Photoshop transformations & you (and me. and everyone.)

This started as a facebook rant, but I didn’t want my words to get lost in the facebook abyss. So here’s the rant, blog-style. Today, I want to talk about Photoshop transformations and you. And me. And everyone.
Sure, I like some Photoshop transformations. I like making bad pictures of food or crappy lighting better. But when it comes to changin’ boobs, butts and bodies, carving out a fake waist, or trimming down some thighs, I get upset. Really upset. That shit is dumb.
And it always seems to slingshot back to a discussion about food.
While many of us change how we eat in a quest for health, and with the desire to simply FEEL better, many of us also come to the Paleo/Primal/Real Food lifestyle still in a mind-set not of health, but of “how can I eat to be skinnier/curvier/look more like what the magazine photoshop transformations suggest to me I should look like physically?”
That’s certainly what led me to this lifestyle – I won’t lie, I came into this lifestyle with the same old food neuroses, and the same old body hatred – but over the years, I noticed my relationship with food changing. I cared less about image and more about health. Less about physicality and more about physiology. Less about calories and more about nourishment and sourcing my nourishment as responsibly as I could in any given moment.
This has been a beautiful transition for me, and I am grateful and PROUD (as many of you have heard in the Balanced Bites podcast) of who I am. I am beautiful, and that’s not because I look a certain way. It’s because I’m happy, healthy, and fulfilled.
The parts of me that are “conventionally” beautiful and acceptable, I love. The parts of me that would be photoshopped out of Glamour or Cosmopolitan, I love, because they are equally and absolutely beautiful, too.
That’s not vanity, I don’t think; and it’s not a statement I make out of narcissism. It’s one I make out of sheer self-worth; which was something I desperately lacked for many years. The lessons of self-worth are lessons I’ve learned the hard way, but the lessons have changed my life so profoundly.
I can say, unabashedly, that I love my body, I am grateful for it, I’m not trying to change it, and that I’m beautiful, kick ass, and in full control of my self-worth.
Watching the AMAZING video in the link below about the implications of many types of Photoshop transformations reminded me, however, of the many forces working against us – many of which we can’t NOT see, that we sometimes don’t even know we’re seeing, and many of which parents simply can’t shield their children from. The only thing we can do is own who we are, never apologize for it, and never try to change something on the outside unless it’s part and parcel to becoming healthier on the inside.
The good thing about this video? It reminds us of the plastic culture we live in, wherein who a woman is NATURALLY is digitally changed into something that doesn’t exist anywhere. ANYWHERE.
That shouldn’t make us feel better about our “imperfect” bodies. It should teach us that we are ALL perfect, already.
WE EXIST, and WE are amazing. Not “in spite of” or “despite” what we look like, but just because we ARE. The video inspired me to refresh, in my own mind, my OWNERSHIP over my body and solidify the message I hope to “model” to others. (While the video is about women, the same message is sent to men and boys.)
If you can’t see the video below, watch it directly on YouTube by clicking here.
Please chime in with your thoughts in the comments below, and feel free to tweet it out to your peeps.
I’ve talked about body image in the past, on Email Monday, so please join the list to access the archives and read more.

Thanks for reading (and watching!)

 
 
 
 
Liz Wolfe, NTP

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9 Responses

  1. This is awesome. I’ve been really trying to hit this point hard the last few months. I’m a photographer and going to do a boudoir marathon next January. It’s near impossible to have women understand that it’s okay to love themselves, okay to show our flaws, and relax in front of the camera. Why? Because we’ve been taught we’re not good enough. Unless we look like a model, we don’t belong on screen, on display, or photographed. I say that’s false. I’ve recently developed a love for my body, and it’s mostly due to CrossFit and Paleo. Eff society’s view of women.
    Thanks for this post.

  2. Great post and the video is awesome. Thank you so much for talking and writing about this subject. It took me along time to feel good about my body and I would be lying if I said I am never critical of myself. The past few years (after going Paleo for health reasons) have been a time of huge growth for me. I can say most days that I don’t care if my thighs touch or if I have to buy “curvy” or “bold” cut jeans to fit around my booty. I am strong and happy and my husband thinks I am beautiful! What else could you need? Thanks for the wonderful message!
    P.S. I absolutely love your sense of humor and random 80’s/90’s references. As far as I’m concerned, you can never make too many references to “The Jerk”.

  3. There is vilification and then there is awareness. Jennifer Lawrence, when asked about a very-photoshopped advert responded with, “That doesn’t look like me at all. I love Photoshop more than anything in the world. Of course it’s Photoshop; people don’t look like that.” The same actress claims, “I’m never going to starve myself for a part” because she doesn’t want girls to look up to that.
    Yes, Hollywood and adverts want us to be perfect, thin, and flawless. But the change is a consciousness that this will happen with or without our approval and to let things like Photoshop do the brunt of the transformation, instead of attempting to become the 80 lb. model.

  4. It’s so scary that this is allowed. Women should be proud of their bodies and not ashamed. Our society is so messed up!

  5. Thank you for the thoughtfully written post! I experienced a similar transformation, as I started to truly understand the connection of food, lifestyle and health. I loved what you said about “less about calories and more about nourishment”. I think once we wholeheartedly believe that, we are able to start letting go of the conventional ideas of beauty.

  6. Liz! Thank you so much for continuing to address body image. It’s such an important issue and even though we do hear it talked about here and there in the Paleo/real food worlds, I still don’t think it gets the attention it sometimes deserves. I honestly wonder sometimes at the human creative potential lost to self-loathing. What I mean is, how many people out there (women in particular, but it’s becoming more prevalent among men, too) have little to no self-esteem or self-worth because of nothing but the size tag on their clothing? And how many intelligent, talented, creative people are *not* writing their novels, composing songs, or otherwise pursuing their dreams because they either don’t feel worthy or are waiting until that magical, mythical day when they’re thin enough, pretty enough, or their thighs don’t touch?
    I am completely serious: how much creative energy and positive vibes are is *not* shared with the world because we’re too busy counting calories and playing metabolic Jenga, trying to perfectly balance points, grams of this or that, hours on the elliptical machine, and waiting to be anointed with the thinness halo?
    I’m in my 30’s now, and even as a professional nutritionist who’s maintained a 20+ pound weight loss, I struggle with body image and self-worth. The emphasis on health, fertility, strength, and just plain *wellness* in the Paleo world is wonderful, and yet, when it comes down to it, I still think most younger women idealize (and also idolize, hehheh) some sort of “perfect body” that they will never even really achieve, because even if/when the weight comes off, maybe there’ll be some old stretch marks, or they’ll wish they were taller, or blonde, or had nicer cheekbones. It really never stops, sadly.
    Again, thank you so much for keeping this issue present. I see stick-thin young women in line at Starbucks ordering non-fat soy lattes with sugar syrup and I just want to cry, because some of these same women will see their ob/gyns in the future, desperate to conceive, and wonder why they can’t. (And very few docs will tell them to EAT some BUTTER.) :-/

  7. I’m relatively new to the Paleo lifestyle and just discovered your blog today after hearing a Balanced Bites podcast. I LOVE that this is the first blog post I read on your site. While I am not yet at my “ideal” (not just weight/size, but healthwise, too), I take pride in the fact that, at 30, I’ve found a way to better nourish my body and I know that eventually everything else will sort itself out. And I’m pretty sure that once I start to feel better on the inside, I’ll feel better about myself on the outside. Thank you for your insighful and positive post.
    P.S. As a resident of Kansas City for most of my life, I gotta say I also LOVE the photo on your “About” page wearing the Chiefs shirt! GO CHIEFS!

  8. Hi,
    About a week ago an acquaintance of mine sent a trailer for a video she’s producing called “Free the Nipple.” Any guess on what it’s about? (http://www.freethenipple.com/)
    At 33 years old, it was the first time that I saw a group of women who are roughly my age and have breasts that look like mine– meaning “small” and not perfectly round, ie somewhat floppy looking when the tissue is relaxed.
    It occurred *for the first time ever* that I have perfectly normal breasts.
    If women’s bodies were more broadly celebrated, the illusion of perfection would dissolve. For example, we cover our bodies because we are ashamed cellulite. Flesh is beautiful. It serves us in the way that only something created by nature can– magically. Seriously. There is so much stigma attached to one image or another.
    But this stigma– these illusions– are a part of a larger market. It is not so much the industry (Hollywood and advertising) that needs to change, but the demands that we make on this industry. For example, the paleo/real food movement has created a whole new market of good-for-you and good-for-the-earth products– based on OUR interests and OUR demands.
    It’s up to the consumer of these images to take responsibility and change their values.
    Juz my 2 cents. Great blog post.

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