Dove’s “real women” campaign = Charade of the highest order
By Editors on June 30, 2010
Dove’s latest casting call for its real women campaign recently stipulated in a Craigslist ad that all potential candidates MUST HAVE FLAWLESS SKIN, NO TATTOOS OR SCARS! Fair enough, it is a beauty campaign, after all (thought the lady on the left in this photo has about a gallon of ink on her right thigh). But we love Jezebel’s take on the matter:
Its definition of “real women” (a loathsome term if ever there was one) is fairly narrow and does, in fact, adhere to typical beauty standards: the women looking to be cast must be “naturally fit,” must have “flawless skin,” be free of tattoos or scars, have “nice bodies,” and, in case you missed it the first time, “beautiful hair and skin is a MUST!!!”
The emphasis on being “real” but also being totally flawless is somewhat hilarious and tragic, in that the entire point of the Dove campaign is to challenge the definition of the word “beauty.” Asking women to show up with “beautiful hair and skin” implies that there is already a set standard for such things, and that Dove does not, in fact, want to deviate from said standard, even though their entire campaign promises to do so. There is something very gross about all of this, if this ad is legit, in that it speaks to a somewhat creepy trend of casting “real women” to represent “the rest of us” while still adhering to strict representations of what is traditionally considered beautiful.
“[Dove's] emphasis on being ‘real’ but also being totally flawless is somewhat hilarious and tragic, in that the entire point of the Dove campaign is to challenge the definition of the word ‘beauty.’ Asking women to show up with ‘beautiful hair and skin’ implies that there is already a set standard for such things, and that Dove does not, in fact, want to deviate from said standard, even though their entire campaign promises to do so. There is something very gross about all of this, if this ad is legit, in that it speaks to a somewhat creepy trend of casting ‘real women’ to represent ‘the rest of us’ while still adhering to strict representations of what is traditionally considered beautiful.”
