Women's Appearances in American Society

On Friday I watched "Katie," Katie Couric's new talk show on ABC. I am an infrequent viewer of the show, mostly because I'm so tired of television by that time of day, but I saw a commercial about Friday's topic: a woman who gave up makeup and hairstyling for a year; so I had to watch!

The show was great--Phoebe Hyde Baker gave up makeup and hairstyling for a year. The entire audience of "Katie" took their makeup off in solidarity and so did Katie, herself! She talked about makeup and how much time and money women in our society spend on it. They also talked about the fact that it is actually important in our society for women to look a certain way to be successful.

As I watched the show, I realized that I've already written about three of these topics.

Katie did an experiment in which one of here staff went on the street all glammed up and asked for directions or use of their cell phones from strangers. Then she did the same thing with sweat pants, no makeup, a big coat, and sneakers on. Was there a difference in the way she was treated? Yes there was--same as the results of my own experiment back in October:
Social Mini-Experiment: Does Appearance Actually Matter?

On Katie's website for a while (I can't find it anymore, for some reason) there was a "Beauty Wealth Calculator" that you could use figure out how much money you spend on your looks each year, as well as how much money you've spent accumulating your "beauty wealth." It was fascinating! It reminded me of another piece I wrote in October:
How Much Do Celebrities Spend on Their Looks?

One of Katie's guests was a woman who has worked in the fashion magazine industry for years. They showed a photo of a model on the runway--and then a print ad of the same model. Vastly different looks! In the print ad they had edited the photo to the point that she looked deformed, she was so skinny. This point, in my opinion, wasn't touched on enough during the show (but, really, they had enough material in that show for an entire week of shows!), so I thought I'd pull this piece out of the archives again. It's the most popular piece I've written to date.
Mini-Experiment: Swimsuit Photo Retouching

I absolutely loved Katie's show on Friday! It was geared toward making women feel great about themselves and learning how to work with what they have in their appearance instead of putting a mask on every day. There were beautiful stories shared about personal victories and growth. There was courage shown by Katie and everyone there with them not wearing makeup. It was fantastic to see women baring their faces on that stage and talking about how we need to overcome so much more than what we usually talk about.

One of the things I was most intrigued by was that this "Au Naturale" show aired the day before the Miss America 2013 beauty pageant. Miss Montana, Alexis Wineman, has Aspberger's syndrome and wants to be an art therapist. Miss Washington DC, Allyn Rose, is getting a double mastectomy to prevent her family's long history of breast cancer from taking her life. Miss Iowa, Mariah Cary, has tourettes syndrome. But Miss New York won. She wants to get a degree in cosmetic and fragrance marketing. And is from Alabama. And doesn't embody "Brooklyn" any more than I do.

It blew my mind that there were (at least) three very real women baring themselves (not only in the swimsuit competition) on that stage who were passed over for a tap dancer posing as a Brooklynite. Allyn Rose (DC), a guest on "Katie" back in the fall (I watched that episode, too!), didn't even make the semi-finals. Alexis Wineman (MT) won the "America's Choice" contest, but didn't make it past the top 15. Mariah Cary (IA) came in fifth.

I think the "Au Naturale" episode of "Katie" can teach us all about how women need to take stock in what they are really about. I think if the judges of Miss America hadn't been interviewing the contestants and watching their routines on Friday but had watched Katie's show instead, the outcome of Saturday night would have been different. Being real and loving who you are is the most important thing, and I think--no, I know--that if more celebrities like Katie bring it into the headlines, this will change. Women will feel less threatened by society to focus so much on their appearances and, as a byproduct, will have more time and money to spend on other things that make them happy and successful.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

Mini-Experiment: Swimsuit Photo Retouching

One of my friends sent me this article this morning about retouched Victoria's Secret Swim photos. It shows one side by side photo of the untouched photo and the retouched photo, along with a list of things they touched up on the photo.

Side by side: original vs touched up. Photos courtesy of Victoria's Secret.

This is the original article back in August with all the leaked untouched photos of Victoria's Secret Angel, Doutzen. After I saw all the original photos, I went the Victoria's Secret Swim site and found some of the other retouched photos in their ads. Here are three of them along with a few of the things they changed.

Untouched photo.

This is the retouched photo of the tankini to the left. Here is a list of the things they changed:

• The color of the tankini.
• Made the skirt flat across the front.
• Removed the pooch by her armpit.
• Took away the lines in the bend of her elbow.
• Removed some of the pooching on her left hip.
• Pulled in the tankini top by her left hip to make it look like it fits better.
• Got rid of all the bunching of the top above her right hip.
• Took away the fly-aways in her hair and moved it around a little bit.
• Made her left leg skinnier on the inside.
• Flattened out her right hip below the skirt.
• Something to her chin. It actually looks like they pulled her jaw up in the retouch to make her face look more square.
• Removed some of the shadow on her stomach.
• Obviously: lighting.

Untouched photo.

This is the retouched photo of the tankini at left (yes, it's the same tankini). What they changed:

• Her eyebrow lines between her eyebrows.
• Face shape--in the untouched photo, you can see much more definition on the left side of her face than in the retouched photo.
• Removed hip bone shadow.
• Flattened skirt out.
• Put side skirt strings into a bow.
• Flattened outside of right thigh.
• Removed bunching of top on her left side.
• Erased longest piece of hair peeking out from behind her back.
• Flattened out armpit pooch on her right side.
• Defined the shadow on her boobs to make them look bigger.
• Again, obviously, lighting.

Untouched photo.

Here is the retouched photo from the ad of the bikini pictured left. What they changed:

• She's wearing underwear in the untouched photo.
• Removed the pooching on her right side below the band of the top.
• Made her ribs look less boney.
• Smoothed out her right arm--she has sand or something on it in the untouched photo.
• Filled in her belly button a little bit. These are all silly, but this one really doesn't make any sense!
• Smoothed out her right thigh.
• Got rid of some of the fly-aways.
• Touched up her left elbow area.
• Made her chest look less boney.
• Removed a mole on her neck and right shoulder.
• Lighting!!!

Erin Heatherton, Angel.

Erin Heatherton, another Victoria's Secret Angel, said this to Fashionista about the airbrushing: "Retouching is an essential part of our job, you know. We're not selling reality; we're selling a story. It's all about creating this fantasy. And I don't think people should confuse fantasy and reality because no one is perfect--we all know that, and I think people should embrace themselves and not really focus on where people are depicted as perfect and where they're not."

This is such a matter-of-fact quote! She acts like all of us should just assume that everything is retouched. They don't advertise their edits, though. Even when I worked at Victoria's Secret, we never talked about the models except for when an associate would start the Who-Is-Your-Favorite-Angel? conversation.

All of this editing talk got me wondering about the VS Fashion Show. They tape it almost a month before it airs. This year they're taping on November 7, but it's not airing until December 4. I understand that the point of the show is to do a Christmas preview, but why not do a live fashion show on December 4? I spent about 20 minutes looking around the internet to find out...and found nothing. But why do they need four weeks between taping and airing the show? It makes me wonder if there is more than just audio editing to do of the taping.

So, if all of these Victoria's Secret ads are just "creating this fantasy," then why do so many women work so hard to try to be this fantasy? All this "fantasy" is just making men and women expect perfection, and when we're not, because, as Erin said, "No one is perfect," it becomes a disappointment. Why should we keep buying $50+ bras that will supposedly make us a perfect fantasy, if they really don't? All this does is make women feel incredibly insecure because we will never be what men and other women see. So then a new bra comes out at Victoria's Secret--a "bombshell"--and suddenly we think, "Oh good! This will make me so much sexier because that's what the ad says and shows!" And then we go buy the new bra for $60. And then we're disappointed again.

We are being played by the marketers of the lingerie industry. I refuse to feel insecure. I refuse to allow retouching to deter me from loving myself. Still committing to confidence!

I decided to do a little experiment: take my own photo in my favorite VS bikini and show it unedited, then edited. The bikini I'm wearing is from the 2010 collection I think. I know it's "out of season" but it's still my favorite! Here's the photo as it was taken with the exception of cropping it closer. The only reason I cropped it is that it was a landscape layout and there was a lot of wall that didn't need to be there!

Edited photo.

And then here is the same photo edited. I don't have any airbrushing tools--just basic editing. I played with the exposure, contrast, highlights, temperature, shadow, and of course, kept the previous cropping.

The first one I took is obviously "real." The other one looks "prettier" in terms of the fact that since I changed the exposure, there are more highlights, but it's not what I look like in real life. I think it's a pretty picture, but it's not me. Also, there is a lot that professional editors would need to change: hair, folds on the bottom of the bikini, armpit shadows, eyelashes (I didn't use enough mascara), and cleavage (I don't have any!).

So. Love yourself. Stay confident. Don't allow these "fantasies" to change how you feel about yourself. Even though my second photo is more acceptable or whatever it is, the woman in the first photo is the woman my fiance is in love with and the woman I am in love with. The first girl is me. The second girl is me + special effects, and this is really basic editing; nothing like what they do with the Victoria's Secret photos. Stay confident! You're beautiful!

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

#committoconfidence