Most people in
this day and age agree that the issues of using photo shop in editorial ads and
the way the media portrays women needs to be addressed. The overwhelming amount
of young girls who believe they are not beautiful is growing at a rapid pace,
and a majority of adult women do not feel completely happy with the way their
bodies look (Bahadur, Nina). To spark a conversation about how women thought
about their beauty, Dove launched a campaign 10 years ago this past January and
it has been going strong ever since. It started with a photography exhibit
featuring women of all shapes, sizes and colors and has turned into several
shocking videos that have gone viral. These videos are meant to bring awareness
to women that the beauty standard they hold themselves to, is not at all what
it should be. Though some people argue that this campaign is only going
“skin-deep” in a definition of beauty, it still is raising eyebrows to how we,
as a society view beauty and how that needs to change. These videos tug at the
heartstrings and shock viewers into understanding the unrealistic expectations
the media has put on us, and how it affects our own perceptions of ourselves.
Dove’s first ‘Real
Beauty’ video was a time-lapse called Evolution. It featured an average looking
woman who goes through a makeup and hair session to appear more glamorous. It
then showed the process of using photo shop to transform her into a
society-based “billboard worthy” model by lengthening her neck, getting rid of
blemishes, changing her eye shape and other various physical changes. In the
beginning, it sounds as if there is a manager on set preparing for the photo
shoot but you cannot really distinguish what he is saying. It gives you the
impression that you are about to witness a production of sorts; like a movie or
something. There are no other spoken words in the video, just background
chattering. There is a team of makeup artists and hairstylists hovering around
the woman and in the quick time lapse, with the background noise, it creates a
sense of chaos around her. The woman looks solemn and never changes her facial
expression which makes her almost look like a mannequin (i.e. fake). Once the
pictures are taken, it transitions from the woman’s face being filmed to the
photo of her on a computer screen. The alterations begin and the woman’s
appearance begins to change at an alarming pace. There is nothing in the photo
left untouched. The video then transitions into a panned out view of the
billboard with the model looking completely different than what she looked like
at the beginning, sitting in the makeover chair. The way viewers see it, it is
as if we are looking at the model from the sidelines as she is whisked away and
changed before our very eyes into someone we do not recognize anymore. At the
end, the tagline pops up on screen and states “No wonder our perception of
beauty is distorted.” This video shocked its viewers, and many people realized
that what they compare their bodies and beauty to, is actually completely
unrealistic. A majority of people did not even realize that this process could
even happen. Dove uses a mix between ethos and pathos to argue why this is
wrong. Ethically, it is wrong that the model is being physically changed before
our eyes by an editing program, creating something that is not real but
claiming she is. They also toy with emotions by making women realize that they
compare themselves to unrealistic standards that are completely fake.
Why is this such a
big deal? Our society’s views on ethics can vary greatly and obviously, some
people think that changing a woman’s appearance is perfectly fine. If we look
at how popular plastic surgery is, it is not even a question whether those
beliefs are common at all. The problem is that, when an appearance is changed
temporarily (as in a photo shop session), the general public believes that that
is actually what they look like, when in reality, the appearance is a lie.
Ethically, those lies are not acceptable.
There are a
variety of different emotions that are brought to the surface because of this
issue and they vary greatly, just like ethics. One common feeling however, is
the fact that these fake visions of what women compare themselves to, are
setting an unrealistic precedent for what they should look like. The ideas of an
average-looking woman and a glamorous-looking woman are based on pictures in
magazines and the internet that are usually altered in some way. What gives the
media the authority to tell society what is beautiful and what is not? Through
this video, women see that those ideas are manifested based on imagination, not
fact. This creates a sense of insecurity in women. The way women feel about beauty
has been skewed because of the media and their false representations.
The video achieved
what Dove wanted it to by starting the conversation of how women view
themselves. Take Part featured an article written by Melissa Rayworth discussing
the Dove campaign and she said that the video was successful in the fact that, “we've
begun to make a habit of questioning how women are depicted and what tools are
being used to change or edit their appearance for public consumption.”
Logically, after viewing these videos, the first thing that most people do now,
is wonder what was done to edit each and every magazine cover, commercial and
billboard they see. This creates some uncertainty of trust in the media and
what they show the general population. What else has been altered? What is
trustworthy and what is not? Does that mean that all magazine covers feature
edited models? Not necessarily, however it does make us question how these
people achieved their level of glamorous beauty.
So the question
is, does the Dove Real Beauty Campaign really change women’s views of beauty?
In some ways, it has, and in others, it has not met the mark completely. On one
hand, it has brought awareness to the general public that what we view as
beautiful in the media, is mostly fake. On the other hand, there will always be
the struggle of comparison. This video has definitely helped women understand
and appreciate their natural beauty and have taught them to question what they
base that beauty on. But women will always be comparing themselves to
something; it is just human nature. We, as women, need to take a step back and
really analyze how we let so many things dictate the way we feel about
ourselves. Like the one saying goes, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and
it is true. We need to realize that our own natural beauty is what makes us
unique. That uniqueness is what makes us such beautiful souls. We need to
embrace every curve, size, color and unique feature that makes us gorgeous
women and not base our feelings on what we see around us. I do think that the
Dove Real Beauty Campaign has been a light guiding the way to a different view
of how women perceive beauty.
You can view the video (here)
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