a response to a response: on why the Dove ad needs to stop getting ripped to shreds
so i'm back once again to talk some more about beauty and the Dove ad. I KNOW. i went from posting about sunshine, friendship and the colour of the foliage on a completely irregular and not-that-often basis to not being able to shut up about this commercial. i swear i'll get back to the warm and fuzzies ASAP.
in the meantime...
after the Dove ad exploded on my Facebook, i saw one girl post that it was most unfortunate that this was an issue because we have so many actual issues at hand. we should be dealing with them. (and lemme tell ya, missy knows what it UP because quite frankly i really should be studying for commercial...but i can't, it's destroying my happiness! although, i'm pretty sure that's not really what this girl meant.)
this morning i read an article entitled "If You Saw Dove's Latest Ad Campaign, You Need to Read This Response". if you don't have time/don't care/only read this because you're my mom and/or brenda and don't want to go the extra mile, that's cool. i can do a little mini summary for you: Dove's campaign makes us feel weepy and empowered, but we would be remiss to note that the bottom line is that traditional beauty is still the name of the game. Brice writes "Brave, strong, smart? Not enough. You have to be beautiful. And "beautiful" means something very specific and very physical".
let me preface this by saying that i don't entirely disagree with Brice. the women in the video were all pretty. she's also right that the video focussed on white, blond, blue-eyed women. there are some flaws in the video. what i think is missing from the brief post my friend put on her facebook and from Brice's commentary is a deeper consideration of personal agency and how the sentiments in this video might encourage other women with low self esteem to boost their own agency.
i learned about the idea of 'personal agency' from this completely deadly prof at MUN in 2009 in a musicology class. to explain using my conception of the term, agency is the personal ability of a person to construct themselves and to go into the world and make the choices that they make. it is a subjective awareness of yourself and helps you decide how you will make decisions for your actions in the world.
how is the Dove ad and Brice and agency all connected? well, i think that the ad encourages us to step back and think about ourselves more objectively because yes, now everyone has been saying it, we are our own worst critics, yadda yadda. Brice's biggest problem seems to be that beauty was reinforced. ummm...obviously. what were you expecting? this is a beauty product. this is a commercial for tv. sure it's meant to make us feel good but it's also meant to make us love Dove and buy their products. the only products they are selling are beauty products. they are not selling therapy. they are selling soap and hand cream. but this doesn't detract from the idea that we lack objectivity when we perceive ourselves. i suggest that if we all had a greater sense of just how bomb we really were, we'd probably go forward as humans who are a little stronger.
i have this friend named mary. mary is a completely extraordinary girl. she has curly hair and it is black and she wears glasses and she used to wear african two-pieces but now she wears muumuus almost exclusively - because she's working with WorldTeach in Namibia. and apparently the dress code is exlusively muumuus. Which i think says a LOT - i still like her even though she has to wear muumuus? see, beauty isn't just skin deep... (i kid, i kid!)
anyway. with this interest in making a difference abroad, mary combined her background in music (we were in music school together, mary tickles the ivories) with the idea of agency and dreamed up this amazing idea for an NGO - to open up schools in towns stricken with poverty and teach locals how to play instruments, how to make music, how to create something. the idea was that if these people were to have such an ability, perhaps they'd be happier. if they were happier, they'd probably have a greater sense of personal agency and be better able to go into the world and create something else, to better themselves. sure, they need water and food...but a will to care, a desire to be in the world, the hope for a better tomorrow - these things are paramount if any individual is to succeed in this life.
mary's idea and goal is admittedly amazing. it's way beyond what i'm thinking about on a day-to-day basis. probably more than most. but the sentiment is one that i suggest permeates all of our thinking - that every day that you roll out of bed and you feel good about yourself, you're productive, you're more creative, you're kinder to your partner or your kids. when you feel a great sense of personal agency, you literally go out into the world and kill it! when you don't, the day drags on by, you struggle to get through it, you long to go back to bed.
i think what is missing in the criticism of the dove ad is that a change in mind frame for people with lower self-esteem is paramount in going into the world and being excellent every day. it doesn't have to be that you take the message from the Dove ad and simply say 'why yes, i am more physically attractive than i thought', it can be that your own personal negativity is about other things - it's about whether or not you're smart. it's about whether or not you're funny. whether you are musical, athletic, good at your job, loved by your partner, appreciated by your friends, missed when you are absent...all of these things that people feel negatively about.
i think Brice is right to raise some critical commentary about the commercial, because the more discourse the better, but it seems to me she was expecting something craaaaaazy from a beauty products line. if Dove had decided to make the video with a focus on something that wasn't a physical feature, i'm just curious as to how the FBI (btw, how tight was getting the FBI to team up with dove?! super power beauty products) sketch artist would have drawn that. also, the logistics of getting some objective person to come in and console their inner negative worries about not creating good work product at the office...? for example, what is the image of writing a good memo? i don't think there is one! come ON brice!
oh for christ's sake, it's a freaking commercial. can we appreciate nothing good?
in the meantime...
after the Dove ad exploded on my Facebook, i saw one girl post that it was most unfortunate that this was an issue because we have so many actual issues at hand. we should be dealing with them. (and lemme tell ya, missy knows what it UP because quite frankly i really should be studying for commercial...but i can't, it's destroying my happiness! although, i'm pretty sure that's not really what this girl meant.)
this morning i read an article entitled "If You Saw Dove's Latest Ad Campaign, You Need to Read This Response". if you don't have time/don't care/only read this because you're my mom and/or brenda and don't want to go the extra mile, that's cool. i can do a little mini summary for you: Dove's campaign makes us feel weepy and empowered, but we would be remiss to note that the bottom line is that traditional beauty is still the name of the game. Brice writes "Brave, strong, smart? Not enough. You have to be beautiful. And "beautiful" means something very specific and very physical".
let me preface this by saying that i don't entirely disagree with Brice. the women in the video were all pretty. she's also right that the video focussed on white, blond, blue-eyed women. there are some flaws in the video. what i think is missing from the brief post my friend put on her facebook and from Brice's commentary is a deeper consideration of personal agency and how the sentiments in this video might encourage other women with low self esteem to boost their own agency.
i learned about the idea of 'personal agency' from this completely deadly prof at MUN in 2009 in a musicology class. to explain using my conception of the term, agency is the personal ability of a person to construct themselves and to go into the world and make the choices that they make. it is a subjective awareness of yourself and helps you decide how you will make decisions for your actions in the world.
how is the Dove ad and Brice and agency all connected? well, i think that the ad encourages us to step back and think about ourselves more objectively because yes, now everyone has been saying it, we are our own worst critics, yadda yadda. Brice's biggest problem seems to be that beauty was reinforced. ummm...obviously. what were you expecting? this is a beauty product. this is a commercial for tv. sure it's meant to make us feel good but it's also meant to make us love Dove and buy their products. the only products they are selling are beauty products. they are not selling therapy. they are selling soap and hand cream. but this doesn't detract from the idea that we lack objectivity when we perceive ourselves. i suggest that if we all had a greater sense of just how bomb we really were, we'd probably go forward as humans who are a little stronger.
i have this friend named mary. mary is a completely extraordinary girl. she has curly hair and it is black and she wears glasses and she used to wear african two-pieces but now she wears muumuus almost exclusively - because she's working with WorldTeach in Namibia. and apparently the dress code is exlusively muumuus. Which i think says a LOT - i still like her even though she has to wear muumuus? see, beauty isn't just skin deep... (i kid, i kid!)
anyway. with this interest in making a difference abroad, mary combined her background in music (we were in music school together, mary tickles the ivories) with the idea of agency and dreamed up this amazing idea for an NGO - to open up schools in towns stricken with poverty and teach locals how to play instruments, how to make music, how to create something. the idea was that if these people were to have such an ability, perhaps they'd be happier. if they were happier, they'd probably have a greater sense of personal agency and be better able to go into the world and create something else, to better themselves. sure, they need water and food...but a will to care, a desire to be in the world, the hope for a better tomorrow - these things are paramount if any individual is to succeed in this life.
mary's idea and goal is admittedly amazing. it's way beyond what i'm thinking about on a day-to-day basis. probably more than most. but the sentiment is one that i suggest permeates all of our thinking - that every day that you roll out of bed and you feel good about yourself, you're productive, you're more creative, you're kinder to your partner or your kids. when you feel a great sense of personal agency, you literally go out into the world and kill it! when you don't, the day drags on by, you struggle to get through it, you long to go back to bed.
i think what is missing in the criticism of the dove ad is that a change in mind frame for people with lower self-esteem is paramount in going into the world and being excellent every day. it doesn't have to be that you take the message from the Dove ad and simply say 'why yes, i am more physically attractive than i thought', it can be that your own personal negativity is about other things - it's about whether or not you're smart. it's about whether or not you're funny. whether you are musical, athletic, good at your job, loved by your partner, appreciated by your friends, missed when you are absent...all of these things that people feel negatively about.
i think Brice is right to raise some critical commentary about the commercial, because the more discourse the better, but it seems to me she was expecting something craaaaaazy from a beauty products line. if Dove had decided to make the video with a focus on something that wasn't a physical feature, i'm just curious as to how the FBI (btw, how tight was getting the FBI to team up with dove?! super power beauty products) sketch artist would have drawn that. also, the logistics of getting some objective person to come in and console their inner negative worries about not creating good work product at the office...? for example, what is the image of writing a good memo? i don't think there is one! come ON brice!
oh for christ's sake, it's a freaking commercial. can we appreciate nothing good?
posted by emily at 8:59 AM
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