We have all fallen for it at some point, haven’t we?  We see a commercial, article or ad that shows a person with a glaring “flaw” that was miraculously and dramatically altered and now fits squarely into the current ideal of beauty.  This person apparently feels confident and happy, ready to take on the world now that this hideous “problem” has been corrected.  All they had to do was buy the advertised product and let the magic potion do its work!

There is absolutely no reason why I need to look like a stick figure. I do not need to fit into size 0 clothes.  In fact, I don’t think it would be physically possible no matter how much weight I lost because I have hips – real solid bone that would prevent me from ever getting into clothing that small! Yet, if I flip through a fashion magazine, I am presented with images of young women who are practically skeletons, with no hips and surgically enhanced chests, airbrushed to meet standards that are not just unnatural but unobtainable – even by the models themselves. Take, for instance this photo actress Jessica Alba; the original photo is quite beautiful but the editors decided to make her thinner, curvier, and more defined with bigger lips and smaller hips.  She is a stunning woman who needs no retouching and honestly, I like the first image better because she looks like a real woman.