the newest short film in the dove “real beauty” campaign is live, and is ab-so-lute-ly stunning and breathtaking and powerful. i got teary. it was a sucker-punch to the gut. i have a daughter. i want all girls to know this. i…
that’s what my experience of watching it was like.
(ht to ypulse)
UPDATE, MORE STUFF:
fantastic post about all this by anastasia on ypulse.
excellent article on cnn.com about this: Pressure to Look Perfect Drives Girls to Destructive Behavior: Dove(R) and Hollywood Team Up to Give Girls a Reality Check About What Goes on Behind-the-Scenes
some important stats:– The average person sees between 400 and 600 advertisements per day – equivalent to more than one message for every waking minute.
– The average US girl has the opportunity to see an estimated 77,546 commercials by the time she is 12 years old.
This growing phenomenon is having a direct impact on girls’ self-image and even causing some to engage in destructive behavior. The Dove Self-Esteem Fund/Seventeen Body Image Survey also revealed:
– 93 percent of girls and young women report feeling anxiety or stress about some aspect of their looks when getting ready in the morning
– This could explain why more than 70 percent of girls and young women avoid activities when they feel bad about their looks including giving their opinion, attending school and even going to the doctor.
– 76 percent of girls and young women admit to partaking in unhealthy activities when they feel badly about their bodies
– 58 percent of girls describe themselves in negative terms, including words like “disgusting” and “ugly,” when feeling badly about themselves.
– Nearly four out of 10 engage in unhealthy eating behaviors, such as anorexia or bulimia.
– More than one out of 10 girls has used cutting or self-inflicted injury as a coping mechanism.
there’s actually sites for a number of different countries if you go to http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/selectcountry.aspx
so no matter if your in italy, brazil, the uk, or the us you can find materials that are more specific.
I just watched it with my daughter Alinea (11) on my knee. The lies I have been sold for my 42 years have played havoc with what I understand a woman is. I so long for her to have the truth. Far too often the church played a deep role in the distortion too – so I was squeezed in the middle – scylla and charibdes – the church’s distortion of women and the media’s distortion of women – far too many of us have been crushed and confused in between.
thanks for posting this marko. we are going to watch it in our small groups this week.
That was amazing. This world needs more of that.
Wow. I have 2 very young daughters and I worry about things like that so much. That is a great video.
Saulnier
Thanks so much. I am needing to have this talk with my 4 year old already …..
Wow. Thanks for pointing me to that video.
I appreciate you.
Thanks for posting that, marko. It’s really “funny.” I have had my ED (ED-NOS) since I was 19 years old (FINALLY getting a real handle on it) and do hold to my stance that the media had very little impact on the development of my ED and yet at the same time I do see where I have allowed it to help spur me on when I was not doing well.
Shameless plug alert: I’m so glad that YS is putting out curriculum specifically for middle school girls to help them face this issue with confidence. It’s coming out in the Spring.
Wow — that’s an intense video and it needs to be seen.
Brilliant!
At least as good as the photo-retouching one. This one hits a bit harder though.
–
My wife talks to the women in our church about this kind of stuff quite a bit. One of the things that she feels is important is to let girls know that they are pretty and beautiful from a young age – not to make them proud, but to give them confidence in how God made them. If girls grow up secure in their natural beauty, they may not be so vulnerable to the Onslaught.
Perhaps the church in general has been a bit too hard on beauty. After all, it is God who makes people beautiful.
Man, I hope my next child – due in January – is a boy.
The Onslaught attacks males as well. Not nearly as strong as for females though. And unfortunately the church is not immune. I remember taking my youth group of ten years ago to a youth conference. There we were telling the kids to be unique, be themselves, be individuals and 70% of the male youth leaders had goatees. Today they would have goatees and shaved heads. So to you Marko…great hair!
But Fitz, even if it is a boy, you will need to talk about it. Think of all the MS and HS boys watching those pictures and videos with hormones raging through them! What kind of distorted view are boys getting of beauty, sex and attractiveness? When they think of who to ask to the dance, are they looking for the closest version of those billboards? We need to teach our boys about real beauty too, so they can value and love the real young women around them appropriately. (I need to start now with my boys being 8 and 4…)
this stuff is so important. i’m glad you posted this.
i grew up trying to measure up to the victoria’s secret models. the professionals told me i was too short for runway modeling (I’m 5’10) so I did print ads and corporate marketing gigs..they told my i was too “runway” for the mainstream market…even when you get to the top, someone will find something wrong with something that has God breathed in you. that’s why seeking the kingdom first is so important–even when it’s hard and every other medium seems to be telling you otherwise.
i hate to be a total cynic, but i do not trust the motives of the unilever corporation (which owns the Dove brand)in this campaign. after all, they are in the business of selling beauty products, and do so by convincing you that there is something wrong with you that their product will fix. their message, reflected in the CNN linked article, seems to be “we can’t do anything about the ‘onslaught’ so we’ll help you deal with it in a healthy manner”. sounds like surrender to me.
i guess i would be less skeptical of their sincerity if unilever would drop the sexist ads for their ‘axe’ brand of deodorant marketed to young males.
the Dove ad is powerful. its the portal it leads to that i am wary of.
Hi Mark–
If you found the Dove “Onslaught” video to be a powerful motivator, I think you might appreciate the latest Dove project. It’s called “the Reality Diaries” and it focuses on the challenges faced by four real and very unique teen girls. You can view the series and learn more about it here: http://www.doverealitydiaries.com
I hope you find it helpful and something that might inspire any young girls/tweens that you know who could relate to any of the “Reality Diaries” figures.
Keep on writing!