Interesting Debate with my friend last night . . . What say you?

[CHARITY G]

We were talking about the Dove body soap "Real Beauty" campaign. If your not familiar, the print and commercial advertisements eschew model types in favor of a more typical, achievable body type . . . My friend thought the campaign (outside of being a marketing gimmick) sent a positive message to women . . . I thought the whole thing was ridiculous . . . So I countered her point with this . . . If being tall, thin, and photogenic is largely genetic . . . why penalize or assign the scarlet "A" to women who have achieved this through no real effort of their own . . . Men do not penalize Albert Einstein for being born "too smart," they (men) certainly do not have real "masculinity" campaigns when male models are considered too handsome, and they certainly don't petition the NFL to hire more life size line backers . . . What causes women to eat their own because they are genetically gifted? Thanks.

 

[Jen]

If a woman is naturally that way, that's fine. I think part of the point they're trying to make is how fake so many ads are in the media....all the airbrushing..etc.

If I had as many stylists, trainers, and people who airbrushed my pics I'd look that way too. It's just unnatural the way they publish ads today.

 

[thing55001]

If it was only a matter of genetically 'gifted' women being taller, smarter or more socially admirable, that would be fine, but women, and particularly girls, who are NOT 'gifted' are socially penalised, resulting in negative body images and in extreme cases harmful behaviours in attempting to achieve the 'goal' of acceptable image.

To use your analogy, men admire Albert Einstein's intelligence and don't petition for more 'average' football players, but there is no community expectation that 'normal' men will look like football players or have brains like Einstein's. And, who cares about footballers' fashion sense, or Einstein's weight?

However, women ARE expected to have the socially acceptable attributes of catwalk models ~ to be 'pretty', 'slim' and 'fashionable', attributes heavily reinforced by marketting not only because women's body and body images are heavily commodified but because it sells a lot of product.

Manipulated and contrived images of pre-pubescent or early pubescent girls are presented as the look to emulate, despite the fact most women would have no chance after age 14 of looking like these girls, or the dangerously low bodyweight adults who stay in the modelling game for any length of time.

These manipulated images are presented to both men and women, through 'airbushing' and digital manipulation (see links below), helping to form and reinforce socially acceptable standards and the notion that no-one, not even highly paid and glamorous Hollywood stars, has a beautiful *enough* image.

While I think the Dove campaign runs the risk of being seen as cynical, it does redress the tendency of advertising, media and marketting sources to present only ONE acceptable view of 'women', and market it to the exception of all variations.

Cheers