The secret behind the photos you see

When I was young, I always wondered why advertisement models in the past looked (as media calls it now) fat and pudgy, whereas models in adverts these days are so skinny and perfect. I always assumed it was just the drastic change of model size requirements and better make up... but I was wrong.

Watch the short video below to see how she transformed from.... 

Surprised?

Maybe... or maybe not. 

I guess most of us now know about the power of makeup. Hey! The majority of us use it all the time to bring our skin to flawless perfection, give our cheeks a little more life, and make our eyes a little bigger. Seeing make up transformations never cease to amaze me

As for photo-editing, I thought I was familiar with its magic. I knew that in just a few clicks, we can get rid of a few lines, and some blemishes and that awful pimple growing on your face, but I sure was surprised that there is so much more that photo-editing can do to "touch up" a person. Correcting her posture, bringing in her stomach, elongating her legs and her neck... seeing her transform from a woman to Barbie was amazing! *applauds photo-editing skills*

I personally don't mind her looking all natural... and her face and hair's actually all right. I bet if she smiled, she'd look really pretty. In the second picture which has her all made up, I think she looks all fancy. If I could have a body like her in the third picture, well, I would. But I like eating with family and friends too much to give it up for that body. 

I know there are people out there who would scream "Sacrilege!" at this video, and are fighting for more realistic and honest pictures of models, and blaming the media for setting unrealistic standards to beauty and ruining the lives of many young women. It is true that this is happening and I salute these people, but I think it is also important to keep in mind that we can't entirely blame the media for what we depict as beauty. The media shows us what we want to see, and what we want to see is influenced by the media. It's a chicken and egg situation. 

I believe we have the ability to decide for ourselves what beauty is. If the media showed the most beautiful of pictures and said moustaches on women are beautiful a hundred times over, would you think so?

We are being lied to by the media, and higher (and maybe even unrealistic) standards of beauty are pressed onto us. We may try to fight as much as we can, but technology is only going to get better. It is alright to applaud better makeup and photo-editing technology and skills, but we also have to remember, and remind the future generations, that we no longer live in a world where "Seeing is believing" and "A picture speaks a thousand words". Now, seeing is not really believing anymore, and a picture can speak a thousand lies.

In trying to define beauty, let's keep in mind that beauty is subjective. Western people think tanned skin's beautiful, and asians think fair skin is beautiful. Westerners call freckles cute. Asians cry over them. At the end of the day, we can only say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the beholder can perceive beyond the physical.