Daily Times

Picture perfect, air brushed faces without a blemish, our Instagram is plastered with doll-like faces.

All of them look like wax models that walked out of Madame Tussauds.Like a human without a soul, why does their face look so plastic? Knowingly or unknowingly, we have now accustomed our eyes to admire plastic imagery. Anything that looks raw or slightly unfinished, doesn’t land into our list of the most beautiful. We hate texture, scars, marks or anything that gives us a hint of reality. The best way to deal with a scar is to air brush it, like it never existed. We’re creating insecure monsters with our new found obsession with Photoshop, filters and beauty apps that make people look less human and more alien. Our delusional minds then want to think and make other believe that we’re the people in the picture, when actually, it’s us behind several layers of unrealistic filters. Our idea of beauty is vague.It has been dictated to us over the years or we simply took those glossy magazines too seriously. Time and again, celebrities, models, bloggers and a squad of real people have reminded us how their own images and life portrayed for social media has been fake, but most of us rather believe pictures than anything else. If hiding behind filters wasn’t enough, people then try to match their unrealistic idea of beauty through surgeries if their pocket allows them to.

Actress Sonam Kapoor-Ahuja once dared to break the illusion by posting a picture of herself in the makeup room during a shoot. Her caption was,”I need colour correction as well!”

She also added a long caption explaining how non-viable beauty standards are set for people to rave over.

Many celebrities who understand the whole concept and the impact of it have taken a stand against the culture by posting makeup-free pictures of themselves to give people a touch of reality. Reality TV star and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian-West recently shared a morning selfie of herself in bed, bravely revealing ‘morning psoriasis’ as the skin ailment spread to her face

This was also to shatter the unrealistic graph most people wish to reach while scrolling through celebrity pictures, being depressed over another woman’s waist, skin and flawless figure. SonamKapoor-Ahuja concluded her caption with this line,”Let’s break the cosmetic industry standard and be beautiful the way we are.”

Many celebrities who understand the whole concept and the impact of it have taken a stand against the culture by posting a makeup-free picture of themselves to give people a touch of reality. Reality TV star and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian-West recently shared a morning selfie of herself in bed, bravely revealing ‘morning psoriasis’ as the skin ailment spread to her face. Kim Kardashian-West is a highly followed ‘body type’ and most people go to immeasurable lengths to look like her. She went ahead and popped that bubble for people who think celebrities are ageless and flawless.

There are several more examples of celebrities that tried helping the audience understand the reality of airbrushed images for social media by posting their own raw and unedited pictures. Celebrities do a lot to keep things in check;from strict diets to hardcore workout routines, tiring work hours and then the need to be pampered after a long day of work. It’s mere foolishness to try to match up to their lifestyles without the understanding of their struggles behind the reel.

The writer can be reached at zarimua@gmail.com