Photo Of The Day

This is a photo of Alessandra Ambrosio, Crystal Renn, and Brooklyn Decker, at a recent photo shoot for Victoria's Secret.  Here are photos of the same three women, after photos have been touched up.

Alessandra Ambrosio

Crystal Renn

Brooklyn Decker

And you wonder why young women have issues with body image.  When the photographer take those digital images back to his studio, he's going to Photoshop the shit out of them.  

I'm not pointing fingers specifically at Victoria's Secret.  It's an industry-wide problem.  Even when something is marketed to teen girls, it's airbrushed beyond recognition.

The cover of this month's Seventeen magazine

It gives women unrealistic expectations on how to look.  It tells young girls that this is the ultimate goal.  It's 100% unattainable.  Even Victoria Secret models need "help".  In the last couple of years, the internet has seen a surge in "pro-ana" websites.  Pro-ana, also called "thinspiration" (or thinspo) sites actually encourage young men and women to be bulimic or anorexic.  Last year, Tumblr was forced to actively delete a large number of thinspo pages on their site.  Last week, Pinterest announced that, as of April 6, all pro-ana pages and pins will be deleted from their boards, under their new terms and conditions.  

It's estimated that 60% of Americans are "overweight".  The average American woman wears a size 14, yet retailers say that size has the lowest sales.  What gives?  I have an idea...

In 2010, both Fox and ABC refused to air this ad from Lane Bryant, stating that it was "too racy":

Yet, they aired this ad from Victoria's Secret, during primetime, the same year:

I guess the concept of "truth in advertising" is no longer a popular one.  A lot can be learned by regulations in the UK.