Help me feel better about airbrushed images at work

April 18, 2024 2:04 PM

I work for a company that designs household electronics. Recently, management added a large photo mural to the wall of the corridor that I work on, with 20 head shots of female models using some of the hair products which are one of the wide range of products that the company makes. It's the sort of thing that would be in magazines: there's not a freckle, wrinkle, stray hair or blemish in sight. Everyone has perfect, smooth skin and is thin and young and beautiful. Looking at this mural every day upsets me.

Normally I am happy with how I look and manage not to think about it too much, but I can't help feeling inadequate when I have to see all of these faces multiple times a day. I try to rationalise that the images are probably airbrushed, and that no-one said I had to compete with these beautiful people, and that there's much more important things in life.

In reality, I feel slightly angry that I have no choice but to look at the sort of unrealistic images I normally avoid. However, I feel like complaining about the mural would make me a target. Most employees are men but I am a woman. There is no easy avenue for feedback to management in this company.

Does anyone have any coping strategies? This is really getting me down more than it should. How can I change my feelings about this mural?

posted by iplaytheviol to Work & Money (16 answers total)

They probably heavily edited the products in the image as well, if that helps? No one escaped.

(...Which I guess just really underlines how the women pictured are objects, too.)

I think there's utility in staying mad. I got madder and madder about all sorts of things and decided I didn't like keeping my mouth shut, so spoke up. And spoke up and spoke up. And now I'm at a place in my career and my life where when I speak up I can often effect actual change.

I'm good at being constructively mad about things and influencing people to my side though so others' mileage may vary.
posted by phunniemee at 2:14 PM on April 18 [7 favorites]

This is my first idea - google for actors with and without makeup. For example, Here are 54 photos of celbrieites without makeup.

Now, spend some time looking at each of the photos in the mural and imagine what that person looks like in every day life. Not just telling yourself "oh, its airbrushed" but really create a clear picture in your mind of what each of these people look like - who has zits, who has thin eyebrows, who has wrinkles and creases and where.

Then step back and imagine if the mural could flash from airbrushed to real and back again. Get that picture firmly in your mind.

Now, when you walk down the hall, picture the images flipping from the actual image to what you imagine the "real" version would look like.

Try talking to the women as you imagine that they really are. Be kind to them. Don't hate them, just imagine them in their real selves as girlfriends who have this job where they have to obsess about their looks. See if that can shift what comes up for you when walk by.

If that doesn't work, skip everything above and just imagine the images all melting away, dripping to the floor and making puddles in the carpet. They are just pigment on paper and they don't matter. In fact, that's what I would probably do - much easier just find the visualization that tells me that it's not real, it doesn't mater and then imagine myself stepping over the puddles of ink as as I walk down the hall.
posted by metahawk at 2:26 PM on April 18 [6 favorites]

Models are workers doing jobs in costumes. I might transform the mural in my minds eye to other workers in costumes. For example, 20 Santa Clauses instead of 20 models.
posted by shock muppet at 2:31 PM on April 18 [5 favorites]

Maybe think of them as Stepford Wives or similar. That sort of airbrushed look is fine for magazines but if you saw someone in real life who looked like that, they'd be creepy.
posted by BungaDunga at 2:38 PM on April 18 [3 favorites]

This is petty but I’d covertly stick a band aid on one of them
posted by crime online at 3:04 PM on April 18 [11 favorites]

This is petty but I’d covertly stick a band aid on one of them

Or, maybe take a sharpie and add a mole to a perfect shoulder or something.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:08 PM on April 18 [5 favorites]

Be glad the models got paid and they’re not AI-generated?
posted by Ideefixe at 3:21 PM on April 18 [6 favorites]

Make jokes about how silly it is that someone decided they need fake hot young women sexily selling curling irons. And you're not even selling them there right? This strikes me as idiotic in several ways... maybe laughing can help.
posted by SaltySalticid at 3:51 PM on April 18 [2 favorites]

Put a large plant between you and the mural...or just do look at them.
posted by Czjewel at 4:00 PM on April 18

Stumble with a large cup of hot coffee in your hand and spill it all over the mural. Say, "Oops" and walk away.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 5:49 PM on April 18 [2 favorites]

You work for the same company, and the company decided that your job description did not require airbrush effects.

(And your next employer won't be lining up an old work badge next to your actual head, devising ways to "improve" your face.)

Fuck the patriarchy, friend.
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:55 PM on April 18 [2 favorites]

I wonder if this is a situation where noticing and naming your feelings could help. As you walk by, in your head: “boy, I find these airbrushed people upsetting!” See if you can name where you feel it: “I feel it in the pit of my stomach,” or “I feel my face flushing and my shoulders tensing.” Sometimes that helps me step back from being immersed in a feeling.
posted by eirias at 3:22 AM on April 19 [2 favorites]

I think there are a few ways to look at this. This is from spending years in women’s magazines (and now being out.)

1. Those pictures are what sells your company’s styling tools. It sucks, but those pictures are contributing to your salary.

2. Pictures like that or in magazines or with celebrities are creative; some are art. Would a Reubens bother you with the creamy perfect skin? These images are just as artificial.

It’s hard to reconcile 1 and 2 for sure, because it’s the aspirational impulse to get hair like that that is selling your products. That’s what’s on your wall, quite explicitly. But being aware of it might help you personally. Without a professional stylist managing those tools on a particular day with models and the lighting and the post-production no one looks like that.
posted by warriorqueen at 6:33 AM on April 19 [2 favorites]

I’m absolutely with you on this. I’d think that my fellow male colleagues are also getting trained everyday that this is what women look like. People do judge women more harshly for not looking like models. They wouldn’t even think to apply that standard to men. If it were me, I’d see if I can find out who made this dumb decision and talk to them about adding more inspiring images to the hallway. I just hate how “pretty female faces” are used to sell everything. It’s like the fruit bowl trick for selling things on Craigslist or EBay. Or my personal favorite trick from when I was last in a workplace: mentioning any male name when trying to sell my idea. “I was talking to Dave about our process improvement in status updates and we think that X would be a good way to go.” Much higher thumbs-up rate if I, a woman, mention a man’s name anywhere in the context. But if the images are meant to inspire people who visit the office to invest in your company, this is the laziest and most effective way to do it. If it’s meant to inspire employees, maybe there’s a different genre of art that could do so.

ETA: if you don’t tread carefully, you absolutely will likely get branded a feminist killjoy. Up to you whether you want to go there.
posted by amanda at 9:10 AM on April 19 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks for your advice everyone! I will certainly try
- looking at them as art
- not hating the models and imagining their real lives
- imagining the images melting into a puddle
- finding out who made the decision and possibly having a chat with them if they seem receptive

Looking around the office today, I did notice that there are many more of these in ones and twos - I think it was having 20 in one place that finally tipped me over the edge! Screw unobtainable beauty standards.

Cheers again.
posted by iplaytheviol at 9:43 AM on April 19 [5 favorites]

How can I change my feelings about this mural?

I don't think you should. This is a messed-up thing to have to work around. There's probably little you can do about it, but I want to confirm your "WTF?" feelings.
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:41 PM on April 19 [1 favorite]