Picture Perfect

When we compare ourselves to a magazine cover, we will always feel INADEQUATE—an ordinary person cannot compete.
The fashion industry is lying to us and setting a standard that we CANNOT meet. The average woman does NOT look like a model and does NOT have the same advantages.
Look at a magazine cover. Do you realize it took three to four months to complete?
First, the photographer and his assistants spent hours setting up the studio and working on perfect lighting. The model looked good to start with. Perhaps she had plastic surgery. Maybe she spends four hours a day at the gym.
Next, she has an artist with a make-up kit spend hours painting her face and accentuating every feature.
The hairdresser brushes, teases, and curls the model’s hair into the latest style—making sure every strand of hair is in place.
The fashion stylist takes over and does everything she can to make the model look perfect in the outfit. She uses tape to lift the breast and provides undergarments to mold and enhance the model’s figure. Then the clothes are clamped up, pinned in, tied back, and sometimes even duct taped—from behind—so they fit perfectly.
The picture perfect model finally stands before the camera and the photographer shoots hundreds of pictures to ensure that he has the right shot.
The photographs are checked for flaws, fed into a computer and electronically retouched from top to bottom. Airbrushing is used to soften lines, shadows, skin tones, and erase wrinkles. Inches can be removed from thighs, arms, and waist. They do not stop until the picture is perfect. Viola! The illusion is complete.