#beforeandafter

Yeah, I knew these pics before. Read about it on Huffington I think. Interesting project.
For me that one from the Philipines with the long black blowing hair and those from the US and Argentina were both are looking like dolls are the most disturbing for me.

I think the only one I didn't like was the one in the U.S. where they changed her eyes completely. (Made them slanted, when hers aren't.) Most of the changes could be achieved by the original person with makeup, but that was making structural changes. It was like saying she wasn't good enough the way she was.

The Argentina one didn't bother me, because the changes were simple makeup effects. Anyone who knows how to put on makeup knows how to make those changes without needing PhotoShop.

Oh, and the other one from the U.S. also bothered me because they scrunched her face to make it shorter. That also was saying she wasn't good enough the way she was.

Another pic I noticed when looking again is the UK pic. The face is totally symmetrical, the skin heavily retouched, the pouches unter her eyes removed. The artist even clipped her right ear to make it symmetrical to the other one. It doesn´t look natural anymore at all.
Germany is a bit pale with the red hair.

From all the 28 pics on 8 the right ear was clipped, expect for the one US pic were it seems the artist even enlarged it a bit. On 13 pics the eye pouches were removed or heavily toned down.

Removing or toning down the eye pouches is common, and even expected. I took a class in Photo Shop,and that was one thing the professor informed us of. I didn't have a problem with that, just the ones who changed what could not be naturally changed in her face through the use of cosmetics in some manner.

Yes, the severe coloration changes bothered me a little, but those effects could even be gotten from a photographic filter, so I don't feel that disturbed about them, either. It was only the changes made that made structural changes to her face that bothered me. I didn't notice the ear clipping; I'll have to take a look at those pictures again.

Edit: I noticed on this go-around that one of her ears (her left ear; the one that is on our right as we view it) sticks out a little bit with an odd fold in the middle. Three of the artists removed that odd fold, and several others covered it up in some manner. (Two with added hair, and one with the hood thing.) I didn't notice any clipping or changes to her RIGHT ear, which would be the ear on our left as we view it. I'm not sure whether you meant the ear on our right, or hers. To me that wasn't initially noticeable, but I agree, I don't like that they did it.

Still, if they were professionals, and had been hired by an agency that does PR for models or actors, they would have been expected to make similar changes. Unfortunately, the public expects famous people to be physically "perfect" (I put that in quotes because not everyone's ideal is identical), and that expectation has unfortunately set up what I think are some terrible effects in our culture.

Sorry, yes, I meant her left ear, which is the right when viewing at the pic. When we described statues we always described it from the side of the viewer.
You are right about the tendency to "perfectness" in modern society. The question is also which society? Expect for evening out the faces the only structural changes, as you called it, were made in the US pics. What tells us that about US society? The UK pic is also too good to be real.
The slanted eye US pic has one imperfection though: the right eyebrow is more curved than the other.

Another thing I noticed is the eye colour: the colour was changed in 13 pics, five of those to blue, the rest all shades between greyish-brown and brown. The two US pics have the brightest (and most unnatural) colours. One India pic has also bright blue eyes, but it fits to the other changes...

I wonder if someone sent the pic back as it was...

Eye color change doesn't bother me TOO much; that can be changed easily with contacts. When I was a teenager I wore hard contacts, and they were tinted so I wouldn't lose them. They changed my eye color just slightly, making them a bit brighter, and people always commented on the color. Clear contacts (at least at that time - not sure about now since I don't wear them anymore) weren't practical, because if one popped out you'd never be able to find it.

Many actresses and models use contacts to change their eye color when the public demands a certain look, or even when a part requires a certain eye color. So I still consider that change cosmetic, even though I would be pretty pissed off if a beauty consultant recommended to someone to change theirs to a different color.

But as I said, the cosmetic changes didn't bother me as much as the structural changes, because those were basically telling her she wasn't good enough as she was. Frankly, I thought she was a very pretty girl who only needed a little bit of makeup for enhancement, and that was it. The artists who only made minor cosmetic changes - and there were a couple of those - I think were the most honest.

Well, I took a class to do stuff like that, but I wasn't very good at it. (I'm not artistic at all.) I was good at the technical end of things, just not at being artistic. So, no. Other than the fact that I simply wouldn't have MADE most of the changes, because I thought she was already pretty!

I doubt that all of the people who altered her picture really thought she needed to be changed. If someone sent me a picture with such a request, I'd probably make changes based on what I think she wanted me to do, not based on what I think she should look like. It's an interesting experiment nonetheless.

Well, many of them made some pretty drastic changes! Which means they thought she needed improvement, and that's what I disagree with. Idril's comment about the ear clipping, for instance; does a small flaw like that in a person make her un-beautiful? It's the flaws that make the person!

The ones who made minor changes, things that could be done with a little makeup instead, those are the ones I have no objection to. They were basically telling her that she was pretty as she was, and that she could do her own enhancements to herself.

Maybe it's the psychologist in me that makes me feel this way. I just think that the way society is today (particularly the U.S., but I think other places as well), we are telling girls that they are not good enough as they are, but that they need external changes to be beautiful. And that's just wrong.

Oh yes, I agree. Take just moles that used to be seen as flaws until people like Marilyn Monroe came along.
I'd even go a bit farther and object to the "just make-up" changes as well. It's much less depreciatory than the more drastic changes, like you said, but the easiest changes are the ones you get pressured into most easily too. I know how stupid it is but sometimes I do feel guilty when I'm not wearing make-up.