While I often blog about sexism in media, I am of two minds when it comes to Photoshopped models. While they do represent impossible body images, I have argued that the solution is not to regulate photo manipulation (as some demand) but to educate young consumers to view commercial pictures as if they were illustrations. My point is that before PS, airbrushing and especially illustration also presented unrealistic body ideals. It is, quite simply, nothing new.
Lo an behold, my blogger friends at Sociological Images, people with true feminist cred, post:
"Today we bemoan photoshopping, and here we have pre-photoshop examples of the kind of free-reign that artists had in idealizing their subject."
So, here's proof, for the contrarian in me, that unrealistic physical portrayals of women in media is nothing new. (The whole "Marilyn was a size 14" thing has been pretty much debunked.) But cold comfort for women to know that we're still manipulating the same physical stereotypes of a the much more sexist age of our grandparents.
See more at Buzzfeed.
