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Image Pressure

June 1, 2007

Pressure on having the “look” faces both men and women. It's also prominent in the Christian Music industry - read this heart-wrenching exchange between Christian music artists called Coming Clean. Here is an excerpt:

Awhile back, I asked CCM if I could write this story. I felt…still feel…uneasy about that photo shoot princess moment. Not because there’s anything wrong with feeling momentarily flawless…but because that photo and many like it, in no way represent my real life. I feel rather nauseous when I consider the young girl who sees that photo and has no idea that it took 5 hours and an entire team of makeup artists and stylists to make me look like a princess. She also has no idea that even after all that, somebody sat at a computer (with my enthusiastic blessing) and point and clicked away my acne scars, my 35 year old wrinkles and the roll of flesh around my middle that makes me look like I am perpetually stuck in my 2nd trimester.

This doesn't affect women alone, note what Chris Tomlin says at the end of the article.

Want to read more about doctored magazine covers - Check this out - it will make you feel better.

The June/July issue of Men's Fitness enhanced Andy Roddick's bicep muscles -- so much so that Roddick said he stopped in his tracks when he saw the cover while walking through the airport. The tennis star dubbed the hulking masses “22-inch guns” and wrote on his blog, “If you can manage to stop laughing at the cover long enough, check out the article inside.”