Covergirl: Real Women, Real Beauty

There Is No “Covergirl”, ALL Women Are Beautiful.

All of the images you see here in the collage above are all unaltered (except for changing the size), and are from volunteers who have submitted their images for use in getting this message out. All of the women portrayed here are naturally beautiful in each their own way. These women understand how important it is to show the world what real women look like so that we can change the image that is in young girls’ minds so that they too can know they are beautiful just the way they are. Thank you ladies!

As women, we have spent our lives growing up in a world where we see all around us images of women on covers of magazines. These cover girls depict women who are “perfect”. These covergirl images have been pushed upon us from an early age showing us what we should look like, ideally.

Since there has been the ability to alter photos of women in magazines, there has been an unrealistic standard of what we as women should look like. The first unrealistic images of the covergirl were altered using an airbrushing method to remove any and all blemishes, and has now turned into not only airbrushing, but altering the size and shape of the eyes, legs, buttocks, tummy, feet, neck, etc.

That Photoshopped image of a real woman no longer makes her a real woman. The realness is gone and what remains is a false beauty. The problem is, that false beauty is what so many girls out there hope to achieve; in trying to achieve that false beauty, they destroy themselves. They become unhealthy. Some become anorexic or bulimic, and have a state of mind in which they are never thin enough, they are always fat. Some even turn to plastic surgery. Others simply hate themselves.

It’s not enough to put on make-up and do up your hair these days to get on the cover; you now need that as well as digital alterations that could never ever be achieved any other way. Not even plastic surgery can get you the look of these so-called ‘beauties’ that grace the cover.

Women get plastic surgery to look like the model on the cover of the magazine, but even with all the plastic surgery, they will still never look like the model on the cover. You can’t ever alter yourself to look like the covergirl because that look is impossible to achieve without photo editing software on a computer.

This is not a new subject. This has been talked about for a long time. Yet still, there is not enough attention brought to it, because if there was, the standards would change and we would not see these Photoshopped false images of ‘beauty’.

Young girls see these images and believe they are real and that they too should look like the models they see in these magazines. Boys see this as well, and assume that’s what a real woman should look like. What they don’t know is that the images that they are looking at are not real representations of actual women. Much like Barbie is not representational of an actual woman, neither are the images contained in fashion magazines or on billboards.

Dove launched a Campaign for Real Beauty a few years back that shows a woman, very normal looking, who is transformed into a stunning cover model. The ad follows the entire process from start to finish of the model coming into work, getting her hair and make-up done, and pictures taken. It then proceeds to show the Photoshopping process, which shapes her eyes, and her neck to unnatural proportions. And when the final image is made, it is put on a billboard to show what a woman is supposed to look like; a false beauty. This is meant to show people how fake images are in magazines and in ads, and to show that there is no way to possibly look like that.

Evolution of Beauty – Dove Campaign for Real Beauty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=IHqzlxGGJFo

The problem I have is that it’s not enough. Although this was a national/international ad, it’s not enough; the false beauty continues, and it continues to mold the minds of society’s youth to give them a false sense of reality of how women should look. Girls and young women, mostly, are affected by this, and there are a large number of them with eating disorders.

There have been multiple other videos made since the one above which show this altering on many other people. The latest one to come to my attention is the one with the woman laying down wearing only a bikini bottom. By the time they are done altering her image, she’s not human anymore; her proportions are non-achievable. That’s NOT beauty; that’s false reality… a fantasy at best!

Time lapse video shows RADICAL effect of Photoshop on model’s body

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxcxA7cX4zE&feature=player_detailpage

You can’t possibly look like the covergirl model on the magazine because you are not phony. Real women are the ones you see around you, not the ones you see in images. Real women are born with straightness, and have curves, and they jiggle, and a lot of them have a belly, not a flat stomach. We are all shaped different, and we should be. Some of us are shaped like others, but we are not cookie-cutter women. Some of us have athletic builds, while others of us are large and curvy. Some have an hour-glass figure, where others have an hour-and-a-half. Some have large breasts, some have small ones, and some have none at all.

This is what women look like!!

Young, old, tall, short, skinny, fat, blonde, brunette, black, white, the list goes on. They are all different, yet they are all united with a bond of beauty; beauty that cannot be achieved by anything other than nature. Nature is how we were made, and it is why we are so beautiful.

Real beauty is what you see around you every day. It’s the lady behind the cash register, it’s the cleaning lady, the waitress that served your food, it’s your mom, your sister, your aunt, your daughter, and most importantly, it’s YOU! What it is NOT, is the covergirl model; the image of glamour on the cover of a magazine.

You are a natural beauty, not altered in any way. Magazine images take someone just like you, do up the hair, and the make-up, take her photo, and change her into something that is completely unrealistic. If they could find someone that was exactly like what is portrayed by their alterations, then they wouldn’t have to alter the photos; they’d be able to use them “as is”, unaltered. But, alas… they don’t… because they can’t. They can’t because she doesn’t exist in the first place. What does exist is real women; women who look just like you and me.

We are shown images of false beauty, and this makes us look past the true and natural (REAL) beauty that is you and me. Images which make young girls harm themselves in an effort to fit a mold that they can never fit; a mold which is not based in reality. The mold used is a computer generated mold and only exists digitally. We exist in the real world; we do not exist digitally. So then, why try to look like a digital image? You are beautiful as you are.

Things women think about themselves and/or have been told by others:

Mainly, it’s either they like certain aspects about themselves such as their eyes or smile, or they hate aspects of themselves whether it be their hips, their thighs, their weight, teeth, etc. Some of these things are because of what they see portrayed in magazines and on television. Some of these things are because of what others have said to them and about them, naturally creating a false perception about themselves when some of them already have a low self-esteem, which causes long-lasting repercussions. Some women, even almost 20 years or more later, are still feeling insecure about some of their features because of just one person’s opinion. Where others can be teased their whole life about a feature of theirs and that’s not the feature that actually bothers them; it’s a different feature entirely that bothers them.

Some women simply have constant reinforcements of negative imagery forced upon them; they are told they are not beautiful, or just made to feel as though they are not beautiful. A lot of times, the reason that men treat women as if they are not beautiful is because they too are living off of a false sense of what a woman should look like. Sometimes, they don’t even realize they’re doing this. They strive for that covergirl, which they will never find. When they do this, they overlook the true women with real beauty that are sitting right in front of them; they pass them by hoping to get the woman that looks most like the woman on the cover of a magazine. Meanwhile, that covergirl doesn’t even exist; that covergirl is a fantasy.

No woman should EVER be made to feel unattractive or inadequate, especially because of how they look. Looks are a matter of perspective; a perspective that has been shaped by fake imagery.

Ladies…

There is no perfect woman that fits the styled definition of perception of what “every man wants”. Not every man wants a blemish free, no meat on her bones woman. Men are a variety in themselves and need a variety of women.

Women of all shapes and sizes deserve to be on the cover of a magazine because that’s what real women are. We all have our own uniqueness to us, an individuality that shines through our outer appearance. We don’t now, never have, and never will, fit the cookie-cutter Photoshopped images that are currently being used to portray “normal” women.

Any one of you, with the proper hair and make-up, edited to fit the mold, can look like those covergirl models. You are already perfect; you don’t need editing.

We have the ability to change how the world views “normal”, and to make that normal, true reality. The true reality is, women are all shapes, sizes, colors, ages, and nationalities. We are not a lump of dough that can be crammed through the same mold.

We have the ability to allow ourselves to be the beauties that we are and not allow someone’s impression of us rule how we feel about ourselves.

We have the ability to show the world that we all deserve the same right to be portrayed as beautiful, and not to be shunned because we don’t look like the current standard of beauty; the covergirl.

We have the ability to teach our children, our sons and daughters, that real women are all different, and that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To teach them that everyone is beautiful in their own way, and that just because someone may have a feature or two that does not appeal to us personally, that doesn’t take away from the beauty of that person. We need to teach our children not to judge people based on the falseness of television and magazines, and billboards.

It is often said, true beauty comes from within. And yes, it is true. It is the beauty within us that radiates to surround us that makes us shine as the beauties we are. If a person is beautiful on the inside, they are beautiful on the outside, no matter what they look like.

However, it goes both ways. If a person is ugly on the inside, they are ugly on the outside BECAUSE of their ugliness on the inside, no matter what they look like on the outside.

You can only be ugly, and unattractive because of your insides; because of who you are and how you treat people. You can never be ugly any other way… EVER!

It really doesn’t matter what you look like (or what you think you look like) for your beauty to shine through. If you are beautiful, you are beautiful. You’re beauty lies in who you are inside. Your outer appearance will ALWAYS reflect that.

You are beautiful, no matter what your body shape or size currently is, or what your hair, skin, or other features look like. Don’t ever lose sight of that. Too often we do, and we can’t keep up that cycle. You are beautiful, you are unique, you are a true covergirl!