Only a few days ago, my Facebook newsfeed was plastered with the lauding and endorsing of a Dove Real Beauty Campaign video. I didn't think too much of it initially. I had seen some of the previous campaign movies, namely the Dove Evolution video, depicting the tremendous amount of editing and photoshopping behind the creation of an ideal woman's face. Admittedly, the short film is fascinating, and the concept is pertinent. "No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted," reads the screen at the video's conclusion, and viewers think, yes, our society does have an idealized and unrealistic concept of beauty.
The idea isn't necessarily new. We've all heard how the media and celebrities are consistently influencing our view of beauty and women. Advertisers and marketing teams are portrayed as big and bad, due to their sexualization of women and implication of the importance to be pretty to succeed. Dove and its Real Beauty Campaign are attempting to combat the "beauty stereotypes" by using "real" women in their commercials and advertisements as well as through self-esteem programs to help young girls develop a positive relationship with their bodies, a cause we can all get behind.
So, I watched the new video. Yet, as the credits began to roll, I felt as though Dove had somehow missed their intended mark.
Labeled "Real Beauty Sketches," Dove's latest short film follows several women, differing in age as they enter into a large warehouse. Each woman enters a room, sits in a chair and is asked to describe her appearance. Alongside her, separated by a curtain, is a renowned criminal sketch artist, who, based on each woman's self-description, attempts to draw her face. The women are asked no further questions and then leave. Next, a random stranger enters and is asked to describe the appearance of the previous woman, whom they met briefly in passing on the street.
The film's true revelation comes when all women return and review their own described appearance's sketch, compared with that done based on their description by a complete stranger. The sketches bear stark contrasts as most women described themselves negatively, and their drawings show them to be haggard and tired, with emphasis on their scars and fine lines. Meanwhile, the drawings based on stranger's descriptors portray each woman to look young, light and happy.
The women are amazed, ecstatic and bewildered that a stranger could view them in such a positive light. They exclaim that now they know they are beautiful and they will be more grateful for that fact. Then, as the music builds and the film concludes, one of the study's participants shares her final thoughts, "I should be more grateful of my natural beauty. It impacts the choices and the friends we make, the jobs we go out for, the way we treat our children, it impacts everything. It couldn't be more critical to your happiness."
Really? So, this is the final message Dove wishes to leave us? That it's okay ladies, you are really more physically attractive than you think you are? I assumed that the "Real Beauty" campaign meant to not help us feel as though we fit into a stereotyped ideal, but to break out of such a stereotype by expanding what beauty truly means, inside and out. According to this message, beauty is one of the most important things in our lives, and it impacts life's every aspect.
I disagree with this message. Beauty, as this commercial sees it, seems to equate to physical attractiveness, which should have no bearing in the choices we make, the jobs we apply for or our parenting style. Our happiness should have no dependency on something so superficial. We must celebrate other aspects of our being, such as intelligence, kindness and dedication.
We are beautiful, and, as Dove suggests, we are more beautiful than we know, but we are also far more than that. We possess so many other wonderful traits, and beauty, unlike Dove makes it seem, should never be our top priority.
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