Literally. With the current technological advancements in image/video editing, advertisers are finding more extreme ways to "cut women down to size." As a result, unrealistic images of women with unattainable characteristics are surfacing in mass medium channels across the globe. Our society's fascination with beauty is transferred from a flawless doll (Barbie) to the pages of fashion magazines. Society's expectations physical beauty become even more apparent as young girls develop into young women. Our world is surrounded by the thought of image and unfortunately the media often play a large hand in pushing these unrealistic ideals into society's expectations of women.
The following ads were released by designer Ralph Lauren. The images were quickly pulled from the media after mass outrage over the models' incredible distorted bodies. The model in the top photo, Fillipa Hamilton, claimed she was fired shortly after the ad ran for being too fat (she was a size 4). See Video: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/33307721/
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I was surprised to see these images, especially the bottom one. You would think a company like RL would have ethics and these are clearly either photoshopped or of a woman who is ill. I like how in their statement to the press, RL said they were responsible for poor imaging and retouching, as in to say, of we just did a bad photoshop job. In my experience, photoshopping something like this is very intricate work. They clearly had a motive to make her look much thinner.
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