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Photoshop Alert: Norway requires to declare the use of filters in photos

That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for (social media’s) mankind?

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In today's Instagram jungle, overcrowded with perfect faces, smooth thighs, soft bosoms and sinuous legs, you can easily get lost, and turn into a digital prey, torn apart by their unrealistic body standards.

Kendall’s, Hailey’s, Bella’s...  bikini bodies keep on chasing us, making us dream of a sweet Dolce Vita, but also subjecting us to a sort of constant competition with ourselves: no trace of body fat, nor acne or cellulite, not even a single white hair in sight, while we may experience pre-cycle retention, a few strees-fuelled pimples, a not-so-fresh manicure…

 
 
 
 
 
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Un post condiviso da Hailey Rhode Baldwin Bieber (@haileybieber)

The revenge towards these revenge bodies? Norway seems to have found it, and it is both simple and surprising. Anyone who wants to post a photo of theirselves on Instagram will have to report if this has been retouched by Photoshop or any similar app.

If once there was “Parental Advisory” to keep children away from sex, drugs & rock'n'roll content, nowadays substituted by the #ad hashtag, which turned IG into a constant episode of “Il Carosello”,  the future might reside into the Photoshop alert.

The new Scandinavian legislation will come into force in 2022, and will involve companies first, and then influencers. It will be necessary to report all types of filters and changes applied to both body and face, from complexion’s variations to body size’s measurements.

The initiative was supported with great enthusiasm by two Norwegian influencers, Janka Polliani and Kristin Gjelsvik, who have long been super cool ambassadors of an irresistible pastel aesthetic, typical of Scandinavian influencers, but which is combined with a delicate and sincere body positivity.

The excessive use of filters by the supermodels and influencers themselves [see Bella Hadid, or Kim Kardashian, or Taylor Mega, or ... (this list could tend to infinity as a mathematical function)] denotes how social media have completely distorted the concept of spontaneity, and have never believed in genuine body positivity.

If before the body dysmorphia, an erroneous perception of one's body conditioned by the continuous visual stimula of other perfect bodies that we see every day, was caused by fashion magazines, now it is triggered by social media.

Even Bella Hadid and Kylie Jenner, who clearly recurred to plastic surgery in order to have goddess-like faces and shapes, constantly use IG filters while filming themsleves during backstages or off-duty moments: their post-surgery faces are not enough, they need even more sculpted cheekbones, elongated eyes, plump lips. It’s like the supermodel’s paradox: filtered by surgery and Instagram, by Photoshop, by makeup, by lights, in a utopian search for a non-existent perfection.

 
 
 
 
 
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Un post condiviso da Acrimònia Magazine (@acrimoniamagazine)

This is also why many body realness accounts popped out on Instagram. They compare the glossy photos of social media to the stolen shots of the paparazzi. Last Valentine's Day, Kendall Jenner raised a media fuss with her mirror selfie while on set of the Skims all-heart campaign.

Kilometric legs, very sinuous curves, very long hair and a doll face: the almost naked Kendall on display on social media is too good to be true, as reported by many users on Twitter or by IG profiles such as @problematicfame.

 
 
 
 
 
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Un post condiviso da problematicfame (@problematicfame)

Perhaps it is even better to find a Photoshop memento before the photos, it would help us to take everything with more irony, and to have a good genuine laugh at retouching epic fails such as Kim Kardashian’s, who appeared to have an extra toe, or Shakira, who defied the laws of physics while reshaping her curves.

Nobody would forbid us from wanting to appear as the best version of ourselves, but it would certainly help all of us to understand that in the end social networks are a fun and fantastic game, but still a game.

 
 
 
 
 
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Un post condiviso da problematicfame (@problematicfame)