Is it just me or does everyone think it is dangerous to aim for perfection…
You know the statistics – reading fashion magazine for five minutes makes most women feel depressed and inadequate.
We’ve been talking on the air today about the current trend for school photos to be digitally enhanced, to remove acne, scars and facial blemishes from children’s faces.
Everybody loves a great photo of their kids, we put on our best clothes and blow dry our hair for family shots…of course trying to present the best version of ourselves.
But I can’t help but think that by moving into the big bad world of photo shop, we’re (yet again) setting our kids up for failure.
I am constantly amazed at how much better looking 16 year old girls are these days.
They are so much more body aware than we were 20 years ago, they are better dressed, they are better groomed and I would say they spend a whole lot more time getting that way than we ever did.
That’s a good thing, if it leads to greater self esteem…but I’m not convinced it does. I think it actually just causes more angst, more agonised navel gazing.
Let’s look at the evidence, I work with 17, 18 and 19 year olds who are getting boob jobs. The ones God gave you just aren’t good enough apparently. These girls are fresh and young and dewy and beautiful – but someone – something - is telling them that’s not good enough…
Last night on A Current Affair they had a segment on improving your eyelashes…and there on the screen was an exquisitely beautiful, very very young girl, having extra eyelashes implanted – extra eyelashes! Hers aren’t good enough apparently.
And maybe, just maybe, we learn this obsessive, narcissistic (and ultimately doomed) behaviour at our mothers’ knee – the day she ticks the box for a little digital enhancement of school photos.
You know the statistics – reading fashion magazine for five minutes makes most women feel depressed and inadequate.
We’ve been talking on the air today about the current trend for school photos to be digitally enhanced, to remove acne, scars and facial blemishes from children’s faces.
Everybody loves a great photo of their kids, we put on our best clothes and blow dry our hair for family shots…of course trying to present the best version of ourselves.
But I can’t help but think that by moving into the big bad world of photo shop, we’re (yet again) setting our kids up for failure.
I am constantly amazed at how much better looking 16 year old girls are these days.
They are so much more body aware than we were 20 years ago, they are better dressed, they are better groomed and I would say they spend a whole lot more time getting that way than we ever did.
That’s a good thing, if it leads to greater self esteem…but I’m not convinced it does. I think it actually just causes more angst, more agonised navel gazing.
Let’s look at the evidence, I work with 17, 18 and 19 year olds who are getting boob jobs. The ones God gave you just aren’t good enough apparently. These girls are fresh and young and dewy and beautiful – but someone – something - is telling them that’s not good enough…
Last night on A Current Affair they had a segment on improving your eyelashes…and there on the screen was an exquisitely beautiful, very very young girl, having extra eyelashes implanted – extra eyelashes! Hers aren’t good enough apparently.
And maybe, just maybe, we learn this obsessive, narcissistic (and ultimately doomed) behaviour at our mothers’ knee – the day she ticks the box for a little digital enhancement of school photos.
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