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Abstract: This pilot study examines whether awareness of the digital manipulation of photographs may mitigate the effects of "the thin ideal" in fashion magazines. Digital manipulations of four fashion photographs altered models' body shape, skin color and leg length. Subjects were exposed to both original and manipulated versions. Focus group discussion and individual surveys suggest that whereas women find thin models with dark skin (whether Caucasian or African American) attractive, they prefer authentic, unretouched images in advertisements. In addition, a questionnaire measured the erosion of body dissatisfaction and found that female subjects were significantly happier with their bodies once they had seen both the thin and restored images side by side, and thereby recognized the impact of digital manipulation. They were also more likely to protest the practice of digital editing in magazines to editors and advertisers. Findings are discussed with regard to the importance of enhanced media literacy as an antidote to magazine editorial policy that favors artistic freedom over truth in digital editing.
Keywords: ethics of digital manipulation, thin ideal, eating disorders.
Waif-like fashion models in glossy women's magazines are hard to avoid for young women who are still forming their identities. Notions of beauty involve beauty shape, skin color and even the length of legs. Researchers have tracked the preoccupation with unrealistic expectations of weight for women and also noted the increase in eating disorders. The "thin ideal" is a cultural construct, and researchers observe that "merely being a woman in society means feeling too fat" (Rodin, Silberstein & Striegel-Moore, 1986). Girls as young as middle school are often preocuppied with the thin ideal as many of them try "to look like girls / women on TV or in magazines" (Taylor, et. all, 1998). As early as the 1980s, 61 percent of college women reported some form of eating behavior problem (Mintz & Betz, 1988). Recent mass communication research has demonstrated that messages depicting the thin ideal tend to erode women's body satisfaction and self-esteem and promote the incidence of eating disorders (e.g., Harrison & Cantor, 1997; Harter, 1993; Stice and Shaw, 1994). We argue that the media's use of digital manipulation in fashion photography may be further exacerbating the unhealthy effects of the thin ideal.
Women's magazines are often pointed to...