Dove's "real beauty" sketches
OK, so someone in the intro class I'm taking with Ina (Sorry for the repeat post, Ina) posted this to our class blog today. Everyone was very happy and gave nothing but really positive responses. They were happy to see different women represented, instead of the typical Giselle, or Tyra, or whoever. They were happy that it seemed to present a positive image of self-acceptance, and the idea that being ourselves is what is truly beautiful.
This is how I responded, because I don't know how quite feel about it...something didn't sit right with me.
I have some problems with this. Overall, yeah the message that women are our own harshest critics is nice and all, (because I know I sure am) but who is saying this... A COMPANY that SELLS beauty supplies. They're generally not in the business of making us feel good about ourselves (or they'd be out of business), so I can't help but be a little dubious at first...
The words they use as positives and negatives reinforce our pretty limited ideas of beauty... the women who are describing their self-perceived negative aspects of their faces were using words like "rounder", crows feet, (really? who gives a fuck, that's SO NORMAL, I HAVE CROWS FEET AT 23) whereas the "cute, short" nose was valued for one woman, or "nice" eyes (why do women have to look "nice"?). I don't know, I just can't help but really believe that dove's appeal to my emotions is all about me feeling good about myself. It's part of a system that is constantly making us feel like we're inadequate, our face isn't "thin" enough, or a larger chin isn't feminine enough, or prominent nose isn't as "CUTE" as a smaller one, so that we buy their products to improve our self-image. If these heart-warming feelings are connected in my head with my (narrow-minded) "positive" view of myself, I will remember that next time I'm buying shampoo or whatever it is, and am more likely to feel a companionship pr some bullshit like that with Dove, and buy their product.
Honestly, the best feeling or view I've had of myself and my image that I've had in a long time, came after watching MissRepresentation. The idea of you can't be what you can't see plays a huge role here. I got to see all of these intelligent, strong and yes, beautiful, women speak out against the idea that women and girls have to be a certain way. I felt empowered, I felt beautiful, I felt in control.
WOMEN CAN BE SO MUCH MORE THAN JUST "BEAUTIFUL".
ANOTHER one of my problems, why are the men present ONLY to describe that woman's eye's as "nice, blue".....reinforcing some male-centric views on how a woman should look and that she can only really be validated by him? and why aren't the women of color talking more?
What do you ladies think? Am I picking too much? Is this a step in the right direction by promoting self-love, body acceptance? Or is it more harmful than it appears, with some messages that there IS indeed a certain way to look that is good or bad when it comes to appearances?
I also feel bad because I pooped all over everyone in intro's nice warm feeling after watching the ad, but I'm sorry I'm just not buying it.
ReplyDeleteFirst thing I want to say (since I'm still guilty about doing it) DON'T APOLOGIZE ABOUT HOW YOU FEEL! You're entitled to your opinion and you should not feel bad about how you feel and how you think that the Dove campaign continues to reinforce negative stereotypes towards women.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I do like the Dove campaign compared to a lot of the shit we see in the media, but even so, I think that there is still something wrong with the Dove campaign in the fact that they have to basically say, "We're representing REAL women!" To me, I think we will be able to end this oppression and subordinate behavior when we no longer have to say we're representing real women, but we can say we are representing WOMEN! I have the same issue with the Special K campaign. They'll show the middle age woman being able to fit into her sixteen year old daughter's jeans...is that the goal that we want women, young or old, to honestly be striving for? The commercials have gotten much better in the fact that number on pants don't matter, but rather, size "sassy" and size "flirty," but I still even have a problem with this because it is associating women with certain attributes. If I don't fit into size "sassy" jeans, am I not a sassy person?
I totally see where you're coming from, and I don't think you're the only one who has had these feelings! I buy the campaigns to an extent...but there's always just something missing that needs to be there.