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www.themaroontiger.com
September I • 7,2010
BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY 5
Has Photoshop Killed Photography?
(I) Kimora Lee Simmons walks on a runway for women’s health, (r) Simmons
appears much thinner in a print ad for a fragrance
Sescily R. Coney
Business & Tech Editor
sescilyrenee@gmail.com
A fter 14 years of making
women and girls flaunt
their “phat", Simmons has de
cided to part ways with Phat
Fashions and her beloved
Baby Phat. Simmons’s reason
ing for her abrupt departure
and removal from all creative
oversight, including the inclu
sion of her two daughters as
models, was simple - she was
ready to move on and “create
a new phenomenon.” As de
lightful and sage as that may
sound coming from a 35-year-
old mother of three, representa
tives from Baby Phat are telling
a much different tale.
According to a statement
released by a Baby Phat rep
resentative. Simmons didn't
excuse herself from the lime
light; she was fired. Kellwood
Company, the official owner
of Baby Phat, released Sim
mons because of her excessive
habit of going over the budget.
Simmons has been known to
include fees that would pay for
her and her daughters. Aoki
and Ming Lee. to appear in
company ads. The most alarm
ing. however, is the rumor that
Simmons would include the
Photoshopping and airbrush-
ing of her ad photos within
the company’s budget, forcing
them to go thousands of dollars
over their agreed amount due
to Simmons’s size 10 figure.
Included in the Photoshopping
and airbrushing fees would be
the usage of a body double,
where Simmons’s body would
be replaced with the body of
another model.
TTie Photoshopping trend
within the photography world
is nothing new. Once upon a
time .when Adobe released
Photoshop as the newest tech
nological innovation to en
hance digital photography, it
was used to fix simple mistakes
such as lighting issues or com
mon blemishes on a model.
Now, Photoshop has taken on
its own form, a form compara
ble to the fads of plastic surgery
sans the stitches and gruesome
recovery.
The effects of Photoshop
aren’t just seen through the
obsession that celebrities and
popular culture have with per
fection, but also with dramatic
physiological and psychologi
cal effects that the youngest
viewers of popular culture are
experiencing.
Girl Guides Association, a
UK-based organization that
aims to encourage photo-
shopped images to be labeled
as such, recently surveyed
1,109 girls between the ages of
11 and 21. Nearly 50% of girls
ages 16 to 21 have considered
surgery to enhance their looks
based on the images they con
stantly see, and 42% of girls
ages 11 to 16 admitted that they
closely watch what they eat.
“The ubiquitous nature of
such Photoshopped pictures in
celebrity magazines presents
young girls with ‘unobtain
able ideals’,” Liz Burnley, the
head of Girl Guides Associa
tion says. “We know how pro
foundly they feel the pressure
to conform to a particular body
image and how badly they can
be affected by these ideals.”
Photoshop hasn’t only af
fected the ideals of beauty re
garding shape or size, but it has
trickled down to the sensitive
subject of skin tone.
In 2009, when Grammy
Award-winning singer Beyon-
ce Knowles graced L’Oreal’s
Feria haircolor magazine ads,
something was a little off. Be-
yonce appeared lighter than
usual and many bloggers, such
as Dodai Stewart of “Jezebel”
speculate that marketers are
changing the skin tones of their
models to fit into society’s ideal
of “the whiter, the more suc
cessful”.
Vanessa Walter from The
Guardian states, “Advertis
ers may not be aware of how
younger girls are influenced
by images of women being air-
brushed ever lighter, skinnier,
blonder. L’Oreal has denied
that their actions were deliber
ate, but nevertheless, another
message, that the whiter you
are the more successful you
will be, has been sent.”
Men, like women, have also
been affected by the deceiving
plight of Photoshop. Maga
zines have photoshopped many
of their male models to add de
tail to biceps or to create wash
board abs. Some magazines
have even gone as far as “pull
ing a Kimora,” by using body
doubles for their models to add
sex appeal and a machismo
aura. Due to these daunting im
ages, there has been an alarm
ing growth of Bigorexia, also
known as the Adonis Complex,
a psychological disorder where
men become obsessed with the
idea that they are or aren’t mus
cular enough.
These ideals of beauty and
perfection were absent in the
hazy past of our parents and
grandparents’ youth where be
ing natural and curvy was the
epitome of sexy and pictur
esque. Women such as Marilyn
Monroe and Lena Home graced
the pages of magazines and they
were the envy of all women.
Men wanted to have the finesse
and dignity of Sidney Poitier
and Elvis Presley. In those days,
it was easy - what you saw is
what you got, nothing more or
less. In today’s popular culture,
you never know if that woman
or man on the ad is real or if she
or he is simply a figment of so
ciety’s confused and delusional
imagination.
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Skype and social responsibility
Reginauld Williams
Associate Business and Tech
Editor
rwilliamsbla@gmail.com
T he technological wave
that had boomed since
the dawn of the first com
puter in the 1970s and 1980s
has not only revolutionized
the way we communicate
but also fosters a more in
trinsic sense of closeness
between people at all dis
tances. Skype users can log
in and make phone calls
across the globe within sec
onds but its use could be a
lot more effective. Reaching
real results in government
policy has been one of the
nation’s biggest issues since
its inception. Not taking ad
vantage of the main medium
people interact with makes
this more difficult.
The difficulty itself lies
not within refusing to use
Skype, but in the fact Con
gress has banned it for al
leged security reasons. Sky
pe, as a social media tool,
allows the sharing of music
files, photographs, docu
ments and much more. The
program allows multi-per
son telephone conversations
through the web. but cur
rently only as one-on-one
video conversations that are
known as peer-to-peer (P2P)
programs as stated by CNN.
com. In 2006, a ban on all of
the P2P programs on Capi
tol Hill -- not Skype alone—
was raised and Republicans
are behind abolishing this
legislation because it is a
matter of “security” and of
cost effectiveness.
In 2008, the United States
battled with the greatest
economic downturn since
the Great Depression and
citizens are still feeling this
today. The old adage from
the Bible, Luke 12:48 goes
as follows: “For to whomso
ever much is given, of him
shall much be required: and
to whom men have commit
ted much, from him they
will ask the more.” The
same goes for those vested
in power for the good of the
nation. These new imple
mentations would increase
the House’s overall effec
tiveness. While the Repub
licans, as mentioned earlier,
posed no major adversity to
change, to much surprise,
the Democrats are the ones
opposed to the reform.
While there is already a
system for video conferenc
ing in place in the House,
its general usage and appli
cations are antiquated and
more importantly, rented.
The rental fees for these
products aren’t being paid
for by the branches of gov
ernment themselves; they
are paid for by taxpayers’
money. Your money. As
most know, Skype is a free
program for web and video
calls, and minutes can be
purchased to make interna
tional calls.
Financial security remains
a heavy national issue con
sidering gas is still in the
two dollar range, and eight
million eggs are recalled.
These problematic finan
cial concerns should reso
nate with lawmakers. At its
best, money is something
that can always be created,
but should never be taken
for granted because it isn’t
a guarantee that all invest
ments will yield promising
results.
This is exactly what Sky
pe is for Capitol Hill- an
investment. Rental is by no
means a long term applica
tion for something. When
students rent books, they
rent them to use for a spe
cific class and return them.
If it is a book they want or is
important enough, they pur
chase it. From a number’s
perspective, to continue
to rent expensive material
with money that is hard to
come by makes less sense
than purchasing something.
Common sense tells most
that, but then the question
is raised: why would the
nation’s Congress postpone
something that would help
them help us?
The length of the debate
over this has reached a mini
mum of four months. Some
representatives have used
it to connect to students or
to video conference when
they were not available to
make a live appearance-
-and it worked well for
them. CNN reports, “Even
» jl Recycle The Maroon Tiger
if the software is blocked on
their desktops, lawmakers
can use Wi-Fi networks, or
their mobile phones, to get
around the ban.” If Wi-Fi
or mobile phones are all it
takes to get around the leg
islative ban of a government
office, everyone should go
home and double padlock
their windows and doors,
because the security risk
that is such a major threat
has been outdone by the
same people who not only
make the law, but by a click
of a Wi-Fi button.
A lot of people have feed
back to this matter on the
Facebook social plug-in for
CNN.com. David Powell
had this to say regarding the
matter: “WE THE PEOPLE
can’t Skype our legislators,
but the health insurance and
oil executives have their
personal cell phone num
bers on speed dial. That’s
the real reason why legisla
tors are banned from using
Skype-- their highest bid
ders would have their power
weakened.” So for those in
power, this can serve as an
open letter regarding the
technological state of this
nation. For those who have
been given the power, the
question has been presented:
Why is Skype, a productive
social and business medium,
not acceptable for govern
ment officials? Inquiring
minds would like to know
just that.