Irrelevent

Irrelevent

Dove's Real Beauty Sketch Ad

In May 2013, Laurie Penny wrote an article for the New Statesman titled "I don't want to be told I'm pretty as I am - I want to live in a world where that's irrelevant." It's a very interesting article (found here) in which Penny discusses beauty and cosmetics advertising campaigns that seem to combat stereotypes about women while actually reinforcing them. 

For example, she talks about Unilever, the company that owns both Dove and manufactures Axe/Lynx deodorant (It's the same product, called Lynx in the UK and Axe everywhere else). Here is Dove's new ad campaign in which a sketch artist draws women the way they describe themselves and again the way they are described by others. The message: you are more attractive than you think you are. 

The Axe Ad

Now here is an ad for Axe/Lynx deodorant in which a mob of sexy women in bikinis rush a man spraying himself with the product. The message here is equally obvious: use this deodorant and beautiful women will want you. Now I presume that most men are not stupid enough to believe that their deodorant brand can really influence their sex life (because this ad is not about dating or relationships. It is unquestionably about sex.) However, the two ad campaigns - both created under the same company - speak volumes about what is known as the "double standard" associated with gender.

The Dove ad clearly addresses women and says "You are beautiful as you are!" The Lynx ad, however, is talking to men, telling them "Women are beautiful when they look like this." So who are we supposed to believe? The ad directed at us or the one directed at our boyfriends and brothers? In all honesty, I find the ad as insulting and dangerous to men as to women. Not only does it dictate what women are supposed to look like but also what men are supposed to want.

Well, Laurie Penny is having none of it. She finds fault even with the Dove ad, saying "The message...is that before we can be happy, women have to feel 'beautiful'." I can certainly relate to this. I have always doubted my physical beauty. Tired of that, I decided about two months ago to be more creative with my outfits and jewelry (not the same ring and necklace every day) and take the time to do my makeup. My thought process was "If I can't be beautiful, at least I can feel beautiful." Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. The problem is sometimes I don't feel like planning an outfit or doing my makeup. I'd rather sleep in. Or I'd rather be comfortable when I spend the day in the library working on a paper or cuddled on my couch with a book. So on those days I'm more rested or more comfy, but I don't feel beautiful or even very good about myself.

And that's just ridiculous. 

Because I am me every day. And that's not something to sneeze at because I'm a pretty cool person, thank you very much. But it's not easy to be myself when I am worried about how I look. So maybe I don't need to focus on feeling physically attractive. Maybe I need to focus on living my life, loving my family and friends, writing my thesis, and reading as many novels I can get in before school starts back. Maybe I should focus on knowing that I am a beautiful person and not because of my hair, clothes, or makeup.

Here is a long excerpt from Penny's article that I found inspiring and wanted to share:

          "Rather than fighting for every woman's right to feel beautiful, I would like to see the return of a kind of feminism that tells women everywhere that maybe it's all right not to be pretty and perfectly well behaved. That maybe women who are plain, or large, or old, or differently abled, or who simply don't give a damn what they look like because they're too busy saving the world or rearranging their sock drawer, have as much right to take up space as anyone else.

          "I think if we want to take care of the next generation of girls we should reassure them that power, strength and character are more important than beauty and always will be, and that even if they aren't thin and pretty, they are still worthy of respect. That feeling is the birthright of men everywhere. It's about time we claimed it for ourselves."

And speaking of social pressures on women, I'd like to end with an image of what Barbie would look like if she were an average woman (since if the original Barbie were a real girl, her proportions would fit the criteria of anorexia). My mother sent me this article which describes how artist Nickolay Lamm used the measurements of an average 19-year-old to create a realistic model of Barbie.