Recent studies find with the alteration of the vast majority of images presented to the public, the public’s perception of what classifies a normal body becomes altered as well. The impression perceived by a culture from its media sets the standard of what the culture will find acceptable, and unreal standards create unhealthy endeavors to reach those goals. Fashion magazines and other image featuring media should have restrictions to hinder their capabilities to photoshop their models’ physique.

The edited figures found in the media create an idealization of unattainable body goals. Research finds that the presence of photoshopped images occurs so often some are unable to identify the abnormalities found within the edited human beings’ bodies which creates a fake reality concerning how people feel they should look. In fact, an experiment held by Girlguiding UK, a UK version of the American Girl Scouts, found that within the 3,200 women they surveyed, “over half of 16- to 25-year-olds” were made to feel by the media that “‘being pretty and thin’ were the ‘most important thing’” and a quarter, ages “ten to 15[,] said the same”(Bawdon). It is said by the age of seventeen, a person will have seen “250,000 commercial images” most have been edited in some way, and if all that is found in magazines or on television are bony and blemish free models, then it gives an illusion that everyone should unrealistically look bony and blemish free(McKeon).  Additionally, a trend found in the media of editing ill or underweight models so that they appear healthier has become extremely popular (Bawdon). Not only does this affect how the public believes they need to look but also puts pressure on models to become thinner or to maintain their impractical weight. One unnamed writer explained that the fashion world “ was ‘numb’” about its models, “‘failing to see whether they are healthy or not’” as the fashion industry looks at them as “‘clothes hangers’”(Bawdon). Terrible. But airbrushing away prominent ribs and protruding hips bones does not make them disappear but only solidifies how ridiculous the body standards set by the media are as models have to be as skinny as a skeleton but hide the effects that come with that skeletal figure. Finally, the effects of constantly seeing perfect models needs considered. Everyone wants to fit in, and if the majority of people strive to possess the body set by models, then the minority must also agree or be considered unusual. The fashion industry decides what “beautiful is” even if that “[beauty is] impossible because it’s computer-generated”(McKeon). Professor Janet Treasure, director of the Eating Disorder Unit and Professor of Psychiatry at University College London, found that “looking at pictures of thin [people] reduces self-esteem”(Bawdon). Treasure introduces the parallel between the reason for lowering self-esteem and the increasing number of eating disorders. Though blaming the increase of eating disorders completely on the media is unfair, it must be considered. All around, the societal pressure to be perfect, maintained and nurtured by the media, affects viewers, models and actors, and other forms of media in a deeply negative way, but with regulations concerning what can be portrayed without a warning in magazines, ads, and other modes of visual communication in place, the harm disappears.

Even though an abundance of irrefutable research supporting the psychological and physical damage caused by the media portraying unreal bodies as real and attainable exist, some believe the media has no effect on the public and their body image. It is true that some who suffer from body dysmorphia and eating disorders have been affected by a genetic disposition or a past traumatic event; however, the combination of a person’s existing reasons with the media’s celebration of “skinny bodies over all other types” creates a tangible rise in sufferers(Bawdon). “Eating disorder sufferers wonder: ‘How come it’s OK for celebrities to look like that and not me? How come they’re being celebrated on the front of a magazine and I’m in hospital being told I’m going to die?”(Bawdon). Regulations placed on magazines would protect the unafflicted and assist the afflicted heal from their body dysmorphia.

The media possesses a huge impact on how people see themselves and others. If media features only skinny, perfect bodies, mostly created by photoshop, then people will endeavor to reach these unhealthy bodies and usually develop health risks; including those working in the media who are continually pressured to keep the popular bony look or lose their jobs. With photoshop regulations put in place, the media will be forced to show real bodies and end the idea that the body needs perfected. To end the cycle of seeing unreal bodies then striving for them regulations must be placed on what the media can show without including a warning stating that the image is not natural.