UK Lawmakers Consider Banning Airbrushing

Getty Images.

Twiggy for Oil of Olay.
It's common knowledge that the images presented to women in fashion magazines are wholly unattainable. Aside from concerns about the models being too thin or the clothes being too expensive, there's the fact that most of the photographs have been painstakingly altered to make the less human: sans wrinkles, blemishes, and inches.

The UK's Liberal Democrats claim these images are detrimental to women. A British politician named Jo Swinson wrote in a new policy proposal, "Today's unrealistic idea of what is beautiful means that young girls are under more pressure now than they were even five years ago. Airbrushing means that adverts contain completely unattainable images that no one can live up to in real life."

Jessica Alba shooting the photo (L); the finished Campari ad (R).
To illustrate her point, Swinson pointed to advertisements featuring 59-year-old model Twiggy for Oil of Olay, and another of actress Jessica Alba modeling for Campari. The Twiggy advertisement, meant to market an anti-aging face cream, shows a woman without any natural discolorations in her face, while Alba's image appears slimmed down. Swimson notes, "The focus on women's appearance has got out of hand - no one really has perfect skin, perfect hair and a perfect figure, but women and young girls increasingly feel that nothing less than thin and perfect will do."

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