I saw a news article on the front page of the Toronto Star today telling people the power of digital image manipulation and asked myself - why is this news? Image manipulation on just about everything has been taking place since computers with photo editing capabilities came into use… sadly - most people still don’t realize this and strive for an impossible perfection.
What’s beauty anyways?
Beauty means different things to different people, some of it comes from elitist ideas others are born from the history that cultures share. For instance, in Chinese culture, “whiter” skin is highly prized - if you have dark skin, there is a cultural taboo meaning you are a poor peasant - only farmers working in the hot sun on their rice fields all day would have dark skin. If you have whiter skin, it means you are wealthy and didn’t need to work physically to earn your income. You even see this in the black community where lighter skinned individuals are more highly sought after then darker skinned people - I do not know the reason but my guess it for the same reason as the Chinese.
I find this interesting because in Caucasian culture (at least in North America), a tanned complexion makes you more desirable because it demonstrates wealth and health… only rich people could afford to fly down south for a tan - this oddly still exists today even with the proliferation of tanning salons.
How easy body image changes!
Up until about the 1930s, before food was plentiful, if you where obese - it was a status symbol of wealth and success - only rich people could afford to eat lots of food 
This was once very true but now that food is plentiful, obesity is frowned upon because it demonstrates a lack of control.
Even before the advent of serious weight lifting, muscles where frowned upon because it meant you lived a life of hard physical labor… now, these where not physiques anywhere near what bodybuilders have today… but if you had “big” body with little fat… you where considered poor… during the Roman Empire - you would even be considered a Slave!
Not only do image preferences change with time and culture but can also be modified by governments! The Nazis for instance had their idealistic body image where “perfection” means blond hair, strong facial features and an athletic build… some of these taboos still exist today yet few will admit to its origins.
Video exposes extremes in digital manipulation
I urge you to check out this video to see how EXTREME beauty can be modified… and realize this… EVERY picture in just about EVERY magazine has had the exact same manipulations done to them as you see in this video… that includes billboards, web pictures, model shoots… you name it. So the next time you see a “perfect” model, please play this video in your head and realize that you are not looking at a real person - but a digitally altered one.
http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/home_films_evolution_v2.swf
My picture… manipulated
As you see in the image, I did this in January ‘06 - I took a photograph of me in a badly lit room and manipulated it to the point where slightly improved on every aspect of my features… I go from looking like I crawled out from under a rock to what I consider handsome guy - I only modified skin tone, not facial features by the way. I could take it to the extreme as you will see in the video but I wanted my picture to be of ME, not somebody else.
The Bottom Line
If you are happy in your own skin and strive through diet and exercise to improve on what your parents gave to you - then you will always be the “perfect” you no matter what taboos come into fashion.
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