The current world dispensation focuses on the surface, and people rarely scrutinize to go deeper and find the meaning behind an assertion, an object, a display or even an image. The saying that first impressions matter is based on the facts that how people see others determines treatment in their presence. This essay exposes the factually perceived but often realistically mistaken concept of thought that how we look at people is how they truly are. For example, while Cameron Russel seems entirely happy and confident in her photoshoots, she admits to being insecure about her body. The image is powerful but often superficial and measured balance is essential in determining reality versus fiction.
Cameron Russel gave a Ted Talk in October 2012 titled “Looks aren't everything. Believe me, I'm a model.” While the talk only lasted roughly nine minutes, the career model exposed a lot of misconceptions about modeling, but on a larger scale showed how people are often wrong about others due to image whether perceived or real. As a career model for ten years, Cameron had lived a double life where one is the glamorous life of a career model, and the other is the typical person who enjoys spending time with her family and friends. The speaker exposes her double life within the first minute of her short talk where she changes from a model outfit to a regular skirt and top and completely transforms how she looks to the audience. Cameron understands that who she is as a person is not who she is as a model and making her presentation dressed like a model would undermine her intended message. The author of “No One Understands You and What to Do About It,” Heidi Grant Halvorson helps understand Cameron’s attempt to shift perception by explaining that people read only on the surface at first point of contact and initial image matters (Halvorson, Heidi Grant). As she stood on the TED stage, the audience only sees the beautiful model with glamorous looks and numerous pictures to show an amazing life. However, only Cameron has access to her real life and how she feels about her body, modeling, her insecurities, and fears. Therefore, the audience can rightly judge her as happy in the first point of contact because of the image she projects. However, after nine munites of presentation, the initial perception wears off because Cameron lets people into who she really is by exposing misconceptions and telling the truth. In her word's, “to be fearless is, to be honest.”
Cameron's expose of image perception versus reality is evident in the current society. Race, color, prestige, and status are the primary factors of consideration when making decisions about how to treat people. For example, the socialization that being white, slender and symmetrical accounts for success in modeling have led to the hiring of more than 80 % of white models in the fashion industry and leaving out other beautiful non-color women (Covert, Bryce). In fact, while choosing white girls may seem like a favor, the favoritism borders objectification of human beings and reducing people to just tools for attaining an objective. If a person chooses a white lady, takes fashion photos and can only use the pictures after reconstruction, it means the white lady is not needed, and only her looks are useful. In the same measure, leaving out black or people of color sends the message that they are not good enough to even form objects that are subject to reconstruction. This essay submits that choosing a white person while leaving a person of color, to achieve a goal, amounts to degradation of both. If choosing someone based on color is mistaken, it follows that the end product, such as the modeling pictures portrayed by Cameron, is superficial.
The misconceptions in the modeling business are representative of how projected images mistakenly favor individuals while wrongly subjecting others of unfair judgment. Cameron admits to receiving favors based on how she looks and not because of the human will to do good. The admission also exposes how people who know how to manipulate systems and people avoid judgments and also hide their fears under the veil of constructed images. The speaker understands how a favorable image creates a perception that gains favor while a negative perception castigates even the innocent. Just as racial discrimination takes precedence in the hiring processes of fashion houses, the law enforcement activity of stop-and-frisk is a testament to how race and color affect judgment. Statistics from New York Civil Liberties Union confirm Cameron’s assertion of unfair treatment of young blacks and Latinos. Between 2002 and 2017, African Americans and Latinos accounted for roughly 53 % and 32 % of stop and frisks respectively, compared to only 10 % of white people ("Annual Stop-And-Frisk Numbers"). Such statistics project the dominant perception that blacks and Latinos are more criminal than whites.
In conclusion, what people see is not an accurate representation of the complete story. Cameron says that how people perceive her is half the story which makes people’s judgment of her superficial. People must learn to acknowledge the power of image in the perception of success and failure, whether perceived or real. Evidently, Image is powerful but often superficial and measured balance is essential in determining reality versus fiction.
Works Cited
"Annual Stop-And-Frisk Numbers." New York Civil Liberties Union, 2018, [https://www.nyclu.org/en/stop-and-frisk-data].
Covert, Bryce. "The Fashion Industry’S Race Problem: Models Of Color Rarely Get Hired." Think Progress, 2013, [https://thinkprogress.org/the-fashion-industrys-race-problem-models-of-color rarely-get-hired-d00d3ca36b1/].
Halvorson, Heidi Grant. "Understand How People See You." Harvard Business Review, 2015, [https://hbr.org/ideacast/2015/04/understand-how-people-see-you.html].
