Photoshop

Some magazine covers have crossed the line!

It is one thing to remove “warts and all” but it is another to recreate a late thirties celebrity to look like she just had her debut last week by altering her image through the computer.

For sometime now, people have been talking about the magic of computer imaging or re-imaging or what people generally call “Photoshop”. For studios, ad agencies as well as their clients, photoshop is a blessing that gives them powers only limited by their creativity. For business people, Photoshop has simplified and cut the cost of imaging and advertising because they no longer need to do a lot of the physical work or reconstruction of scenes in case something is not right with their results.

A lot of mere mortals totally love photoshop because it enhances their looks, sculpts’ their figure and creates an improved visual version of the subject or the model. But when media uses technology to turn what they consider “ugly reality of age” and transform mature subjects into teeny-bopper looking characters we can no longer recognize, we have to slam on the breaks and ask why?

I have more than once gotten into trouble for questioning why people or men and women (to avoid being accused of gender prejudice) have to be portrayed or act themselves out 20 to 30 years younger than their age?

Before you form a lynch mob to go after me, please ask yourself: what’s wrong with who you are and how you look?

I can hear the echo all the way hear…”I’m fat”, “I’m dark”, “I’m short”, “I’m old”……

In case you never realized it, most of the people in world you live in have known that long ago, but have accepted you for who you are.....”warts and all”. Yes you want to look nicer or maybe you just want to feel better about yourself. Maybe even pretend to be somebody else.

But do you realize the potential consequences of your visual or physical alteration?

Where do we draw the line between art and misrepresentation? And what message are we sending to people regarding our standards of beauty and reality?

Is it enough to say that photoshop like magic is nothing but a trick so we should never believe what we see?

Consider how media and crime seems to always meet at the cross-roads. I remember a time when one of the popular gimmicks of noon time shows were to feature children as “Beauty queens”. No one thought much of it, some even said the kids looked cute and sounded cute.

Unfortunately drug crazed individuals whose brains had been warped by “Meth” started seeing the kiddie beauty queens as sex objects. It did not take long before statistics began to pile up about little girls being raped and brutally murdered with steel pipes, hollow blocks, rocks etc.

That was all about altered looks and altered minds.

We Filipinos have a derisive phrase about people trying to look young and acting young…”Namumulang kamatis” referring to the physical manifestation of how a tomato gradually turns red while ripening. It is part humor, part sexual derision.

But imagine the consequence of such behavior in a household where the father or the mother behaves or dresses up like “they” were the adolescent and not the adult? We certainly love to pick up western ideas particularly from American media, but regrettably, we are not all mature enough to understand the consequence.

Many western influenced Pinoy parents picked up how to be “cool” with your kids ideas, but overlooked that those ideas were for western kids who were not raised like Filipino kids. Ideas like, “act like them, sound like them, think like them”.

A lot of the Pinoy kids liked these cool parents except the children of Mr. and Mrs. Cool. By being cool parents, they often made their kids “Un-cool”. Half the time they made things worse because if they did not register as “cool” parents they were thought to be “Fool” parents that made their kids the laughing stock.

How many people do you know have gotten into ugly situations because of a “Hot” Mom?  I can remember several girls/ladies whose love lives were a wreck because of their sexy and cool Mom. The girls/ladies always ended up being compared by their friends or potential boyfriends to their “Hot” mom.

Not a few young men have been in brawls or broken friendships because their best friend or barkadas simply expressed their thoughts or even fantasies about “Hot Momma”. Needless to say, in such a conservative country, “Hot Mommas” unfairly fall into ill–repute. Sadly the children also pay a price for the actions of their parents.

If “Mom” sets the standard of “Hotness” it is no surprise that the daughter is pressured to compete, comply or surpass the standard. You don’t have to be a “Bad Mom” to cause a crisis. Most people are just too busy doing their “thing”.

I am not saying that moms should adopt the Islamic fashion style, I’m simply suggesting that some parents grow up or at least try to be consequence-sensitive. The worst thing for a daughter is to have to “compete” with someone who should be her “best friend” not her high school or college buddy!

It’s just as worse if not more for the kids of “Mr. Cool” who uses what could be his kids college funds so he can drive around in a new model Sports car, wear signature clothes, and regularly show off his wealth by giving treats to people his kid’s age.

No one really bothers to ask or research about it, but try to imagine how painful it is for a young adult to be compared to his “cool” or “galante = generous” Dad. How can a mere student on a fixed allowance compete with the very source of his financial support. It’s a no-contest situation that obliterates the social life of the kids!

No one sets out to raise a family of smokers, a family of gamblers, or a family of womanizers, or abusive spouses. Some one just did it and set the example, which became the standard, which became the lifestyle, which became the curse!

After the image comes the consequence of “having a reputation”. Remember what people often say…”Like Father, Like Son..” “The fruit never falls far from the tree…

No Photoshop could ever improve the words…”I love you just the way you are”.