Real or Re-Touched? Dove Makes Us Question the Images We See

Do you believe everything you see, let alone read?

When we look at images, many of us don’t realize that they may be digitally altered.

You may have been influenced by an image or a representation of beauty in an ad, magazine or in media but not realize that the image has been altered, enhanced or retouched.

What is real?  Images can distort our perception of beauty.  How often do we compare ourselves to images that are altered?

More and more women and girls are comparing themselves to images that have been digitally retouched.  They are feeling differently about the way they look when they see these images, which translates into a negative body image.  Extreme re-touching of images can go unnoticed and can distort a woman’s perception of beauty.

Only 9 percent of Canadian girls aged 10-17 and 3 percent if women are comfortable calling themselves beautiful.  By the age of 14, 55 percent of Canadian girls already feel pressure to be beautiful, Sharon MacLeod, V.P of Marketing, Dove Canada says.  She is the driving force behind the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, which conducted The Real Truth About Beauty Research.

Almost half of girls aged 10 to 17 admit to avoiding certain activities because they felt bad about the way they look.  These girls are missing out on sports, parties and other social activities because of the way they feel about their looks!

Real or re-touched? Dove makes us question the images we see with their new campaign.

Take a look at this image.  She looks normal, right?

Now here is same image, right-side up:

Scary isn’t it?

What’s scarier is all the retouching that you don’t ever notice.  It’s quite disturbing to see how images that are manipulated can seem perfectly normal.

No wonder women and girls are unhappy with how they look!  We are inundated with images of what beauty is – it’s almost impossible to escape.  There are just so many factors contributing to body image issues; music videos, magazines and celebrity obsession.

What can we do?

Moms and role models can help counter-act the effects of retouched images of perfection.  Dove believes that every woman can reach their potential.  Dove represents real women in their advertising, not celebrities, actors or models.  Their appearance isn’t altered in any way.

Women and young girls are encouraged to explore the resources at www.Dove.ca including an interactive tutorial that helps mothers, mentors and educators engage girls in a fun exploration and discussion about beauty images.

What influence in your life do you feel most impacts your perception of beauty?