Rather than address the assertions you are making here, I would just like to add how technology plays a role in the "impossible" beauty standards these days. With Photoshop and other photo editing software, it is now possible to create images that do not accurately represent real people.

When you look at the "before" and "after" images of photos that have been Photoshopped, it's quite amazing what can be done--lengthening necks, slimming everything, enlarging eyes, smoothing out skin, thickening hair, etc.

I very distinctly remember a comment a friend made to me many years ago when I was in college. I was looking at a magazine and he expressed frustration about the ladies in the photos and how people try to live up to the beauty standards in magazines. He said, "THEY [the models] don't even look like that!" How true!

What we see in magazines and advertising is not real. It's been airbrushed, Photoshopped, edited to create an ideal that isn't even achievable because it's not real...it's more like artwork. But a lot of people think it's real, whether consciously or subconsciously.

Thoughts?