In 2004,
toiletry giant Dove launched its breakthrough “Real Beauty” campaign which
famously displayed *real* women in their underwear. As we all well know, “real”
is marketing speak for “size four and above.” But cynicism aside, the ad made
an impact. Seeing full figured women looking happy, radiant, and comfortable in
their own skin was such a refreshing break from the scowls and thigh gaps of
the fashion world that you almost forgot the whole thing was a ploy to sell
soap.
Recent
contributions to Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign are more elaborate than just a
curvy beauty in her skivvies. The company’s body-positive message has veered
into Psych 101 territory, exploring women’s deeply engrained instinct to put
themselves down.
In the ad
“Dove Real Beauty Sketches” women are asked to describe themselves to a
forensic artist, who then draws them based on that description. They are then
asked to describe each other to the
same artist. The final images are shown side by side, revealing that in every
case, women’s self-perceptions were far less conventionally pretty.
It’s a
powerful ad with a clear message: you’ve been taught to invent and fixate on
imperfections. Now that you see how warped your perspective is you can start
appreciating your looks, and finally feel beautiful.
Dove
conducts another “experiment” in their latest ad, called “Dove Chooses
Beautiful”. In this one, women are given a choice between two doorways, one
marked “beautiful” and the other “average”. You see where this is going. At
first most of the women walk through the average one. But by the end of it, they
come to their senses and switch. Because all women, once again, are beautiful.
Dove has been
praised for its “Real Beauty” platform for years. But does all this
body-positive thinking need a second look? On April 8 BuzzFeed published a lengthy
critique of the ad suggesting just that.
In the
article (which the site later removed, then restored) beauty editor Arabelle Sicardi
points out that Dove sells beauty
products and is very much part of the female-insecurity-fueled industry it
criticizes. She also took issue with the requirement that all women think of
themselves as “beautiful”. And while “feeling beautiful” could mean a lot of
different things, it still keeps the emphasis on looks. After all, no one sees
the need to comfort men that they are “handsome just the way there.” But women must find a way to identify as
beautiful (even if it’s not really a priority for them).
Sicardi notes
that the women in the ad might have described themselves as smart, funny, or
otherwise above average. But these were the two options they were given. We
support Dove for bringing some diversity of female beauty to the advertising
landscape. But it’s important to consider what we’re saying when we say that
all women should feel beautiful.
