Stereotypes of Women’s Body Image: Dove Fights Back
In a world that is constantly bombarded with stereotypical images of females having to be thin in order to be accepted in society as being beautiful, Dove, a company renowned for its wide array of beauty products has decided to make a stand to break the mold with the emergence of their Campaign for Real Beauty. Since the start of the campaign, their mission has been to break the stereotypical norms of what media and society constitute as beautiful and promote women’s self-esteem by means of utilizing the media to project images of women that are stereotypically “big” or “wrinkly” and connecting them with ideologies of beauty and happiness in their advertisements. Through this, Dove has been working to recreate the stereotypes of female body image in the minds of today’s society by using the priming and unconscious effects of already-existing media as a weapon against it, ultimately redefining the societal standard of beauty as all-encompassing of all body types and increasing self-esteem within females.
In the words of Potter, “Hollywood has created a standard of beauty that does not exist in nature” (Potter, 174). This standard of beauty for females involves being youthful, tall, extremely slender, big breasted, and having facial features similar to that of a Barbie doll. Women who fit within this stereotype have perfectly manicured nails, long and healthy hair, and bones protruding from their hips and collar bone which accentuates their thinness. It is the extremely thin nature of the stereotypical “beautiful” women than is most prominent. They are thin to a point which is nearly unattainable through healthy means of exercise and appropriate dieting.
Unfortunately, this stereotype of women having to be extremely thin to be beautiful is nearly inescapable as is practically the function of media itself to perpetuate some stereotypes (Monahan). In today’s “peek-a-boo world” of media, society is constantly being ambushed by images from the media in an endless stream (Postman, 77). These images are extremely short and incoherent, forcing advertisers and other media creators to portray characters within already-built stereotypes in order to relay their messages effectively to audiences. The media has utilized the female body image stereotype as described previously in advertisements, television shows, movies, music videos, news broadcasting, and every other aspect of the media. This constant exposure to images of thin woman being associated with beauty consequently results in the priming of cognitive pathways, activating stereotypes of female body image (Perks).
The public is impacted by these messages by means of subliminal advertising, or otherwise defined as “unconscious effects of advertising” (Potter, 200). This method of advertising is achieved when an advertised message is perceived by the public without them realizing it. Through this, advertising creates “worlds that do not exists and makes [the public] want to be a part of those worlds,” alternatively creating the perception that you can achieve instant beauty by using the advertised product or service (Potter, 200). This is misleading to the viewers because it gives them a false perception of themselves and establishes the belief that the advertised product or service is all they need to fit within society’s definition of beautiful instead of being their own kind of beautiful.
Since 2004, Dove has been working to redefine the female body image stereotype of “thin as beautiful” by means of flooding the media with images of people of all physical appearances as being beautiful and utilizing unconscious effects of advertising. In September of that year, research showed that only two percent of women considered themselves to be within the societal standards of beauty (Dove). After realizing how detrimental this statistic is to the self-esteem of women in today’s society all because of the female body image stereotype already in place, Dove made a vow to increase this percentage by means of a complete media revolution: the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty.
Their first action as media revolutionaries was the release of an advertising campaign that featured women of all physical body types: thin, heavyset, youthful, wrinkly, tall, short, and more. Dove then asked viewers to participate in a poll on their website that involved asking viewers how they would rate featured models on a scale from ugly to beautiful. The participants, who were actively involved in the interaction with others in the online discussion forum, seemed to experience positive psychosocial benefits” by expressing their concerns regarding “the media's practice of objectifying female bodies” (Kim). When their research coincided with the pre-existing research that sparked their campaign, they decided that they needed to take their campaign a step further.
The year 2005 marked the kickoff of the second part of Dove’s campaign with the launch of advertisements featuring “six real women with real bodies and real curves” (Dove). The campaign motivated thousands of women to visit the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty website where they discussed all the ‘dirty little secrets’ of topics pertaining to body image. Due to the fact that these images did not align with the images the public was already receiving unconsciously about the stereotypical female body, this campaign caused much debate over the idea that one must be skinny in order to be beautiful. This widespread debate and negative feedback did not hinder Dove’s campaign.
In 2006, Dove was motivated to continue their campaign after Spain banned overly thin models from its fashion runways (Dove). This paved the way for Dove to launch their compelling short film, Evolution, which represents the transformation of physical appearance that is done to a model with the use of photo editing software before the ad is released. This was an effort to “promote awareness of how unrealistic perceptions of beauty are created” (Dove). This short film exposed how advertisers create alternate and extremely fabricated perceptions of reality by utilizing the technology of today’s digital age. Within this same year, Dove launched the Dove Self Esteem Fund which was worked to reach girls and women in order to educate them about the real meaning of beauty. This was brought about through linking up with the Girl Scouts in the U.S. The Dove Self Esteem Fund launched a commercial representing this campaign ending with the quote, “We’ve created the Dove Self-Esteem Fund because every girl deserves to feel good about herself” (Wentz). These efforts created such an impact that Dove was named Advertising Age’s Global Advertising Campaign of the year award winner in 2006.
The year 2007 marked the third stage of the campaign when Dove realigned their focus to an older generation of women (Dove). This stage of the campaign “celebrated the essence of women 50+ [with] wrinkles, age spots, grey hair, and all. It was brought to life through a communications campaign created with internationally renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz” (Dove). In this manner, Dove reached above and beyond the youthful female population to be truly encompassing of all women. Along with this new advertising campaign, Dove created yet another short movie which represented the unrealistic messages and images that girls see in the media today concerning body image. This film along with the previous short film produced in 2006 showed the public how advertising techniques already in place reached women on an unconscious level, perpetuating the female body image stereotype of “thin as beautiful” in a manner that was completely unrealistic and falsified.
In 2010 Dove took the campaign to the next step and teamed up with the Girl Scouts of the USA as well as Girls Inc. and Boys & Girls Clubs of America (Dove). They have implemented the creation of educational programs and activities that encourage girls to love their body. It is their goal that in 2015 they globally have reached over seven million girls. In this manner, Dove is going beyond the normal means of advertising to reach out to the public and educate them not only in terms of media literacy, but in the love and acceptance of oneself. Working in this way with other already influential groups in order to make an impact has created a wave of influence on both the national and international levels.
The current year of 2011 marks the continuation of the Dove Campaign through their global study, The Real Truth About Beauty: Revisited (Dove). The results showed that “there is a universal increase in beauty pressure and a decrease in girls’ confidence as they grow older” (Dove). Likewise, it was emphasized that society and media only portray women who are youthful as being examples of beauty. These statistics are alarming and serve as motivation for Dove to continue their efforts in raising the self-esteem of women across the globe through the demolition of the preexisting body image stereotype in society.
Over the past eight years, Dove has worked through advertising campaigns, short films, foundations, co-sponsorships, and research in an effort to transform society’s standards of beauty among women in a more positive direction and greatly increase the self-esteem of all women. By way of breaching the public’s consciousness through their advertising efforts, they have made society more aware of the troublesome effects of stereotyping females as having to be thin and fit into one, specific physical mold in order to be considered beautiful. By showing images of women of all shapes, sizes, colors, ages, and personalities, they have redefined beauty as being a happy, unique individual who embraces her physical appearance as well as character.
