Digital Retouching

This is another video done by Dove and its campaign on beauty awareness. The very short video conveys a big message. “Beauty has been greatly been distorted by the media”. The media has constructed their own definition of what a woman should be. Since the media is so powerful over many especially young women it creates a goal that is unattainable. Many young girls watch the media for advice. Advice on fashion, make up, boys, sex, and the list can go on. Instead of trusting their parents on these topics they rather take what they see as “reality”. Yet they are unaware that what they see is unreal which is what this Dove video is trying to say.

“I want to be Hannah Montana” is something that my seven year old sister repeatedly tells me. Even though I think Hannah Montana has no negative implications yet on my little sister’s body perception, she has been marketed to be seen as a real character that one day my sister can be like her. This is the way many images in the media are portrayed as. They attempt to make the images be attainable. Many magazines have on their cover “How to look like a celebrity”, “How to look as beautiful like them”, “Celebrities Beauty Secrets” and the list can go on. These are tips on how be or look like these celebrities. Clothing works in the same way just as much as other products. The media wants to close the gap between the images they advertise and the general population by advertising that one day they could be them. However as seen in this video that gap is never going to be closed because the images use digital retouching. The actual celebrity secret is not a product but technology that is making them look beautiful.