Real Beauty

Recently with the overload of advertisements and free samples being thrown around I've been trying to figure out which shampoo to buy next! Do I go for something that's cheap or do I splurge and go for "the good stuff"? Do I want silky straight hair or do I want something that will give my hair more moisturizing? Oh the choices a girl has to make!

Now having gone along the continuum of cheap to the more pricey stuff, I've decided to go deeper... Look for a company that has more meaning that just selling shampoo! (Yes while writing this it does strike me as odd, but when you love shampoo shopping as much as I do and have all the extra time that I do.... you have the time to make mountains out of molehills).

So, getting back to my decision to spend on a company that is showing some kind of corporate social responsibility, I realized there are quite a few brands that are wholly Australian made or those that are doing their bit to protect the environment. The campaign that struck me as most inspiring and most note worthy (at the moment) has to be Dove's campaign for Real Beauty.

Dove's campaign shows off the fact that 'real women have curves', it shows off that models in advertisements do not just wake up looking as glamorous as they are portrayed to be. "According to a press release, Dove wants to make women feel more beautiful every day by challenging today's stereotypical view of beauty and inspiring women to take great care of themselves" (Media Awareness Network, 2010).

In 2004, Dove released a study that they used as a spring board to launch their Campaign for Real Beauty. Among the findings of the study, were the following statistics:

• Only 2% of women describe themselves as beautiful.
• 63% strongly agree that society expects women to enhance their physical attractiveness. 45% of women feel women who are more beautiful have greater opportunities in life.
• More than two-thirds (68%) of women strongly agree that "the media and advertising set an unrealistic standard of beauty that most woman can't ever achieve."
• The majority (76%) wish female beauty was portrayed in the media as being made up of more than just physical attractiveness.
• Seventy-five percent went on to say that they wish the media did a better job of portraying women of diverse physical attractiveness, including age, shape and size.

Source: Only Two Percent of Woman Describe Themselves as Beautiful: New Global Study Uncovers Desire for Broader Definition of Beautyhttp://www.dove.ca/en/#/cfrb/onlytwo.aspx/

But I think what impressed me the most about Dove's campaign is that they did not stop at just advertising that need to promote Real Beauty by having women (not the food deprived, over exercising models) pose in their advertisements. But when I went through Dove Australia's website, there is a whole section dedicated to this campaign and further information about the issue of body image, The Butterfly Foundation and the Dove Self-Esteem Fund. All of which reinforce Dove's message to "encourage young girls to have a realistic and healthy body image" (Unilever, 2007).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to sell Dove products here. I just wanted to bring your attention to a worthy campaign that a large corporation is helping to fund and raise awareness about. Many skeptics may say that it is all a part of their marketing campaign; but even if it is, they are still helping to highlight a very important message that impacts many young girls' lives.

References:

*Media Awareness Network. (2010). Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty. http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/educational/teachable_moments/campaignrealbeauty.cfm

Picture of Dove woman also from Media Awareness Network

Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com.au/dove-self-esteem-fund/links.asp

i WANT my chocolate!

When boys ask us to loose weight, is it really for our own benefit? Is it really about looking after our health and staying healthy? Frankly I, like many others out there,

don't think so. I guess for those guys who are actively working on keeping themselves healthy as well, it's fair that they are asking their girlfriends or wives to loose the extra kilos; but when a guy who doesn't really show much interest in his own health tells you to keep off the chocolate... you begin to wonder... is it fair?

Weight gain/loss has been a big issue for young girls and women of all ages. And now more than ever with celebrities and models with the 'perfect' bodies being thrown at your face in all forms of media outlets, not being conscious even the tinsiest bit is a very hard thing for even the most stubborn feminists. And now, with the well toned bodies of male celebrities like Christiano Ronaldo and Taylor Lautner (playing Jacob in Twilight) being thrown around in the mediasphere, body image is not only an issue for girls and women, but men as well.

Maintaining a 'nice' figure is something that most of us are after. Who wouldn't like to be able to slip into a swim suit at the end of winter without worrying about the unwanted wobbly bits? Who wouldn't want to look like a Victoria's Secret model? We all do! And because we want to achieve that picture perfect look, many even resort to more unnatural ways of shedding the kilos like surgery and pills. What's sickening, however, is when young girls, especially teens (and even pre teens!) go on crash diets to look like their role models they see in magazines and television. But the thing that many of us forget to realize is that these celebrities and models are paid to look the way they do; they earn a living through their looks (with a minority actually using their skills and talent).

But why is it that even though we know that the perfect figure exists only in magazines and among celebrities whose priorities lie in maintaining such a figure, we feel guilty while devouring a Ferrero Rocher or a double chocolate mud cake! Possibly it has to do with the society we live in that promotes skinny and size 0. Perhaps it has to do with the thought of visiting relatives who will comment on your weight gain, even if they haven't met you in over a year, making it seem like your weight is in fact the most important issue on the table.

Well regardless of our reasons behind boys asking us to watch what we eat because it is for our own good, or because you want to look like worthy of featuring in the next fashion magazine; it should make you happy, because in the end it is your body.

Images (in serial order)

1. I Wish I knew how to lose you- The Weight Loss Thread http://www.bettermost.net/forum/index.php?topic=44577.0

2. Weight Loss Kids http://www.almightydad.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/weight-loss-kids.gif

3. Miculka Madnesshttp://miculkamadness.blogspot.com/2008/06/weight-loss-wednesday.html