Retouching Beauty

Since the rise of blogs in this digital age, women have emerged as some of the top bloggers in retouching controversies.

In 2006, the Dove Beauty campaign raised questions about the perceptions of beauty in the media and bloggers took to the web expressing their own opinions. One of the most well known female blog sites is “Jezebel” described as one of the top blog websites aimed at women’s interests.  The blog emerged in 2007 in the midst of all the airbrushing controversies and has helped expose the biggest retouching scandals in the past years.

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The Ethics of Photoshop

When does digital retouching cross a line?

Americans are all too familiar with the effects of Photoshop.  Standing in line at the checkout counter, consumers are bombarded with magazine covers featuring beautiful, digitally enhanced celebrities.  Yet, Americans both accept and perpetuate this tradition of retouching.  In fact, should a cover model not display a perfectly chiseled body, a scandal erupts.  However, accepting as consumers are of photoshopped images in the celebrity world, they reject the retouching of photographs shared by news organizations.  Actually, the retouching of images in this setting is considered unethical, as reality is neither truthfully nor accurately depicted.  Recently, AP freelance photographer Narciso Contreras ignored this ethical standard, and as a result, is now facing serious consequences.

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