Emma's Mixtape

Interesting. I've never seen something like that before. I love it!

Now, I'm tempted to do something like that myself...
 

That's something I've never seen, but would love to ... Is it me? Or, are they going crazier than usual with Photoshop on the covers lately? It's like a game trying to figure out who I'm looking at half the time.

Nice to see you you, Emma. xo
 

It's like a game trying to figure out who I'm looking at half the time.-Kai

Thats exactly it.
Have you ever meet these people in real life? They are such a disappointment, because we've never seen them as they truly are.

Brad Pitt did a photo shoot, minus photoshop recently. He looked as handsome as ever, but he looked his age. He was slammed for it. It made me like him more.
 

Cleo has written an interesting blog in regard to this topic.
Beauty is in the 'eye of the beholder'...so they say...but the 'eye of the beholder' is constantly being manipulated.
What is considered 'attractive' or 'beautiful' changes, and it is equally subjected to expectations/fashion trends that are clearly instilled into the 'beholder' - by the "beauty industry".
It's all about good advertizing...it's a kazillion Dollar business at any rate...loads and loads of bucks are being made with beauty products, plastic surgery and such...millions of jobs, etc.
You have to create "needs" if you want to keep the Dollars rollin'...
My conclusion...the "industry" decides - if you let them, i. e. if you succomb to their standards.
 

In reference to what you said, Cleo, photographer Peter Lindbergh recently complained about the touch-up craze in the business.
He said he made photos for a Lancôme add with (the already very beautiful!!) Kate Winslet. He said once they were done with their touch-ups and alternations, Kate had become *unrecognizable*.
And that's the other part of the problem...the pics *we* get to see of so-called "celebs" are SO not representative of how they look in real life.
Not only do they under-go hours of make-up and hair, the photos are on top of everything touched up afterwards....ALL pics (ask my brother)...it's the perfect illusion - pretty lies indeed.
The problem is, however, that so many people (mostly women, but more and more men it seems) believe in these lies, feeling less and less secure about themselves, less and less good in their own skin...
How sad is that?
Is that what we have accomplished after 30 years of emanzipation...these days we're held captive by an absolutist body-image that is simply unattainable.
We would be well-advised to invest all that time, energy and money that we spend on looks-maintenance/looks-improvement on more important things...for our future for instance.
 

Kai,
The Photoshopping is pure comedy! I don't know how some gets past the editors. I get it with the airbrushing, it exists and always will, but it goes too far and the people look all plastic-like and lifeless.

Cleo,
That's actually nice. I'd like to see plain Pitt.
 

Maybe tolerance, but after seeing the kind of "subtext" in these mags, no very good if you wanna be yourself and own person, the media in general make you feel like your being bullied and bombarded with their agendas. There too much info, and no everyone can be like that, what next on the cosmetic surgery market?!
Plus, when you see what all these botoxed, brutal fashion followers are like in person, there no exactly a shoulder to cry on in times 'o crisis. Sorry to appear loose or critical, think you'll be glad of my point of view though. Read The Beauty Myth by Naomi wolf.

Great your back blogging again, such a warm connection x
 

I recently read that almost all fashion photos are altered and that frequently the models look very different in real life. I had suspected this because some of the models just don't look like their bodies are in proportion. Their legs are often unnaturally long to the point where no one looks like that.
 

i'm so happy that you're blogging. this is really wonderful. people on magazines are really strange, its like they don't have pores. indian magazines are mostly still kind of wonderful, specially the smaller regional ones. there will be cracked teeth and you can see the bleached hair on the side of the girl's face. its genuinely trashy and fun.
 

hey Emma ur tummy is good?
With colin?

A man like this...be ur husband ?no!you know it!

you dont want ur life with him...
it is ur tummy which decided your END

you know of what...I speak!u know about what I speak.
 

u made a big&heavy decision with him, but u made well!loss, death and a new life!


good courage!
 

So happy to see you back on Blogger, too :-)

I find myself quite torn up about magazines. On the one hand, they can be the ultimate escape from seriousness and the ultimate stress relief to just page through one, half numb and half entertained. On the other hand, not everyone sees it that way, and women who see these things as bibles frighten me.

I used to read tons of magazines as a teen, then during my first few years of college I stopped because I had to save money - a few months ago I bought a magazine again and was amazed at the fact that I had once been able to read it. It seemed so condescending and void - I couldn't find a single page worth reading. It depends on the magazine, too, but it proved to me that there's definitely some brainwashing going on.

If they'd drop photoshop, and if some magazines maybe added one or two substantial articles an issue... it would make such a difference. A friend of mine works in journalism and she freelances, too, and she joked to me about working for glossy magazines; "You just write what they already did two years ago, only in different words. How to break up, how to take care of your hair, how to look like someone else, it's all the same. That's why they change staff often."