I used to work for a photo studio where the bulk of the customers are women. My primary job was to digitally manipulate the taken shots to make the photo conform to the current fashion of beauty.

    “Can you make the pimples, scar, freckles, wrinkles disappear?”

    “My skin is so dark, can you lighten it a bit?”

    “Can you make me thin?”

    “Make me beautiful, okay?”

Eventually, some customers started nicknaming me doc. I was doing a digital surgery, digital make-up, and a free show in one package. Sometimes I come across a beautiful raw photo, and I tell the customer that it’s beautiful as it is, but to no avail, most of them want a straighter shinier hair, mestiza colored skin, a straight aqualine Eurasian nose, firmer arms, straighter whiter teeth, twiggy bone structure, dolled up facial skin.

At the end of the day, I just want to go home to the warmth of a real woman with blemishes and flaws... and then maybe, if I'm lucky, I could ride the flow and write about the beauty of it all.