“You are more beautiful thank you think.” These are the words of personal care brand Dove in their mission to prove women worthy to no other than those women themselves. Many women across the world struggle daily with their physical image. Especially since the introduction of social media, this misconstrued idea of the “perfect woman” has come across everyone’s page at least once; but this problem has been around long before social media. We see it on television, magazines, advertisements, and other artifacts that are in our everyday lives. While it is not to say that these women aren’t perfect, society needs to put an end to portraying them as the ONLY form of perfect. It has not been until recently that more brands have decided to become inclusive, but it is often speculated that it is to please and keep customers, rather than just because it is what they think is right. Some of women’s favorite brands such as Victoria’s Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch, Forever 21, and others along those lines of fashion have hard times promotion body positivity and inclusivity. They typically use the same “perfect” models for all of their ads and have PARTICULARLY similar sizing available in store. Seeing things such as ,”bigger sizes sold online,” or hearing someone tell you something along the lines of, “that color looks great on you, but your nose is big so it doesn’t look right,” are one of the many reasons why women have trouble finding peace within their physical appearance. Women of all types deserve love and respect, but is society ever going to work towards portraying every woman as the perfect woman?
In 2013, Dove shared a three-minute video titled “Dove Real Beauty Sketches” where women would describe themselves to forensic artist Gil Zamora. Without ever meeting each other at that point in time, Zamora would draw the women in extravagant detail according to their descriptions of themselves. Soon after, these women would meet complete strangers and get to know them a little bit. What they did not know, however, is that these strangers would go to the same forensic artist after meeting and describe the original women to him. Once the sketches were done, the original women were shown the sketches of the way they perceive themselves, and then the sketches of the way the stranger perceived them. Dove’s goal was to show women that the way they perceive themselves physically is much more negative than the rest of the world perceives them; by doing this, Dove implies that women should spend more time appreciating themselves and worrying less about the little flaws they carry, because they are beautiful. This ad uses a wonderful strategy to show the select women the way they really see themselves without pressuring them or being too forward about it. Showing the women’s reactions to the two sketches at the end moves viewers with pathos, because being able to see the real-life reactions of their misconstrued views pushes viewers to think less critically of themselves and more about if this applies to them.
(I currently only have this much done bc I’ve been sick all week and I definitely intend to go back in and revise a lot of this but please feel free to give me any positive feedback or criticism on what I have so far. But don’t make me cry. jk lol)
I think what you have now is great, you have the right idea now you just have to run with it and keep going. Don’t get discouraged, you are doing well! I also think your artifact is very impactful, and I am excited to see where else you go with this.