Your Instagram is a liar. What’s with all the cover up? Why not let the real you shine, even with your imperfections?
Photo filters are addicting. For some reason, they make some women feel more confident with our appearance and our body image. Why can’t we appreciate and embrace our natural beauty?
The majority of women’s images are being altered to fit within a particular standard, and so are our perceptions of what a woman’s normal, healthy, beautiful body and lifestyle should be like. People often talk about the fact that so many images of women are ‘perfected’ with the help of technology, but we can’t toss it aside. I don’t think people understand how serious an issue this is.
” I don’t think people understand how serious an issue this is. “
You may have figured out that your skin looks flawless every time you use ‘Valencia’, but you can’t filter yourself. A vast number of women regularly rely on photo filters to boost their skin confidence and few are actually happy to post their natural picture.
Today’s society has us praising female slimness as a key to attractiveness, health, desirability and success. This same culture has us women obsessed with our appearance and it contributes to women being disgusted by their bodies.
I used to be caught up with beauty and fashion magazines and all of these slim models and perfect bodies. I would sit and admire these photos and envy their slender legs, sleek arms and perfectly tanned skin tone and then wonder, “Why can’t I look like that?” All over the television these beauty campaigns are plastered and have crossed over into reality TV too. These images are changed to fit some seriously un-human and unrealistic ideals that we view over and over.
I admit. I’ve even told my friend to delete a photo of me from her phone because I didn’t like how my body looked. Because of the angle, my stomach looked like it had a bulge and I didn’t like it at all. I mean, I’m sure no one would’ve even looked at that, but for me, it was a bother. I’ve even had photographers take pictures of me at parties and I would immediately request to see the photo, and I would tell them delete or let’s try that again. Almost every girl has had a moment where they would hijack a friend’s phone and say “No way, you’re deleting that!” because after all, no one wants to look bad on the internet..right?
We tend to be harder on ourselves than others are on us. We need to know our worth. The pictures we take are not any less beautiful because we did not apply a photo filter. The lack of filters will not make a picture less appreciated or less valuable. So just own that natural beauty already.
