Photoshop: Distorting Body Image for Youth

Does Photoshop Provide False Body Images For Children and Teenagers?

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of photoshop? For most people it would be either models or the general idea of being “fake”. For some photographers it is a key tool to enhance images and for celebrities their demands to get rid of their flaws are made possible. After a photo is taken the computer begins to work its magic by “erasing wrinkles and blemishes, airbrushing a flawless, perfect look”. This, unfortunately, provides a distorted image of the “perfect body” to society and causes many psychological problems.

Originally, when photoshop was invented, it was used to bring a subject or item from a photograph into more focus and not to create “a

There, I Said It” Elizabeth Perle states that she “is certainly not part of the pro-Photoshop campaign” but she does not believe that photoshop is fully responsible for some of the problems in society. Not only are children and teenagers looking up to the “unrealistic expectations of [the] appropriate body” of celebrities, but also to their friends or parent’s body. Perle is of the opinion that even without photoshop, body issues would still prevail in adolescents and children. As true as this statement may be, it does not explain the dramatic increase in anorexia cases since the early 1990’s when the tool was first

Even if the app was to be taken down, somebody would create another version of it to bring in profits for themselves. Even when knowing the wider consequences of using photoshop, people still continue to use it and magazine companies continue to sell the photographs of the unnaturally thin models. Even though it is true that younger children may look up to older siblings or parents, there is a guaranteed link to photoshop somewhere in the desires to be thin or “buff”

A perfect example of the use of photoshop is Justin Bieber’s photoshoot for Calvin Klein. It is noticeable in the before and after pictures that the outlines of his tattoos have been enhanced and his muscles enlarged This just shows that it is not only females who suffer from lack of self confidence. There is an insane amount of pressure on males to be “ripped” and this has caused a third of males under the age of 18 to believe they are “not good