. 9, 2009. It forms part of a campaign coordinated by the Liberal Democrat Party, headed by Member of Parliament Jo Swinson. It is a shocking indictment of the cynical manipulation of the hopes and desires of young men and women.
The report summarizes the “damage done by perfect body ideals in advertising, which typically use digital alteration to change images toward unachievable ideals of thinness for women, muscularity for men, and youthful perfection for everybody.”
The report says: “The results suggest that average-size, attractive models could be used effectively in advertising, which may help to relieve body image concerns amongst these [the sample group for the tests] women.” It adds that: “Recent research suggests that it is the thinness of the models, rather than their attractiveness, that leads to increased body-image concerns.”
Swinson has secured an adjournment debate in the House of Commons next week to bring the effects of digital airbrushing into the political and public arena.
Asked if during her research she had come across any arguments put up for digitally altering images, she said: “None with any research behind them.” She added that sometimes she came across the libertarian approach that “any restriction is bad” even when talking about more information.
Swinson rather sadly reflected that she has had some “rather unpleasant” emails saying that “if some stupid women end up starving themselves to death then that’s their own silly fault.”
As if to support Swinson’s emails, Karl Lagerfeld, creative director of the fashion house Chanel, is noted for having said on BBC Radio 4 in October 2009: “Size zero models are attractive, and advertisers have claimed that thin models sell better.” Responding to the announcement that the German fashion magazine was no longer going to use thin professional models but “normal” size women as models, he described the directors of the magazine as “fat mummies sitting with their bags of crisps in front of the television, saying that thin models are ugly,” and added that the world of fashion was all to do “with dreams and illusions, and no one wants to see round women.”
Dittmar and Halliwell say, “We are not aware of any published evidence to support this claim. On the contrary, research examining perceived advertising effectiveness in the UK and Australia demonstrates that average size models (UK dress size 14) are just as effective in advertising as ultra thin models as long as they are equally attractive.”
Asked whether she had in her research encountered any positive argument for digital manipulation of images of men and women, Dittmar wrote that she could not think of any. The altered images helped, she said, to “construct a ‘reality’ that simply is not real, provide unrealistic appearance goals, and overemphasize appearance as a source of self-worth and social recognition. In this way, these altered images contribute toward the increasing use of unhealthy behaviors in young people to alter their appearances.”
Arab News contacted professionals (names withheld) employed by magazines, one in Jeddah and one in London, who regularly digitally airbrush images for their advertisers. Both feel it is ethically wrong, but are directed by their employers and the advertisers to do it anyway.
Jeddah-based “B” said: “It is no question that all of these [images] are deceptive at best to the general public especially to young teens/tweens who take these manipulations as a reality outside of their own which they want to adopt. There is a distinct lack of social responsibility on behalf of photographers as well as advertising executives who push for photo manipulations in order to maximize the image they paid for.”
That reflected the view of “S” at a major magazine group in London. “The general consensus is that the public expect their stars to look perfect and to have the ‘Hollywood smile’ — people prefer beauty,” said S. “But to be honest I don’t agree with this. The art editors believe that wrinkles and signs of ageing are ugly and the ‘public’ don’t want to the see this.”
S felt strongly enough to observe: “I do believe that magazines should have a warning that pictures have been manipulated but even if the industry was made to do this, I am sure that it would be stuck in a tiny box at the back of the magazine somewhere.”
A system of warning notices has been proposed for advertising images in France and is in the process of going through the government process prior to possible legislation. Notices are already in operation in some Scandinavian countries. Swinson sees a graded warning system combined with the introduction of awareness and education campaigns aimed at schoolchildren as a useful way of developing the critical facilities of consumers at an early stage.
The whole discussion about perceptions of beauty and desirability ends with the individual. If you believe what you see and apply no critical analysis of what you are presented with, then you will be encouraged to try to achieve the unachievable.
So if you decide to chase the fantasy of the super-slim meta-human in a glossy magazine and enter Lagerfeld’s world of “illusions and fantasy,” be very aware of the possible consequences — severe eating disorders or possibly worse.
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LAYLA AHMED
May 9, 2010 21:09
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