An angel's words of wisdom.

Today I want to talk about photoshopping, because it is my belief that the majority of the body issues we suffer from are those that are created and propagated by the media.  However, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so instead of writing about it, I'm just going to show you.

Keep in mind that, while these photos are clearly photoshopped, most of them are still of models and celebrities who are paid six-figure incomes every year to maintain the way they look.  The fact that they're really a size 8 instead of a size 14 is a result of this.

Let's start with a basic swimsuit model, and let's also play that game, "can you spot the difference?"  This woman, while beautiful, has a normal body.  She doesn't have a particularly flat stomach or toned thighs and she's certainly rocking some curves on her hips.  According to the fashion industry though, she's nowhere near good enough.  Her breasts have been enhanced, stomach flattened, hips/arms/thighs slimmed, and she's been smoothed and tanned all over.

Here's one of fashion's most beautiful plus-size models, Tara Lynn.  Just in case us curvy girls don't struggle with our figure enough, let's take an amazing role model and shave off forty pounds.  Oh, and also, we're still going to list this as "plus sized."  Are your body issues starting to make sense yet?

Here's another plus-size photo that's been drastically edited.  Next time you're hating on your back fat, keep in mind that one of the highest-paid models in the industry to date sports it like a champ.

Let's switch over to celebrities for a moment.  Take Mariah Carey for example: for 42 I think she's looking pretty damn good, but apparently I'm wrong.  In this photo for Glamour, her body structure has been completely overhauled and everything has been smoothed out into that perfect, cellulite-free glean that no number of hours in the gym is going to get you.  Why, you ask?  Because it's fake.

You know how everybody is always raging about the fact that Madonna is in her 50's and still looks like a teenager?  Surprise!  She doesn't.

If you're like me, you should be looking at this next "before" picture and wondering, "okay, what could possibly be wrong with Eva Longoria?" As it turns out, her arms and thighs are actually too skinny (wish I had that problem!), while her waist is not nearly defined enough.  All that time you've spent doing crunches to get a teensy waist and squatting to get a fat booty to complement it?  Yeah, they don't exist together.

And just so none of you girls out there are left thinking "I don't even look like the before pictures!", here's one of fashion's top up-and-coming models, before and after.  This should prove to you, unequivocally, once and for all, that if we all had a personal stylist and professional make up artist hitting us up every morning before we left the house, as well as someone to photoshop all of our photos after they were taken, you can bet there wouldn't be a single picture that you would want to untag yourself from.

One of Victoria's Secret's angels, Erin Heatherton, recently had a pre-retouching photo released from her latest bikini photoshoot, and I was actually incredibly impressed with the way she responded to it.  Here's the image:

And here's what she said about photoshopping:

"We're not selling reality; we're selling a story. It's all about creating this fantasy. And I don't think people should confuse fantasy and reality because no one is perfect—we all know that, and I think people should embrace themselves and not really focus on where people are depicted as perfect and where they're not."

Also, just a good thing to keep in mind: take a good long look at the before picture.  That's a body that most of us would kill for and Erin, who is a Victoria's Secret Angel, is still self-conscious about this image, a testament to the fact that no matter what you look like, you, as a woman in our society, are still going to feel like you aren't good enough.  Keep in mind that it's a feeling and not a reality, and no amount of dieting is going to fix that feeling for you.  You have to acknowledge it and fix it yourself.  You are perfect in your body, right now, sitting at your laptop reading this.  You are beautiful and strong and powerful, and you are NOT what the media says you are.

So the next time the Victoria's Secret catalog comes and you feel like crying over the fact that there's literally no way you will ever look like that, keep in mind that there isn't any way you will look like that because it's not real.  Advertisers photoshop because they want you to think, "if I buy that product, I will be beautiful and sexy and happy just like that woman."  The fact of the matter is, you can be beautiful and sexy and happy right now.  And isn't that a lot easier than having to lose a ton of weight first? #