Selfie and self-image
Shots from SELFIE by Dove
How Dove’s new initiative encourages positive self-image
Article: Michelle Jones – Copy Editor
[dropcaps round=”no”]S[/dropcaps]elf-image has always been an issue among women. We know this. The majority of us deal with it on a daily basis. Some of us can’t even stand to look in a mirror because we hate what we see. The sad part? We’re being conditioned to think this way.
The fashion industry ensures our insecurities through comments about who can and cannot wear their clothing, having half-starved models on the runway, and Photoshopping the hell out of models in magazines with huge print on the cover beside them saying, “If you don’t look like this, you are not attractive.” Don’t even get me started on “thigh gap.”
This was seen on Cosmopolitan Magazine’s website a few weeks ago when supermodel Robyn Lawley was labeled as “plus size.” After a huge backlash, Cosmo removed the photo from their website, but are still publishing articles on “how not to look fat.”
In the wake of this atrocity, Dove celebrated the 10th anniversary of their “campaign for real beauty” by launching a film at the Sundance Film Festival entitled, “Selfie.”
The mini-film encourages high school girls and their mothers to take selfies as a way of showing what real beauty is, flaws and all. The photos were then exhibited and people left comments on sticky notes about the photos.
I started researching the film a little more, thinking it would make for a great opinion piece. That’s when I came across another opinion piece in the Globe and Mail, written by Marketing Reporter Susan Krashinski. She tore the mini-film to shreds, calling it “long, preachy and deeply misguided.”
Krashinski goes on to say that “selfies [have] created an environment wherein girls and women are exposing their physical selves to even greater scrutiny than they already experience on a day-to-day basis.”
She also says that, “If brands like Dove do not start talking about women’s worth beyond their appearance, they should be cut out of the conversation.”
It looks like we’re right back at square one. What she’s missing here is the fact that Dove is countering a daily battle that we are fighting over our body image. No one is attacking our personality. We are faced with being conditioned to hate our physical appearance.
Dove has a good campaign. They are fighting for something worthwhile. They have taken something that nearly every teenager does and are encouraging these girls to see the way they look in a positive light, instead of posting a selfie and pointing out their flaws. No other beauty company is doing this.
Perhaps Ms. Krashinski needs to get down off her soapbox, because at this point, she’s part of the problem, not part of the solution.
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