Spring Break
Forget skinny
Dove embraces the "normal" woman
Andrea Robertson
Issue date: 7/30/08 Section: Opinion
The makers of Dove bath and body products are no longer working just to make women who use their products feel beautiful; now they want women to know they are beautiful inside and out.
Impossible standards purported by Hollywood of what makes a woman beautiful have prevented many women from viewing themselves as attractive. A positive body image and good self-esteem are battles that many women fight and often lose.
Dove asked women living in the U.S. if they felt they were beautiful--only two percent answered yes. Eighty-one percent of women surveyed said that they feel the media and advertising set an unrealistic standard of beauty that most women can't ever achieve.
Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the rate of teen girls committing suicide rose 76 percent in 2004.
Eating disorders and the misuse of sex as validation are other common ways that women also try to boost their self-esteem.
Sadly, none of those options truly make women feel good about themselves or see how beautiful they really are.
Dove, realizing the issues women face when confronted by an unrealistic definition of beauty, has made it its mission "to make more women feel beautiful every day by widening stereotypical views of beauty."
In order to take action against this problem, Dove created two programs: the Dove Self-Esteem Fund (DSEF) and the Campaign for Real Beauty. Dove hopes that these programs will help girls and women all over the world defeat the many issues women face regarding society's perceived definition of beauty
Through the DSEF, Dove, along with the Girl Scouts of the USA, conduct self-esteem workshops and after school events for girls ages eight through 17. At these programs, girls participate in at least an hour-long educational program that teaches each of them about a positive self-image.
With the hope of reaching five million girls by 2010, Dove has already helped an approximate 2.3 million girls.
Dove also provides a portion of the profit from every purchase of their products to the DSEF in order to help conduct the workshops.
The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty led to the decision to stop using professional models in their ads. Dove's plan to use "regular" women of all ages, shapes and sizes is targeted toward the average woman in the U.S.
With their programs, Dove hopes that women will eventually speak out against the issues of unrealistic standards most women have set for themselves.
Their cause is worthy, and the powers behind it are to be commended. It would be great if other companies would soon follow their example.
This writer can be contacted at opinion@theeastcarolinian.com
Impossible standards purported by Hollywood of what makes a woman beautiful have prevented many women from viewing themselves as attractive. A positive body image and good self-esteem are battles that many women fight and often lose.
Dove asked women living in the U.S. if they felt they were beautiful--only two percent answered yes. Eighty-one percent of women surveyed said that they feel the media and advertising set an unrealistic standard of beauty that most women can't ever achieve.
Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the rate of teen girls committing suicide rose 76 percent in 2004.
Eating disorders and the misuse of sex as validation are other common ways that women also try to boost their self-esteem.
Sadly, none of those options truly make women feel good about themselves or see how beautiful they really are.
Dove, realizing the issues women face when confronted by an unrealistic definition of beauty, has made it its mission "to make more women feel beautiful every day by widening stereotypical views of beauty."
In order to take action against this problem, Dove created two programs: the Dove Self-Esteem Fund (DSEF) and the Campaign for Real Beauty. Dove hopes that these programs will help girls and women all over the world defeat the many issues women face regarding society's perceived definition of beauty
Through the DSEF, Dove, along with the Girl Scouts of the USA, conduct self-esteem workshops and after school events for girls ages eight through 17. At these programs, girls participate in at least an hour-long educational program that teaches each of them about a positive self-image.
With the hope of reaching five million girls by 2010, Dove has already helped an approximate 2.3 million girls.
Dove also provides a portion of the profit from every purchase of their products to the DSEF in order to help conduct the workshops.
The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty led to the decision to stop using professional models in their ads. Dove's plan to use "regular" women of all ages, shapes and sizes is targeted toward the average woman in the U.S.
With their programs, Dove hopes that women will eventually speak out against the issues of unrealistic standards most women have set for themselves.
Their cause is worthy, and the powers behind it are to be commended. It would be great if other companies would soon follow their example.
This writer can be contacted at opinion@theeastcarolinian.com
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Alyssa
posted 7/30/08 @ 10:26 AM EST
Thank you so much for writing this article. I realized that Dove had started the Campaign for Real Beauty, but I did not know they had started the Dove Self-Esteem Fund (DSEF). (Continued…)
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