The Pornography of Photography
by Kimberly Bozeman

In the last year Britain has placed a ban on airbrushed photographs in advertisements targeted at children that portray “overly perfected and unrealistic images” of women. The Liberal Democratic Party proposed the ban this past fall in order to raise discussion and awareness around the constant misrepresentation of women in media. With unrealistic ideals of beauty constantly portrayed in advertisements, the party found an unacceptable current trivializing a woman’s place in society. By taking this action, Britain has created a huge milestone in the combat against falsehood in advertising, and France is not far behind.

Image courtesy of Alysse Fischer

French parliament is in the works to pass a law this spring requiring warning labels to be placed on advertisements and images that have been retouched. Conservative parliamentarian Valérie Boyer finds retouched photographs to be a detriment to reality and proposed the law to provide a sort of accountability to the media. Mirroring labels like those found on food or cigarettes that contain anything detrimental to physical health is an idea Boyer thinks should be applied to emotional health. If a photograph has been changed from its original form people have the right to know.

Boyer’s stride to tell the truth goes beyond the simple airbrushing in advertising and takes on photographic art as a whole. The proposal states if companies fail to do so they can be fined up to $55,000. But why place such a high price on a cut-and-paste image?

The price isn’t for the image alone but what the image portrays — an altered and unattainable reality. Boyer suggests those flawless curves and sexy eyelashes seen in advertisements only create an aura of happiness lasting about as long as it took for the shutter to snap the picture. Even with the right combination of beauty products, hair extensions and cosmetic surgery, women are left on the street searching for the next hit of altered image reality.

Part of every advertisement is promoting a product and part of every advertisement is telling a lie. Each one specifically designed with a lure selling the idea that a brand, product or company is intrinsic to attaining an improved quality of life. But the cost is always more than bargained for when it comes to self-image.

Beauty is not a bottle of makeup or thick black eyeliner. It is not a two-dimensional image of three different women to create an impeccable image of one perfect woman.  Beauty lasts longer than 1/1000 of a second and is more than the size of your jeans. Government action is a huge act, but merely an echo of the first steps in claiming real beauty.

Watching young girls strive for an excellence that’s digitally created is what caught Boyer’s attention. As a mother of two teenage girls, Boyer found the issue vital and recently stated in a New York Times article, “It’s the closeness I have to adolescents that drove me to become interested in these subjects.” Through her efforts, Boyer shows that standards need to be altered, not images.

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