IS REGULATING PHOTOSHOP THE SOLUTION TO LOW SELF-ESTEEM?

A French politician presents a radical new plan which will shake up the magazine and fashion industry.

Valerie Boyer, who holds a seat in France's Parliament has a bright idea which will make you - all of yous - feel better about yourselves: labeling photoshopped images. According to Boyer, who was interviewed in the New York Times,

“If someone wants to make life a success, wants to feel good in their skin, wants to be part of society, one has to be thin or skinny, and then it’s not enough — one will have his body transformed with software that alters the image, so we enter a standardized and brainwashed world, and those who aren’t part of it are excluded from society.”

What Boyer is proposing is that going forward, all images which have been digitally enhanced will bare a bold label which "warns" the readers. Well that would be damn near all of them! At this point, magazines and campaigns rely almost entirely on photoshop to add that final "oomph" to photos. Thats generally understood. The hope is that the average reader would not be delusional enough to think what he/she is viewing is real and b)wouldn't base their self esteem on it. But alas.....self-esteems are built on such flimsy stuff these days, so as unecessary as Boyer's propsal sounds, it might just be what is needed.



image source: nymag.com