digital bust reduction

From an article in the times Monday, May 30, 2005

"Prim hollywood's digital boob jobs

Hollywood is downsizing its assets. lindsey lohan, teenage star of the forthcoming disney movie 'Herbie: fully loaded' has become the latest actress to have her bustline digitally reduced to avoid offending audiences. [...] reports from test screenings indicated that some parents felt she came across as somewhat sensual for a family-oriented film.

disney technicians went through scenes showing the actress jumping up and down at a motor racing track and altered them with a computer program - reducing her bust by up to two cup sizes and raising the necklines on her t-shirts.

[...]

lohan isn't the only actress to have had her body shape altered by hollywood's computer wizards. angelina jolie was 'trimmed' in a scene from the forthcoming film 'mr and mrs smith' [...] 'she did her own stunts but there was a bit of loose bosomry we had to tidy up and flatten down'.

[...]

paul dergarabedian of exhibitor relations which gauges audience reactions to movies said [..] 'breasts are fine in pg films providing they are discreet and no larger than a c-cup [...] anything more formidable is reserved for films aimed at teenage boys, unless they are action heroines like carrie-anne moss of the matrix, in which case the women are supposed to be slim and athletic. there are a lot of mixed messages now'. "

now i am not naive to hollywood's (and society's) obsession with dictating what is an 'acceptable female body' - one would be pretty stupid not to notice this. but am i alone in thinking this is beyond pathetic? that boobs bigger than a c-cup should be reserved for titillation of teenage boys only? what message is that giving developing teenage girls? if you have tits you are only there to make the boys horny, otherwise don't bother aspiring to 'wholesome' or 'heroic'.

 
and so body fascism takes another bizarre turn.  if it isn't enough that actresses starve themselves and ruin their health, technology steps in to make them even more unnatural and unreal, thus the pressure on us to conform is even more horrendously unreachable.

not that i am a conformer! but it's not 100% easy to escape the fire!
 
this leads me onto my phd thesis:
 
there are tons of magazines which centre around obsession with the celebrity body - you get the heat style, they are too fat, too thin, have cellulite etcetcetc...this leads onto the 'look! this celeb lost weight on this diet! you can do it too!' and then there will be the 'is this celeb going to far? look how skinny they are' stories. 

it is being more and more rammed down our throats & it is no coincidence that 'the obesity crisis' is ever growing on the back of this. i believe that this so-called 'obesity crisis' is in fact a myth and a moral panic. the majority of the 'facts' involved are totally fabricated or exaggerated to such an extent that the centre for disease control got it wrong by 250,000 deaths!!!!! they exaggerated 14 times the 'true' figure!

though obesity if at all 'real' is an 'extreme', saying that it is growing into a pandemic is suggesting otherwise. and this  links into the diet industry (who fund these studies) and the way the media, government and general society prey on the insecurities of women - yes men too, but largely women.

my study will look at the effects of all this on women's body image and specifically will use these magazines as a research tool because the readership grows all the time - and our tv schedules are full of programmes looking at health from the perspective of 'fat' and not just bodily health (as if thin people are automatically fit and healthy).
 
in an ideal world, we could all just 'be ourselves' and like what we like in other people without resorting to unhealthy practices and accusations of assumed unhealthy practices (by the is mean thin = ideal therefore ok, fat = unattractive therefore lazy, unfit, unhealthy, which is the basic assumption). unfortunately it is so drummed into us...i think the reason why there is so much fear and hatred aimed at those who aren't thin (and in some respects to those who are!) is that it feeds into an innate fear in all of us. either we are what is considered unattractive or fear we could become that. and our self worth is strongly based on the opinion and validation of others, as much as we try to make it not so.
 
unfortunately, this society is based on the innate human reaction to judge. and the judgement here is that if we do not conform to the body 'ideal' (which in fact is incredibly unhealthy on many levels), we are social pariahs who should be doing our utmost to reach the ideal and therefore acceptance. if not we are lazy, uncontrolled, over indulgent etc etc etc.
 
i have to be hopeful that things will change - after all there have been periods of time and societies that praised the voluptuous figure - because otherwise....well, complacency and acceptance of crapness isn't good enough. however it is a massive struggle that keeps escalating against the side of the natural and healthy. after all, now boobs are being judged in a whole other way.
Posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 at 11:08AM by Registered Commenterculture schlock | Comments2 Comments