POLITICIANS, PSYCHOLOGISTS AND other experts with an interest in the area will come together at seminar this week to discuss ways to tackle body image problems caused by the practise of airbrushing in print and online media outlets.
The meeting is being hosted this Friday in Dublin by MEP Nessa Childers, who has proposed that airbrushed photos used in magazines and elsewhere should be labelled as such, so that people know the images aren’t real.
Childers, who worked as a psychotherapist for 25 years before entering the European Parliament, said she had seen an increasing variety of people across all age categories come forward with body image issues during her time in practice.
“I think we have to acknowledge that this is an issue for both girls and boys — not only young people in fact, but across all age groups.”
Childers said the fact that such images had become a part of day-to-day life was a major problem, in that people were accepting, even subliminally, that idealised versions of the human body were the norm.
“I myself would have been unaware that some of these pictures are airbrushed. In a way it’s really serious, and amounts to a form of trickery or even fraud”.
The MEP said that a range of ways to address the issue would be discussed at Friday’s event, and that others attending would likely put forward their own solutions.
In terms of putting together a system whereby photos of airbrushed models would be labelled, she said that media editors and journalists needed to “reflect on the issue,” and that publishers should “get together” to draw up guidelines in the area.
The above video, which shows in eye-opening detail how airbrushing and other effects can be used, garnered worldwide attention earlier this year (Youtube: President of the World)
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