Fourth graders feeling fat: The plummeting self-image of young girls
Girls like Sarah Totonchi (shown here in 1986) were convinced they were fat at age nine
In his recent article for the Wall Street Journal, Jeffrey Zaslow reports recently contacting women from a 1986 study of fourth graders, in which 75% of the girls revealed that they felt like they weighed too much, and more than half claimed to be on diets.
The girls weren’t alone in their concerns about weight: a fourth-grade boy, when interviewed, said “Fat girls aren’t like regular girls. They aren’t attractive.”
But the societal pressure on girls has increased exponentially during the two decades since the first interview. Continue reading
“America the Beautiful”: Why beauty is out of control.
You’re reading the About-Face blog, so I’m gonna guess that you’re interested in the various messed-up ways women and girls are portrayed in media, and how it can really damage our self-esteem and self-respect. Well, now there’s a movie about it! It’s the new documentary “America the Beautiful,” and you should really go see it.
I saw the documentary last night in San Francisco, Continue reading
Our face falls: Positive Dove ads retouched to high heaven? [updated]
[Update 5/9/08: An article in AdAge today reports on a statement from Dove and the retoucher mentioned in the New Yorker article discussed below. See updates throughout this item. -J.B.]
[The Dove ads: Lots of retouching? Really? Did you have to break our hearts?]
[Update: Phew -- turns out there may not have been much retouching after all.] Continue reading
Do It, Dove!
Once again Dove has spoken to the hearts of About-Facers. Their latest “Onslaught” commercial tells parents to “talk to [their] daughters before the beauty industry does” after showing clip after clip of advertisements, commercials, etc. parodying messages given to girls and women every day (or more acuratly, every minute) by the beauty industry.
Continue reading
Dove Does It Again with Pro-Age Ads
Oh Dove, how you woo us. In the latest series of ads meant to motivate women to buy products based on positive feelings about themselves, Dove has created a truly sassy commercial for Pro-Age, a line of products for women over 50 years old. Here I’ve posted some still images of the commercial, which you can watch on the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty web site.
Maybe you’re thinking, “I’m not even close to 50! Why should I care?” Listen sister, you are going to be 50 someday, so don’t you need some positive role models who actually feel comfortable in their skin? Raise your hand if your mom (or older sister, or aunt, or grandmother) hates her (insert body part here). Let’s see some women who love their (insert body parts here).
The Campaign for Real Beauty web site states that Dove couldn’t show these commercials on TV. I’m not sure whether TV markets wouldn’t accept it (the women are nude, after all), or whether posting it on the web site only is just a marketing tactic.
Dove also took out a four-page ad in Oprah magazine’s March 2007 issue that spotlights one of the women in the ad. (If you have a copy, please send us a scan of it… submissions@about-face.org)
Congratulations to Dove for continuing to help women feel good about themselves. You may be selling us beauty products, but at least you’re not insulting us in doing it.
– J. B.
Dove shows us the scary, scary evolution of beauty
OK, serious time. This ad by Dove (ahem, our new heroes) gets right to the heart of what we do here at About-Face. It’s a shock to a lot of women that the ads and images we see every day are manufactured and completely fake, which is what this video illustrates. Check it out and see if it doesn’t change your perspective.
The fact that the woman is white and blonde-haired further illustrates that everyone, regardless of ethnicity, is looking at and wants to fit in the same ideal. So the ideal might be even more damaging and painful for women of color, who simply will never be white.
Take a good look at the woman at the beginning of the movie. I don’t know about you, but she looks like a lot of girls and women I know, not like a model. Let us know how this ad has changed the way you think by leaving a comment below.
(You have to have the Flash plug-in installed to watch the movie.)