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To bathing suit or not to bathing suit?

British Columbians have been waiting a long time for hot season

Recreation Programmer for the Whistler Youth Centre

 

After a long winter we've all been looking forward to the heat, lake days and basking in the sun. Well, at this stage you'd have more luck with that if you placed your face in your oven, but that's beside the point. While many of us look forward to less cumbersome attire, many people dread this time of year... BATHING SUIT SEASON!

Let's face it, when we're at the grocery store check out counter, we are bombarded by images on the covers of magazines where some famous actor just lost 10 pounds and now looks fantastic, or some butt firming technique that also helps you achieve that perfect summer beach body. Here's the thing, about 99 per cent of all photographs in those publications have been manipulated.

In an effort to shed some light on this situation, Whistler Secondary teacher Michelle Antil, professional photographer Anastasia Chomlack and the Whistler Youth Centre

organized a three-day workshop that all Grade 9 CAPP (Career and Personal Planning) students attend. Here is what some of the students had to say about body image, self-esteem and the lengths that various industries, including those in beauty and fashion, will go to in order to sell their products.

Caroline Stroud: What do you think of photo-manipulation in modeling?

Sydney Calder: "It was shocking how much they change people. Everyone wants to say, like the big companies, that you're beautiful just the way you are yet they still Photoshop them (their models) to look like completely different people. Stretching out their necks like a giraffe. Creeps me out. Their waists and smaller thighs, it kinda' scares me 'cause it doesn't look normal, it just looks scary.

People look better when they are natural or who they are supposed to be. Some people are bigger and that's fine. I don't understand why they have to portray what beauty is (with) skinny little girls that in the photos look like they are going to snap and their heads are going to bobble off!"

Liam Measure: "It would make the girl (model) feel really bad that they have to do all that to her to put her on the front of the magazine. Like 'you're not good enough, this is what we want you to look like,' then they Photoshop their face and everything else after."

Robyn Mann: "They are taking away the person and giving it a new identity ... the videos show something you never see. They do it too much so that the person is gone."

CS: What kind of impact do magazines, advertising and the beauty and fashion industry have on the self esteem and body image of youth, girls and guys of today?

 

Calder: "With guys, I think it makes them feel less secure in who they are. All you hear from the girls looking at magazines in school is, 'Oh my God he has such nice abs, look at his thick facial structure and those eyes and stuff.' Guys in high school are still going through puberty and they are still developing a lot and they don't have the best skin and it's not really fair for them to have to put up with this mental picture of what girls fantasize about.

"People might say it's worse for girls but I think it's equal. We have to live up to what guys think are beautiful or hot. Most girls do have low self esteem and they try to say, 'No I don't, I'm better than that,' but in truth you see these girls in magazines and even if you know they are Photoshopped they still have perfect skin, the perfect body, they look thin and healthy, and beautiful. People want to say that beauty comes from the inside, but there are people who treat people who they think look good, better than they treat someone who they think is, say, overweight in their eyes, or not beautiful."

Measure: "A muscular man on the front of the magazine... would make the guys feel like they would have to be ripped.  Steroids and butt implants... it shouldn't be happening!"

Mann: " Well I think in this school a lot of people wear a lot of make-up, like a lot of my friends that I've known for a while wear a lot more than they did before in the younger grades. They want the boys to notice them, so they dress nicer and wear more makeup. They have a lot of pressure... for the fitting-in problem."

 

CS: What do you do to maintain a health body image and self esteem?

Calder : "I just kinda' ignore what I'm supposed to be like according to the magazines and I just think about who I am. My friends and family are a big thing... to get a compliment from a friend saying that I look really good that day is really important, but for some people that might be the only thing they really want to hear that day."

Measure "Have more confidence and be happier... you just 'gotta believe."

Check out the following videos and see how Photoshop has changed the modelling industry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hibyAJOSW8U

http://www.diet.com/videos/play/the-photoshop-effect

 

Pique has partnered with the Mountain Youth Society (MYS) to ring readers a monthly column that looks at the issues facing our youth aged 13 to 35.

MYS promotes and fosters the positive growth and development through the programs and services of their member organizations. Public meetings with guest speakers are held the second Tuesday of each month at Whistler Public Library's Community Room from 3:30-4:30 p.m. If you're interested in writing an article, contact us at mountainyouth@gmail.com.