![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Scary pictures
Apr. 9th, 2005 02:44 pmI just grabbed this for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
andyduckerlinks, but then was chatting to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
flickgc about it and wanted to talk about _why_ it scares me.
It's a photo (and close-ups of that photo) showing the original (of a model posing in a bikini) and the photoshopped version ("perfect" in every way).
When you switch back and forth you tend to go "Agh!" at seeing the version with all the pores, veins, etc. But if you just leave it on that version for 30 seconds, or go away and come back to it, the model is actually rather pretty. Certainly prettier than the vast majority of normal human beings (if your tastes go that way, of course). It's only by comparison to the smoothed version that there's any feeling that this person isn't pretty.
It illustrates fantastically how surrounding ourselves with perfect robotic versions of beauty just leads to dissatisfaction, and spending all our time being presented with the images of hollywood babes just makes it harder to get on with our lives (where, no, you aren't going to get Brad Pitt/Johnny Depp, whoever's popular at the moment).
andyduckerlinks, but then was chatting to flickgc about it and wanted to talk about _why_ it scares me.It's a photo (and close-ups of that photo) showing the original (of a model posing in a bikini) and the photoshopped version ("perfect" in every way).
When you switch back and forth you tend to go "Agh!" at seeing the version with all the pores, veins, etc. But if you just leave it on that version for 30 seconds, or go away and come back to it, the model is actually rather pretty. Certainly prettier than the vast majority of normal human beings (if your tastes go that way, of course). It's only by comparison to the smoothed version that there's any feeling that this person isn't pretty.
It illustrates fantastically how surrounding ourselves with perfect robotic versions of beauty just leads to dissatisfaction, and spending all our time being presented with the images of hollywood babes just makes it harder to get on with our lives (where, no, you aren't going to get Brad Pitt/Johnny Depp, whoever's popular at the moment).
