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December 3, 2008 2:18:36 AM CST

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Has Airbrushing Gone Too Far?

Posted May 3, 08 4:57 PM CDT in Science & Health,  Technology,  Arts & Living 

(Newser) – Shutterbugs have long altered pics, but now critics are cringing over the effects of airbrushing on young girls. French lawmakers have even approved a law against inciting "excessive thinness." But would such a move work in America? Maybe not, "but there are a whole lot of impressionable young kids" who are tortured by images of slimmed-down and retouched women, Jessica Bennett writes in Newsweek.

Numbers tell the tale: An average US girl sees 77,000 ads by age 12, and has an 81% chance of fearing fat by age 10. Even Photoshoppers can be appalled by it: "We're always stretching the models' legs and slimming their thighs," one said. "Sometimes I feel a little like Frankenstein." But Elizabeth Hurley and others in the biz love a touch-up or two. "You have to accept that fashion is fantasy," one photographer said. "It's wearable art."

Source Newsweek

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Women's health campaigners have called for magazines to stop retouching photographs of models.   (KRT Photos)
Gisele Bundchen is seen at a party in this undated file photo.   (Getty Images)
In this photo illustration, supermodel Gisele Bundchen is portrayed as Wendy Darling, beckoned by dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov as Peter Pan.   (AP Photo/Disney Resorts, Annie Leibovitz)
Pictured here is Estee Lauder spokesmodel Elizabeth Hurley's new print advertising campaign for Estee Lauder's top-selling Perfectionist Wrinkle Lifting Serum.   (AP Photo)
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women • photography • beauty • magazine industry • eating disorder • photo editing • altered photos • digital retouching


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