{Photoshop Fiction

14-15 Ethics Bowl Case 14

{ *In excessive, unrealistic amounts

Anti-Photoshop*

Discourage the altering of photographs that promote impossible-to-achieve expectations of body images and proportions

“Such alternations can contribute to unrealistic expectations of appropriate body image—especially among impressionable children and adolescents”

Adopted a new policy encouraging ad agencies to collaborate with agencies devoted to child and adolescent health to develop guidelines for ads

“We must stop exposing impressionable children and teenagers to advertisements portraying models with body types only attainable with the help of photo editing software.”

2009 Ralph Lauren ad: “a model’s waist as slimmed so severely, her head appeared to be wider than her waist.”

American Medical Association

“Airbrushing creates a false impression of beauty…The results put pressure on women and young girls who compare themselves unfavorably to the unrealistic images.”-Jo Swinson (D)

L’Oreal admitted the ad had been digitally retouched to “lighten the skin, clean up make-up, reduce dark shadows and shading around the eyes, smooth the lips and darken the eyebrows.”

Insisted the image was “an accurate reflection of the benefits of the product”

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled the images could not be used “in their current form”

An Olay anti-aging product ad was banned in 2009.

Campaign for Body Confidence: called on advertisers to be honest about their use of airbrushing

“With one in four people feeling depressed about their body, it’s time to consider how these idealized images are distorting our idea of beauty.”

Ads Banned Over Airbrushing (2011)

Warning Labels on Unrealistic Images

France Concerned about the effect that Photoshopping has on people’s body images

Proposed a law that would require “enhanced” images to sport a warning, making it clear that viewers are not looking at an un-retouched image

Would apply to ads, press photos, political campaigns, art photography, and photos on product packaging

Failure to include disclaimer=fine of $55,000 or up to 50% of the cost of the campaign

50 French politicians have gotten behind the law.

French fashion industry has already agreed to refrain from using images that promote “extreme thinness”

“These images can warp how normal people see themselves, especially teenagers who are particularly prone to developing body issues…The disclaimer would help bring youngsters back to reality and promote a healthier body image for all.”

“It’s not just a question of public health, but a way of protecting the consumer.”

Australian government and British government called for similar disclaimers

WARNING: Photo retouched to modify the physical

appearance of a person

Walk on all fours

Incapable of lifting her large head 2” larger than the average American woman’s

Nick twice as long and 6” thinner

16” waist Room for only half a liver and a few inches of intestine

BMI of 16.24 (18.5 is the lowest end of “normal”)

3.5” wrists

6” ankles Incapable of heavy lifting

Children’s size 3 feet

1 in 50 men would have Ken’s proportions

Less than 1 in 100,000 would have Barbie’s proportions

Barbie

{ *And pro change in perception

Pro Photoshop*

How many adult women actually take the images in fashion magazines—artificial as they are, feats of makeup and lighting and camera angles, even without retouching—at face value? “Our readers are not idiots.” Most of us who read fashion magazines don’t’ feel we’re confronting reality when we see a photograph of a grown woman with preteen thighs.

Our interest in altered images is not purely moral; it’s also aesthetic. We believe that a picture should convey, “objectively,” without undue intervention, what the lens originally captured.

Many contemporary images are illustrations masquerading as photographs, cartoons composed with a computer rather than a pen. Retouched pictures simply claim the traditional prerogatives of illustrations: to exaggerate, accentuate, and improve upon their subjects—basically to lie. For much of the last century, models and movie stars in fashion magazines and advertisements were often rendered as drawings and paintings.

Gil

Elv

gre

n, 1

937-

1950

s

“The women are libidinous fantasies…His pinups were

even more outlandish in their homogenized well-

endowedness”

Gil Elvgren

Alberto Vargas, 1940s pin-up artist

“The melon-breasted, small-waisted sameness of his

images invented something of a new pulp genre: physiological science

fiction.”

Alberto Vargas

People in other cultures see our advertisements and our supposed ideal of beauty and they strive to look like that, too, because they associate it with power.

Impact on Other Cultures

Does the right to freedom of speech and expression have any limits? If so, what kinds of limits ought there be, and how are they justified?

Is it ethical for the media to portray an unrealistic and unattainable body image when the potential for harm is widely known?

If Photoshopping does have negative psychological effects, does the government have a duty to minimize these harms?

What type or regulation is acceptable? Warning labels? Bans?

When, if ever, does Photoshopping constitute deception?

Questions to Consider

{ *MIGHT

How advertisements might* look if they stated the things many people feel…