Glitch! Body Image
As a young woman in today’s society, I have experienced the ups and downs (but mostly downs) of self-esteem and body image. Though body image acceptance is promoted more today than 10 years ago, publications claiming to promote body image continue to bolster the same size 6 women who are considered “plus size”. I once was a size 6 before the reality of the Freshman 15, but I genuinely believed myself to be fat, obese even. Looking back on pictures of myself, I see that I was blindsided to the brainwashing of Hollywood and media. I was not fat, and in fact, I would KILL to be a size 6 again. Though I have learned to be more confident with my current size (and I still don’t qualify as plus size), I still lack confidence and self-esteem that women should be able to possess. My Glitch! image reflects my personal struggle and likely many other women’s struggles with body image.
I began with an image of a Barbie doll that I added my own smiling face onto. I superimposed my face into this image because it personalizes the struggle of body image; it puts my face on the body I wish I could have, unrealistically. I chose an image of a Barbie with a bikini because it emphasizes her unrealistic body proportions.
Using Georg Fischer’s glitch art tool, I edited the image. By manipulating the image’s “Amount”, “Seed”, “Iterations” and “Quality”, I was able to alter the image to make a comment on body image and society’s pressure on young women to look a certain way.
Image A on the left is a distortion of the “perfect” Barbie body. The distortion of my face along with the image to me, references how my body image affected my perception of myself and the way I look. My self-esteem affects not only how I view my body, but also my face. The dark tones shown in this glitched image reflected the somberness and darkness of my negative view of myself. In my opinion, the dark tones leading up to the lighter colors on my face represent the way I feel after improving my body image. As I improve the way I view myself and attempt to end comparisons between my body and the Hollywood A-List, I become happier, hence the white color on my face. The dark colors hide the “perfect” body, while the light illuminates my new body positivity.
The image on the right (Image B) reflects the jealousy and “green monster” we as women can feel towards the women the media favors. These women, with their “perfect” size 00–2 bodies, hourglass figures and perky breasts are the normal woman’s enemy. Their constant appearance in the media makes it hard for women and girls of all ages to view themselves as beautiful. All body sizes are beautiful, but Hollywood and the media glorify the thin. This body perception is further displayed in toys for girls, ingraining the “perfect body” idea at a young age (see, for example, a Barbie doll). Unlike Image A, darker colors are seen on my face and green envelops the body as we are enveloped with pangs of jealousy, whether large and small. This isn’t to say that all women and girls are jealous of the Barbie body, but I personally have experienced the “green monster” in this arena.
My Glitch! pieces are a commentary on body image, specifically for women, in the media. It is time for the world to accept women (and people) of all sizes, and stop pretending to. A size 6 is not plus-sized. Plus-sized is not a bad thing. And while the media and toy developers are improving, there is still a ways to go. Society needs to teach our sisters, daughters, friends, etc. to love themselves for who they are.
