Everyone is a number in this dystopian near-future where cameras track your every move. Score above 90 and your set for life. Score below 75 and you’re on your own, kid.
The Cycler Series
The Cyler Series: What would you do if you woke up one day as a member of the opposite sex? For Jill McTeague, this is no hypothetical question. It’s real life!
|
A number of things irritate me about the New Dove firming cream ads. And since it appears to be my mission in life (or at least the mission of this blog) to inspire controversy, I thought I’d mention them. According to Dove’s own website , the company has embarked on “a global integrated-marketing campaign that undermines the basic proposition of decades of beauty-care advertising by telling women – and young girls – they’re beautiful just the way they are.” As evidence of this utopian vision, they offer billboards of plus sized women in their underwear. Very nice. Very nice indeed. One problem though. If these plus sized women are so beautiful, why do they need firming cream? The ad is not saying, “Hey world, large gals are beautiful!” It’s saying, “Hey large gals, you’d better do something about that nasty cellulite, pronto!” All of which is especially nice given that there’s little evidence any of these products really work. This ad works the way most ads work–by identifying a problem and offering a solution. To wrap it up in some pseudofeminist malarkie is cynical to say the least. Just don’t tell Dove’s fan’s that. If you go to their website, you can add your very own testimonial describing the ways in which Dove’s new ad boosts your self-esteem. A sample: “Keep up the good work on making us feel beautiful.” An article in Slate on the same subject elicited a barrage of similar sentiments. The fact that so many women seem to find comfort in this manipulative ad is quite telling. Obviously, there is a large reserve of resentment for skinny girls–especially fashion models. Why is that exactly? Why are women so often intimidated and resentful toward fashion models rather than inspired by the images of aspirational beauty they help to create? Why does Shaquille O’Neal with his statistically improbable height and uncanny basketball talent inspire where Kate Moss afflicts us with low self esteem? I should point out that when I say “we†and “us†I am referring primarily to Americans. Europeans (particularly the French and Italians) don’t seem to have this problem. This might have to do with the fact that they are quite a bit skinnier than us and therefore closer to the “ideal†weight, but I think there is more to the story. For one thing, Europeans don’t have the same relationship to fashion that Americans do. They see fashion as aspirational and fashion photography as an art form. Michelangelo didn’t carve the statue of David with back hair and love handles even though regular Italian guys probably had both. And we’re not intimidated by the statue of David because we view it properly–as an expression of an ideal of human strength, youth, and beauty. But when it comes to fashion images, we Americans get overly literal–viewing them as concrete guideposts for our own appearance. That is not, in fact, what the fashion industry intends. Being married to a fashion photographer, I have an insider’s take on all of this. A fashion image is like Michelangelo’s David. It’s aspirational, ideal, a platonic form of a particular style of dressing. Fashion photographers cast young, tall, slim women with symmetrical features and good skin because they are more like blank slates than the rest of us with our smile lines and interesting shapes. Bring in the make up, hair, clothes, lighting, scenery, etc. and you can create with these blank slates a fantastic world quite removed from the real one. That’s fashion. That’s fashion photography. And that’s the role “skinny†models play in it. But guess what. It’s a lot easier to make a buck off of women who hate something about themselves and are willing to spend money to fix it. So companies like Dove have a stake in supporting the literal approach to fashion imagery. They want you to feel inadequate when you look at the pages of Vogue so they can sell you something that will fix you. Oh, and while they’re taking your money, they’ll feed you a load of crap about self-esteem. Why do we fall for it? Why is our self-esteem (especially women’s self-esteem) so tied up in beauty? It’s a rotten deal. Beauty is scarce. That is its nature. That is its power. We can’t all have equal amounts of it any more than we can have equal amounts of basketball talent. But Shaq doesn’t destroy our self-esteem. Why is it only beauty that crushes us? Are we that shallow? Of course not. But we do live in a society where women are defined first and foremost by their attractiveness to men. Our other talents and abilities take a cultural back seat. The Dove ads and their fervent supporters are not part of the solution, they are part of the problem. They reinforce the primacy of female beauty by politicizing envy of skinny girls in a naive pseudofeminism. Of course large gals are beautiful. Skinny girls, tall girls, short girls, all girls are beautiful–not equally to all and not all the time. So what? If you want to make things better for women, don’t celebrate “new” standards of beauty that reflect our expanding waistlines. Resist the very notion of standards. Women were not, in fact, put on this earth to be visually pleasing to men. Stop pretending they were. 25 Responses to “Dove Shmuv”Leave a Reply |
|
RSS Feed
Seems like it’s better to cast average sized women to sell product if young girls are going to aspire to look like models. Much of the obesity is caused from dieting to look anorexic. At first that wouldn’t make sense until you consider that dieting lowers your metabolism. Then when you quit the diet & go back to eating normally, you get fat. Normal lean women who diet to get that ultra thin “model look” will soon be gaining fat while hardly eating anything because their metabolism has gotten messed up from the dieting. Better to avoid the whole diet frenzy & get enough activity to stay healthy. Scrawny isn’t healthy for most of us anymore than being extremely obese.
Thanks for the feedback, Cool. I would disagree with your sentiment that scrawny is as unhealthy as obese. Scrawny is actually quite healthy, so long as it stops short of starvation and anorexia. I’m sure you’re right that dieting causes weight gain however, and would suggest that those interested in being a healthy weight might consider emulating the Italians or French who manage the trick while eating very delicious food (hint: small portions of fresh, full-flavored food; nix on the processed crap). My main concern in this post was with the tendency to accept as a given that women SHOULD emulate anyone in the looks department. In fact, women should stop emulating. The women in the Dove ads are as out of reach as Kate Moss for most women. For one thing, though heavier than your average model, their proportions are nearly identical to a fashion model’s. Moreover there is very little saggage or cellulite. Fitness or Photoshop? Your guess is as good as mine.
On another note: anorexia and bolemia combined afflict only 1-4% of young women (the rates for older women and men are even smaller); whereas obesity rates are generall considered to be around 33%.
I know which affliction concerns me more.
There is no universally healthy image: fat or skinny. People are different, different body types, fat storage, muscle mass, metabolism, etc, so I for one am all for a campaign which at least features something different.
I can’t really comment on how Kate Moss affects me, since as a 6’3″, big, broad, moderately hairy dude, I’ll never be mistaken for her. Ads featuring her don’t appeal to me because I really find that look somewhat skanky (not the best description but really the only word that comes to mind), regardless of whatever magic the photographer conjures up (sorry Andrew).
I have no problem with the Dove ads at all, if only because they show slightly heavier women (albeit not exactly heavy), who make up a larger proportion of the healthy public. Again, just something different. The fact that they’re telling women that although they have curves (which are good) they might want to get rid of the cottage cheese (which is bad)matters little to me, since they’re advertisements. That’s what advertisements do. If we start looking for validation in ads we’ll always be disappointed. I can’t fault Dove for trying to increase their market share, although the whole “tell us how the ad increases your self-esteem” is taking it a bit far.
Plus, I find the women in the ad quite hot. But that’s just me.
Thanks for sharing, Chad. The women are indeed quite hot. Perhaps Dove’s next campaign will feature the exquisite charms of “big, broad, moderately hairy dudes.” Surely that’s an untapped market.
Don’t even get me started. Talk about a growth industry.
interesting thoughts and comments on this topic…our society’s obsession with skinny women is soo last century. females are finally getting recognized for more than just how they look. but how that translates into fashion photography or sells dove soap hasn’t been figured out. so society/ad agencies continue to sell us things the old fashioned way and we buy into it – continuing the cycle.
“If we start looking for validation in ads we’ll always be disappointed.” AGREE! but the ad agencies know that that’s exactly what many people in society do. and is it OUR society – american, in particular? doesn’t capitalism thrive on selling us shit we don’t need (any other fans of fight club here…”you are not your fucking khaki’s.”) well, there’s more to a person than just how they look (in most cases),
BUT
if we’re gonna look, what’s wrong with looking at something that is, by society’s definition, beautiful? i rather enjoy looking at freakishly beautiful fashion models. i also love photographs of elderly people and ethnic people and….well, a diversity. but if you’re looking for diversity in fashion photography you’ll be looking for a while because the industry defines what “beauty” is…and it usually isn’t too different from what “beauty” was last week. however, notions of beauty do change (remember brooke shield’s eyebrows??). fat chicks had their day too. so scrawy won’t last forever. maybe if my timing is good, in 20 years, aging italian women will be all the rage!
I remember chatting about this ad with an advertising buddy of mine sometime ago, it’s been around London on bill boards, on buses etc for some time now.
It is mighty cynical, as you say the message is essentially “its ok to be big so long as you’re firm”, just one iteration away from “its best to be skinny but if you can’t be skinny you must at least be firm”. That however is only the message people like you and I take from it. The conclusion we came to was that to the people to which the ad is targeted the ad hits just the spot. They probably realized (did they resent?) the “ideal” skinny model bodies in other ads were unattainable to them. So swap out the skinny “ideal” for a bigger but still beautiful “ideal” and its beginning to look far more attainable to them. Associate your product, soap, cream, diet or whatever and bingo! That is the [cynical] genius of this ad, the juxtaposition of the ideal, from the unattainable to the seemingly attainable.
Of course the new ideal is just as unattainable, especially with just the use of soap or a cream. Does that matter? Not when you’re preying on peoples insecurities…
I don’t want to see fat people in adverts, if I did I’d just look out the window. Plenty about.
And hey, lets face it, people aren’t going to do campaigns about fundamental laws of thermodynamics and the fact that if you want to lose weight you just need to consume less calories than you expend…and go to the gym. Not easy enough for the lazy consumer and nothing to sell for the industry.
Thanks, Erica, for reminding us of the underlying principle at work here–the drive to get us to buy crap we don’t need. And incidentally you don’t have to wait for aging Italian women to be all the rage. They are always the rage.
Damo, as always your insights are compelling and original. Thermodynamics is a bitch to sell, isn’t it?
Alex, have a nice warm bath and remember “In stillness, I am true.”
Erica, with regard to wanting a desire for beauty and diversity I think the fashion industry has both bases covered. As an example take a look at these images taken from just 2 shows.
vivienne westwood 1
Gaultier 1
Gaultier 2
Gaultier 3
Gaultier 4.
Compare that to Hollywood where–especially in movie posters– any unique feature is smeared out. As an example, check out Scarlett Johanssen in the poster for the Island. She used to be interesting looking. Now she looks like every other Hollywood blonde. The fashion industry would never do that.
Men, too, are not immune to these types of advertizing, but I think with men the focus is on material possesions rather than body type. I grew up with many friends who were obsessed with their cars as if they were alive. But, why is it that women, year after year, decade after decade, fall prey to these insidious images? Surely, this type of advertizing is not new. Is it something innate in female psychology that advertizers manipulate, or is it rather that our society currently objectifies women and this alters our desires on a subconscious level? I was reading an article recently (in Metro NY?) and it mentioned that codpieces were once the rage in Europe, and it was the men who were objectified.
andrew – thanks for the links. as i said, the fashion industry defines what beauty is and rightly challenges/changes our standard notions of beauty. but it doesn’t seem to push us much when it comes to body types – even the models in those pics were all skinny and leggy. maybe models didn’t used to be so different from ordinary folk when most ordinary folk weren’t, on average, overweight? or maybe when folks were skinny, models were overweight (Ruben)…keeping “ideal beauty” always just a bit out of reach for the ordinary person. isn’t it that bit of fantasy/escapism that makes art, even advertising, appealing?
and thanks matt for the enlightening article on codpieces!
I’d say men do come under similar pressures with regard to body shape though I admit not to the same extent as women…Yet.
Instances of eating disorders in men have increased two fold in 10 years and conditions such as body dysmorphia are increasingly common, I know of at least 1 guy who I would say has suffered from this at some point. Its very common in bodybuilders and teens.
You show me a guy who doesn’t want capped delts and abs like Mr Pitt in Fight Club and I’ll show you a liar!
Maybe the pressure’s not there yet for that Brad Pitt ideal. Or maybe its too hard to reach…If that ideal could be reached by not eating alone then I’d bet you a protein milkshake and a set of dumbells that there would be more annorexic men than women.
Erica – plenty of artists have painted ‘larger’ nudes since Ruben and the Old Masters, recent comtemporary works by Jenny Saville being the ones people think of most. Now we’d say Fat is in because of the focus on Skinny in society, I don’t know if the same was true when Ruben was around…
Jenny Saville – Google Images
Thanks to all for your continuously insightful comments. Codpieces, eh? I promise more on this subject and many others as soon as I recover from 5 days at WorldCon in Glasgow. Oh, and congratulations on your nuptials, Damo! Enjoy Mexico and NY.
Thanks Lauren, have sent you and Andrew a mail.
Great article. I am just sad I dont know how to reply properly, though, since I want to show my appreciation like many other.
Muscle Cars Returning
DETROIT – Automakers will be flexing some muscle at this year’s North American International Auto Show, with a slew of performance cars that harken back to the V-8-charged glory days of the 1960s and early ’70s.
On Sunday, the first day of…
best pill on the market
Oh,what a beautiful blog! I like it very much! I’m agreeable to your point of view!
my name is å应釜 I hope to make feiends with you !
The best gils here
The best gils here
My Blog
My Blog
cheap auto insurance in nm
cookies,assail alkalis?banker termed Verona
Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! ypggaxnicij