04/10/2017
Fantastic news. Progressive move that promotes healthy, positive and realistic body image practices
In a move that body-positive advocates are calling "hugely positive," Getty Images, the world's largest photo agency, has just banned photoshopped images altering body shape! Rebecca Swift, Getty's director of creative planning, says that the agency has âseen a major increase in words like âreal lifeâ, âunstilted photographyâ and âauthenticityâ â especially around women.â By banning doctored images, she says that Getty hopes to âcreate more authentic content.â Caryn Franklin, a fashion commentator and professor of diversity at Kingston University London, hopes that bans from major organizations like Getty will encourage an overall change in creative industries like fashion: âItâs about alerting the next generation of creatives to the choices they might make around ethical presentations of womenâs bodies and the impacts that can have,â she says. âThe more people in positions of power who express opinions on behalf of all our daughters the better.â
For years, advocates have highlighted the impacts of such photoshopping on girls' self-esteem; a study released last month found that looking at photos of slim women for just 15 minutes changes viewers perception of what the "ideal body" is. The Swiss researchers asserted that "the thin ideal is the western concept of an ideally slim or underweight female body, and its omnipresence in the mass media has a negative impact on womenâs health." In addition to the adverse effects of these images on girls, Rosalie Nelson, a former British model who was urged to lose weight to get âdown to the bone,â has also spoken eloquently about dangers to the models themselves who she says are "often asked to lose excessive amounts of weight and to diet obsessively.â
The new policy from Getty âthat [photographers] do not submit to us any creative content depicting models whose body shapes have been retouched to make them look thinner or largerâ took effect on October 1, the same day as a new French law requiring all commercial images that have been retouched to change a modelâs size be clearly labeled. Although change has been slow, Nelson says that sheâs beginning to see the effects on fashion runways, most recently at London's fashion week: âAlthough there were still a lot of thin and possibly underweight models, there was a lot more diversity throughout the shows [this year],â she points out. âIâm optimistic that the whole industry will be more focused on health and body positivity in the next decade.â
Kudos to Getty on this new policy! To read more in The Guardian, visit http://bit.ly/2yDRFrE
For books for children and teens that encourage acceptance of physical diversity and appreciation of one's own body, check out our blog post, "25 Body Image Positive Books for Mighty Girls," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=10912
For an excellent book for teen girls that tackles unrealistic body expectations and explores how media and marketing perpetuate such expectations, we highly recommend "The Body Image Workbook for Teens" for ages 13 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/body-image-workbook
For an insightful parenting book that explores that impact of social media on girls, including their frequent exposure to images setting unrealistic beauty standards, we recommend "American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers" at https://www.amightygirl.com/american-girls-social-media
For an empowering guide for adult women who struggle with body image or self-confidence, we highly recommend the new book, "Beautiful You: A Daily Guide to Radical Self-Acceptance," at http://amzn.to/2qf53PZ
And, for resources for parents on encouraging a healthy self esteem and positive body image in their daughters, visit https://www.amightygirl.com/parenting/body-image-self-esteem
