Sunday 11 April 2010

I am real

"...Likewise, if you look “just nice” in person, you will look “a bit on the plump side” in photos. True, there’s this operating theatre known as Photoshop and we can always perform digital surgery on ourselves."

I usually give credit when I quote from blogs, but not today. In this person's defence, the end of the article is more in defence of not having to skinny down. But still..

Photoshopping...really?! I read this and was astonished.

For me, the blogging world is somewhere we can turn to to follow examples of real people. Of real people, away from the bright lights and high expectations of the glossy pages.

But us real girls get belly rolls when we sit down, our skin isn't always clear, our arms do a little bingo wing jiggling when we wave, and patterned socks distort over our calves. This is all oh so true for me; but my god, I am so deliriously happy with myself right now.

Underneath hair dye, make up, eccentric clothes, high heels and hold em up and in bras, we are just girls. We are girls that make mistakes. We are girls that succeed. We are girls that write. When we go to bed we are nothing but our natural state. And it is essential that we are happy like that, because otherwise, what exactly are we happy with?

So to those of you who photoshop before you reveal, please feel free to go ahead. I must say, it's a mighty skill to be able to use this software so effectively. I have minus amounts of skill in this department...even if I wanted to photoshop myself, I couldn't. Well done for perfecting this art, as art it is, just as it is art when we sculpt our hair and paint our faces.

But now, with my 12 megapixel Holly, I promise you that I will never, ever, photoshop photos of myself.

Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! — I have as much soul as you — and full as much heart!