In The Process, From Illustration To Real Model, We Try Our Best To Find The

In the process, from illustration to real model, we try our best to find the proportional standard, which makes models appear to be very tall and thin. Only this could lead to the proportion of '8 heads' or '9 heads' between body and head. However, since most people do not have the height of model, these representations are unrealistic for them.
The actual statistics for young women between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four are nothing like those for supermodels. For example, a young woman in this age bracket has perhaps a seven percent opportunity of having the svelte appearance of a catwalk modeland a one percent chance of being as thin as a supermodel! However, this does not deter the media from continuing to create an impractical standard of female proportions for the majority of women. According to Sandra Gavard, 'the progress made in the field of computer-manipulated images has created a new world of representation'. The average viewer has no way of knowing when an image has been digitally manipulated, or is in fact a realistic representation. This is particularly damaging for young, impressionable women of today. 'Based on the imagery of movie stills and fashion shots', Gavard continues, 'the image of woman as it is seen in popular culture imposes a stereotyped image of an ideological body' (2005).
The Powerful Message and the Beauty Economic
Although the ideal body images that are created and tweaked by media are distorted and unattainable, they still have a powerful impact on us. According to Gavard, 'photographs are today manipulated using computer technology. It is a quick and cheap process, and the results can be striking'and lifelike. 'Life is becoming an impossibly perfect model almost always digitally retouched, smoothed out and airbrushed', notes Gavard. Messages like this damage self-image, promote unrealistic standards, and encourage harmful behaviorsobviously, someone must be profiting.

The Economic Factor
Notions of the ideal body are closely linked with the economy. In the case of diet industry, a huge amount of money is generated from the sale of weight loss gimmicks which may or may not work. The diet industry depends on the continued obsession with excessive thinness to stay alive. Dissatisfied women are big business for them. Keeping them temporarily sated with gimmicks is part of the cycle. Therefore, keeping this obsession alive means continued high profitsand ultimately, that is the bottom line. Advertisers have always been successful with their marketing strategy. The product or equipment that they want to sell could make women to be thinner, better and more popular. And the physical appearance is apparently the ultimate standard by which a woman's value is judge in this world. The media continually bombards us with the message that women should be sexually attractive to successful and happy. For this requirement, an ideal weight is extremely important.