Month: September 2021

Beauty standards are so different around the world and have changed so much in the past few years. Whether it is critiquing a person, usually a woman’s, face, body shape, skin color, height and more, not only is society our own worst critic but so are we. Luckily, while not completely shifted over, people have begun to fight back against this notion of being “perfect” and have instead opted for body positivity and self-love. Among the multiple campaigns all vying for women’s time and money, Dove is a company that has been promoting its slogan, “Beauty is for everyone.” However, in two of their campaign ads, there were two conflicting messages. The “Real Beauty” Campaign, along with the ad for Dove’s VisibleCare Body Wash, promote the ideology of beauty, but in very different ways. Regardless of how the campaign and ad are carried out, they are trying to emphasize beauty to their audience. By promoting their idea of beauty, Dove tries to play into the body positivity and self love market while still trying to get their customers to buy their products to attain their “natural” beauty.

My speech will be built on my speech from last week, with some more information about the new Body Wash ad I selected as my second artifact. I like how I led into my speech with the statistics, so I think I am going to do that again. I will just make it more compact so I can fit in the ad’s information while still maintaining the 3-4 minute range. I want to compare and contrast the campaign and ad, especially since the ad is so controversial and even can be seen as going against the “Real Beauty” Campaign. I think ending with analyzing how they accomplish their messages and their impact and reception is another important aspect to speak about.

As a woman, I feel like the Heartbeat Bill is a topic that all women should be concerned about. I cannot imagine being a woman in a state where my own reproductive rights are threatened.

In terms of the presentation, I like how Emma talked loudly but at a moderate pace…I could clearly understand what she was saying. Also giving some background information was great as we could understand her POV better, and she barely used her notes as well. She used her gestures purposefully.

The speech which was the artifact is definitely an intriguing one. More and more people our age are speaking up and using their voices to incite change, and this is a perfect example. Paxton Smith utilized her platform to spread her message, and rather courageously I might add. Fearing the microphone will get shut off during your own speech is terrifying, but she did it. Sometimes taking a risk is necessary. This speech can be seen through many lenses, including a source of trust, pathos, the rhetorical situation of exigence, and even possibly representation. After all, a lot of the lawmakers who are making decisions about this topic are men. Like Emma said, these people say “my body, my choice” when referring to wearing masks, but they are hypocrites when it comes to reproductive rights. We need more women in the seats of the people who are making these decisions, as the representation that needs to be there is not. Abortion is always a highly contested topic, but it does not make sense for people to be making these decisions when this issue does not apply to them. Most women do not even know they are pregnant by the 6-week period. I think it’s important to speak up about this topic, to advocate for ourselves.

For my Elevator Pitch Proposal, I am sticking with the “Real Beauty” Campaign by Dove.

Did you know that the amount of money women spend on beauty exceeds the amount of money undergraduate in-state students pay for Penn State Tuition? On Byrdie, it says, “According to the study, the average woman spends about $313 per month on her appearance. This adds up to $3756 per year or $225,360 over the course of a lifetime.” (https://www.byrdie.com/average-cost-of-beauty-maintenance) Women are spending an unnecessary amount of money on beauty, with society pulling us in two very different directions. One side holds the unrealistic beauty standards that society sets up for us, playing into insecurities, and the other side is the body positivity and self-love side. The message of this campaign was emphasizing a woman’s natural beauty and how society often has high standards to make us look at ourselves and critique every part of ourselves in the mirror. But the way that other people see us proves that we are too hard on ourselves and usually people can see things we can’t. I would utilize ethos, pathos, and logos to investigate my piece. After all, I have the ethos of being a woman who has invested in beauty products, I could use pathos since most if not all people, including men, understand what it is like to play into societal roles or feel pressured to be  something else, and logos would be all of the statistics of how much women play into the notion that we need external sources  to make us “beautiful”. We ARE beautiful, naturally. Especially with more women-inclined movements, women are speaking up for themselves more often and more confidently. I am hoping that this analysis can help other people feel the most confident in their natural selves, and promote the self-love they deserve. Are you confident in who you are?

Thank you!

For my commonplace, I chose the “Real Beauty” Campaign from Dove. In the video, women describe themselves to a forensic artist. After they leave, another person comes in who met the person and they describe how they perceived the person to the artist. Typically, the person looked happier, brighter, and more friendly with how the new person described them compared to how they described themselves. At the end of the video, Dove put up the text, “You are more beautiful than you think.” According to the Keyword, commonplaces are “…recurring notions…”, and part of “broader ideologies”, and they persuade. The message of this campaign was emphasizing a woman’s natural beauty and how society often has high standards to make us look at ourselves and critique every part of ourselves in the mirror. We are too big, too small, too tall, too short, too freckly, too full of acne, too ugly, too bad for society’s expectations. But the way that other people see us shows that we are too hard on ourselves and usually people can see the things we can’t. I think it was very persuasive because it showed how two different people could perceive one person. There are conflicting notions and ideologies in our society. On one hand, there is the market for beauty. Makeup, hair tools, fashion, and more are constantly crowding our attention, to make us look “prettier”, smarter, cooler. The people in the media uphold outrageous beauty standards. On the other hand, there is the body positivity market/movement, where people are accepting their natural shape and size, and there are ads that are not photoshopped, and there are some campaigns with more diversity, where women can see more women like themselves and feel seen and heard, especially beauty wise. I feel as though this notion of accepting yourself as you are is relatively new, and I think it is doing a good job of counteracting the expectations society has set for us. I think the campaign succeeded in persuading people (or at least it persuaded me) that they are more beautiful than they think.