The Reality of Facetune

Body positivity is something many girls and guys discuss and post about online. Being confident is something everyone in the world struggles with. In today’s society with people being obsessed with girls/guys bodies that they see uploaded online, it creates an image in everyone’s mind of what they’re expected to look like. This generates many stereotypes for what a girl or guy should look like, but the sad reality is many of the influencers and models people look up to don’t actually look so flawless and perfect like they do in their photos.

In today’s society, everyone has become so caught up in admiring people online, that they don’t think about the fact that their favorite celebrities are photoshopping themselves.

Many influencers seen on Instagram don’t have the bodies or looks they do in person as online because they use the Factune app so constantly.

Photoshop and photo editing may seem innocent at first, but as Amanda Steele points out, it can be really detrimental to an influencer’s audience. “When we see unrealistic images presented as reality, it can make us think less of our own lives,” she told Jessica Tholmer from Hello Giggles.

Influencers with huge followings may sit and preach about loving yourself and your flaws and saying how important it is to be confident, but they are the ones posting incredibly edited photos. This gives society the wrong idea of what people look like and makes everyone think they need to look a certain way to be beautiful.

If people used their platforms and posted what they look like on a daily basis with no filters or editing it would be a different story. Even though many influencers will admit to enhancing their photos with Facetune, not everyone does and they’re making their audience believe they’re somebody that they’re not.

Along with Influencers this issue of photoshop affects celebrities who will attend photoshoots and have photos posted of them that are completely edited. Many celebrities don’t speak out about the issue and let people believe that is how they look, but some celebrities have a big problem with being lied to about their photos.

“That [Cosmopolitan Philippines] would…manipulate our bodies when we are literally preaching body positivity is so personally insulting, and it’s also insulting to the readers,” Camila Mendes told Lucy Yang from Insider. “You’re spreading a false message about what people look like, you know? If my waist was that slim then great, do whatever you want, but it’s not!”

This social media platform is loved by people all over the world. Though many people enjoy posting photos of themselves that may not represent what they look like nor the lives they live, everyones free to post what they’d like.

This app is easy to use for everyone and has been downloaded millions of times. It gives users the power to edit and morph themselves to look any way they’d like. It’s a bit scary how much one app can change the appearance of someone in a photo.

Episode 4: Instagram vs reality - body image in a social media age, with Emily Fisher

James Charles is a beauty guru who openly discusses how he uses factune and has uploaded multiple videos of facetuning his own photos and even his own fans photos. He doesn’t hide the fact he facetunes his makeup and even body.

It’s truly heartbreaking how society has created an image of what men and women need to look like in order to be considered beautiful. We have models and influencers getting paid to post photos of themselves looking as if they have no flaws at all while preaching about body positivity.

This issue will never be fixed if more influencers and celebrities don’t step up and speak up about confidence and embracing who we are. It’s beyond important to be comfortable in your own skin, but in today’s world it’s almost impossible to do so when seeing how people look online. A change needs to be made so that men and women can learn to love themselves. People should not constantly feel like they need to edit their photos, starve themselves or go as far as getting surgeries in order to be happy, beautiful or even find love. The world is a scary and dark place but if we start making changes to push for body positivity it can become a little bit lighter for us all.

References

Sparks, H., & Weiss, S. (2018, July 17). Every sexy bikini photo you see is probably fake. Retrieved April 25, 2019, from https://nypost.com/2018/07/16/every-sexy-bikini-photo-you-see-is-probably-fake/

Tholmer, J. (2017, July 29). Amanda Steele isn’t here for other Instagram influencers photoshopping their pics. Retrieved April 25, 2019, from https://hellogiggles.com/beauty/amanda-steele-instagram-influencers-photoshopping/

Yang, L. (2019, March 01). 18 celebrities who have spoken out against photo editing. Retrieved April 25, 2019, from https://www.insider.com/celebrities-photoshopped-edited-pictures-photos-2017-8