Struggling to remain hopeful...
In keeping with my last post which was incredibly sappy I know and not at all my usual rant, I've decided to bring another topic up that I don't immediately abhor ...but instead feel very mixed about.
Dove's new campaign for real beauty.
I'm not sure what to think. I desperately want this to be something I can get behind, because by all accounts it is an incredibly important issue and I know firsthand what it is like to have very low self-esteem because I am not a size 0. But as usual, I'm still a little wary of a corporation coming out and trying to preach that we need to expand the definition of "beauty;" corporations are still all about making money, after all...and I'm a firm believer that there is no marriage of corporations and social responsibility that is not dysfunctional and doomed to fail.
That being said, I'm not blind to the merits of the campaign; even though I hate it, people care what corporations say. We buy what they want us to buy, we believe stuff is good when they say it is ...even I, the very picture of anti-consumerism find myself sometimes wondering if I need new eyeshadow when I see it in Chatelaine. So, when a corporation that has been selling beauty products for years and years says that we need to redefine beauty, that holds slightly more water than when some charity says it (Which sounds very sick, I might add. I really loathe that people can't see good ideas until someone comes along and tries to sell them something with it).
And so we have not only a campaign to sell soap and cold cream, but also something trying to revolutionise the way we see beauty through research, scholarships and even designing a new programme at Harvard to get (presumably) the best minds in the United States thinking about how women have allowed themselves to be defined by a proportion of the population so small that it is barely statistically significant.
I just don't know. I guess I need to watch what happens with it to see. If they follow through with everything it says on the website, then I think it is a step in the right direction. It isn't groundbreaking by any stretch of the word; people have been parading around with studies for YEARS about how beauty is being defined very narrowly and that girls are developing more and more eating disorders to try to conform to this idea that less is more, literally. I mean, I'm only 24 and I can see the rise in it. When I was in high school, I knew one girl who was a size zero, and she didn't even do it on purpose. Now, living in Toronto I see so many of them that it makes me sort of sick. It really isn't healthy.
But if they're just paying lip service to this idea in order to look all sweet and politically correct in order to sell more soap ...then I will, once again feel completely betrayed. I remember seeing the very beginning of this campaign in my Chatelaine and thinking it was a cool idea, and then it disappeared until now. So, we'll see if it actually takes off, or if it turns out to be insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
For now, though, I urge people with all my soul to check out Jean Kilbourne's work; specifically the Killing Us Softly series. These documentaries pretty much changed my life. They talk about women in advertising, and how we're seen and how this reinforces certain (disgusting) ideas. While Dove may be packaging a good idea, Jean Kilbourne really delivers the goods. Her work is amazing and shows why women need to band together and stop this. Support Dove in this real beauty stuff, but it's even more important for us to support each other. Remember, men didn't give us things like the vote, shelters for abused women and inheritance rights; we had to fight tooth and nail for them, and it's only through banding together and not allowing men to divide and conquer us that we're going to get through this.
Send me a comment if you agree.
Dove's new campaign for real beauty.
I'm not sure what to think. I desperately want this to be something I can get behind, because by all accounts it is an incredibly important issue and I know firsthand what it is like to have very low self-esteem because I am not a size 0. But as usual, I'm still a little wary of a corporation coming out and trying to preach that we need to expand the definition of "beauty;" corporations are still all about making money, after all...and I'm a firm believer that there is no marriage of corporations and social responsibility that is not dysfunctional and doomed to fail.
That being said, I'm not blind to the merits of the campaign; even though I hate it, people care what corporations say. We buy what they want us to buy, we believe stuff is good when they say it is ...even I, the very picture of anti-consumerism find myself sometimes wondering if I need new eyeshadow when I see it in Chatelaine. So, when a corporation that has been selling beauty products for years and years says that we need to redefine beauty, that holds slightly more water than when some charity says it (Which sounds very sick, I might add. I really loathe that people can't see good ideas until someone comes along and tries to sell them something with it).
And so we have not only a campaign to sell soap and cold cream, but also something trying to revolutionise the way we see beauty through research, scholarships and even designing a new programme at Harvard to get (presumably) the best minds in the United States thinking about how women have allowed themselves to be defined by a proportion of the population so small that it is barely statistically significant.
I just don't know. I guess I need to watch what happens with it to see. If they follow through with everything it says on the website, then I think it is a step in the right direction. It isn't groundbreaking by any stretch of the word; people have been parading around with studies for YEARS about how beauty is being defined very narrowly and that girls are developing more and more eating disorders to try to conform to this idea that less is more, literally. I mean, I'm only 24 and I can see the rise in it. When I was in high school, I knew one girl who was a size zero, and she didn't even do it on purpose. Now, living in Toronto I see so many of them that it makes me sort of sick. It really isn't healthy.
But if they're just paying lip service to this idea in order to look all sweet and politically correct in order to sell more soap ...then I will, once again feel completely betrayed. I remember seeing the very beginning of this campaign in my Chatelaine and thinking it was a cool idea, and then it disappeared until now. So, we'll see if it actually takes off, or if it turns out to be insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
For now, though, I urge people with all my soul to check out Jean Kilbourne's work; specifically the Killing Us Softly series. These documentaries pretty much changed my life. They talk about women in advertising, and how we're seen and how this reinforces certain (disgusting) ideas. While Dove may be packaging a good idea, Jean Kilbourne really delivers the goods. Her work is amazing and shows why women need to band together and stop this. Support Dove in this real beauty stuff, but it's even more important for us to support each other. Remember, men didn't give us things like the vote, shelters for abused women and inheritance rights; we had to fight tooth and nail for them, and it's only through banding together and not allowing men to divide and conquer us that we're going to get through this.
Send me a comment if you agree.
posted by Justine at 8:32 p.m.
1 Comments:
Dude! This is very interesting...admittedly I think it's bit of a moneymaking ploy, since they lose a lot of customers through people that think beauty shouldn't be all about Size X Brand Label Clothing. We'll see. Also - I think that being a woman or being a man should only matter as soon as it comes to Part A and Part B. Treat everyone with the same respect that you would treat your close friends, man or woman. I have little patience for bigots - of either gender.
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