Wow. Really, wow. To take a naturally pretty girl, then change her so much as to almost make her unrecognizeable. I didn't realize how much changing goes in to the final product-thinning the neck, making the eyes larger, etc. And I truly didn't find the finished "product" all that appealing, anyway. Great post, lonefrontranger, thank you very much.

No wai! So now I can photoshop my actual body? With a bar of soap? I've had to settle for photoshoping pictures of myself and showing them to people, but those days are over! w00t! What else does this soap work on? My boss is pretty ugly. Can I photoshop him with it? How about the scratches on the piemobile?

I have a friend who's a model (here she is). A very attractive woman, but not knock-out stunningly beautiful. She showed me her portfolio once and I couldn't believe it was her in most of the photos, such was the skill and trickery of hair, clothes, makeup and Photoshop.

Whoah! That's all I can say. I don't have anything profound or even interesting to add. I will say I appreciate the "real" people in my life all the more.

This isn't anything new. You think real Greeks that argued with Socrates looked like models for the Elgin Marbles? Ideals are more than natural, more than real, more than attainable, almost by definition. Ideals have long served a cultural function, which is simply to objectify traits deemed desireable by the larger society for whom the ideal is created. Sloping foreheads were big in Egypt in some ancient times, but the fashion does not appeal to most of us moderns. Times change and so do the norms of human beauty, and often what is considered beautiful is wildly different over a few hundred miles of geography.

That's never stopped pretty people from trying to be prettier, and ugly people from trying to be less ugly. Woe to me are my stumpy legs and ham fists, and head too big for hats. But I don't begrudge supermodels their impossible cheekbones, and if I could choose different shoulders to sit under this ungainly cranium of mine, everyone, including me, would be so much happier.

I'm sure it's already been seen / commented on / doubled / whatever.

Yep, posted once and doubled.

Today's bland, generic pretty faces lack all of the wonderful character of actors and actresses from "back in the day." Why not just CG-animate models? Or create realistic, ultra-poseable mannequins?

And you're quite the cutie, lonefront. Sorry, I hope that wasn't a boyzone comment.