Irish Daisy

So, I felt like there was something I needed to talk about after the frenzy of Halloween candy consumption and before the holiday season, with its stuffing, cookies, pies, sweets, and Bailey’s, is upon us. A two-month orgy of savory foods and delicious treats, followed by the self-imposed penance of a resolution and the resulting massive guilt if said resolution is not carried through. Here it is: Don’t go on a diet to feel better about how you look. Really, don’t. It doesn’t work anyway. I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t eat fruits and veggies, or exercise to avoid a blood clot in your leg. I’m not even saying dieting doesn’t work for weight loss – after all, we see success stories all the time in magazines. It’s just that dieting until you’re raging hangry because you just know you’ll feel better about your thighs, or belly, or butt if only you could fit into size 6 pants…yeah, that might not turn out like you think. Your…trouble spot will get smaller and the scale will show...

Photoshop is a thing. Its use is ubiquitous and pervasive and it's affecting all of our lives more than we realize. Other than your own family pictures, you never see a photo that you know for sure has not been retouched, or radically changed, through the wonders of photo editing software  (that is, unless you used one of those handy new apps to smooth out and model-fy your own pictures too - you didn't, did you?) We never see photos in magazines that have not been altered in some way - never - not even the red carpet or vacation pictures that both the media, magazines and celebrities like to pretend are semi-candid. Everything is altered or adjusted, and the most common changes are the most insidious. They smooth the skin, removing lines, wrinkles, random hairs, flaws. They make everyone, but especially women, look thinner. There's a lot of ways to do this - skimming the waist, thighs and general silhouette, but also elongating necks, stretching legs, and whittling arm...