
By now you may have seen the viral Dove ads entitled
Evolution and
Onslaught. When I watched these short films/ads I felt "Wow, Dove is a socially responsible company and is really trying to reverse damage done by the media and the beauty industry".
The first ad shows how a beautiful model's image is made up, lighted, Photo Shopped , basically distorted to an unnatural degree, proving that there's no sense in wishing you looked like her...She doesn't even look like "her". Women and girls are fighting, dying, for a standard that is not even real. It makes me wonder how the models feel. They are told they are the most beautiful women in the world, but even that isn't good enough.
Now, the second ad shows a beautiful, innocent, young girl, then we are bombarded by all of these these fast images of hyper sexualized objectified women,and advertisements making empty promises and women undergoing drastic surgical measures to be what society tells us is beautiful. It's as if it's from a young girl's point of view. We have been desensitized to it all when many girls today look up to Bratz dolls and Britney spears.
It is everywhere and completely overwhelming for girls subjected to what others think they are supposed to look like. It effects boys and men as well. They end up having a twisted idea of what beauty is or what a normal woman looks like! Our perception is consistently warped when it comes to what is attractive anymore.
On the other hand, I'm not entirely sure the dove campaign for real beauty is totally sincere. I don't mean to be a cynic, but let me be the devils advocate here for a minute. Before we line their already well-lined pockets, let's think about it.
The ads, technically for
Dove Self-Esteem Workshops, carry a good message, but are they good intentioned? Are we to believe they care about our self esteem? Our psychological well-being? Or is it just an effective marketing ploy taking advantage of women's insecurities?
I'm not saying there's a corporate bigwig somewhere laughing maniacally in his/her turned around cushy chair, but Dove is a cooperation, and cooperations are after profit. Now there's nothing inherently wrong with selling or using beauty products, but there's a bit of hypocrisy here. The ad says "Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does" Dove is a part of the beauty industry.
Dove's parent company, Unilever also owns
Fair and Lovely and Axe products. The ads for F&L and Axe absolutely contradict what Dove's campaign is trying to do. One tells darker skinned women in Africa, the Middle East and Asia that only white skin is beautiful. Axe commercials are entirely misogynistic, using scantily clad disproportionate women to play on boy's insecurities, making them think that using their product will make them attractive and, well, get them some.
I'm not saying not to purchase Dove products, heck I have some Dove shampoo, but I think it behooves us to analyze why we buy or
buy into things.
In the end it falls upon us parents to teach our children what is right and wrong. To counteract the unhealthy stigmas that are placed into our children's subconsciouses. I'd like to think that as Muslims or as people living in a so called Islamic country, we don't have to worry about these types of issues, but it's just not true. I have 3 young girls, Alhamdullilah and already, 2 of them (ages 6 & 8) are particular about their hair and clothes most of the time. It wasn't always this way. The world is changing. I'm sure I didn't give a thought to my perma-ponytail or look twice at a lipgloss until at least 11 years of age. We all want better for our children and it gets increasingly more difficult when the world is getting worse.