Beauty In Translation

          Too often do people say, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” so then the question lies on what true beauty actually means. Within Alone Together, Sherry Turkle’s book, Turkle shares an experience where a man, Pete, is presenting himself online through an avatar in three simple ways: buff, handsome, and young. However, in reality Pete stands to be a father of two children and a husband to a wife who anxiously worries that he will one day leave her by the cause of death, and she will forever be alone. Pete is married through an online game to Jade, who maintains an avatar with the compelling features of a pixie with spiky blonde hair. Though the focus of Turkle’s examination is turned towards interaction, Pete and Jade hold a great example of beauty in the eye of the beholder. From personal experience, online games start off by physical appearance. No one would purposely make their avatar ugly unless it was meant for a joke. These aspects play an interesting role in relation to reality, because whether or not it is online, humans have a general idea of what beauty is, only defined by specificities. Billboards, posters, music videos, and magazines are only a few representations of beauty which hold a great amount of public judgment. Relating to not only the Dove Evolution video but also to Catfish: The Movie, physical attraction has become a strong point to bringing in the attention of others. In one magazine cover of Rolling Stone, Katy Perry, a music artist, is photoshopped so that she can look like pure perfection. Stomach lines, breasts, hair, legs, skin, and every other detail is photoshopped to captivate viewers of her attractiveness. Problems occur is the areas of just that: photoshopping. Beauty becomes a gray area because now the public is viewing false beauty through edits and adjustments, not the reality of that celebrity who looks just like anyone else if it was not for the glamour.

            Falsifying images are intended to appeal to the audience’s eyes. Humans fail to accept that there is no such thing as perfection. Hollywood does lots of work to continuously push perfection into the eyes of viewers which resultsin photoshopped images. Photoshopped images are essentially the dream depiction of the actual person being displayed. In her Rolling Stone cover, Katy Party is harshly photoshopped from the lines on her stomach to the silkiness of her hair. Almost all properties of the picture are photoshopped not only to uphold Perry’s reputation but to also attract viewers from afar. Here lies this lady in lingerie and she looks perfect, and that is what magazines are trying to get at. Perfecting these images and creating such an idealistic cover page are only there to influence viewers to buy the magazines.

            Dove, a well-known beauty brand, released what is known as the “Dove Evolution” video which has attracted an enormous amount of viewers. This video shows the audience of what truly goes into the making of a billboard or any other captured image that is publicized. Within the video is a model who spends time on hair and makeup yet still gets photoshopped. Partly for the hair and makeup and mainly for how unsymmetrical her face looks. From her eyes to her neck, tiny details are photoshopped. At the end of the video there is a statement which shows on the screen and says, “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.” This statement is hard hitting and proves how deceptive our society has made beauty look upon advertisements and magazine covers.