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Real beauty (for ass men)
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Since Dove's "Real Beauty" campaign has won raves in the press, other advertisers are rushing to cash in on some of that "real bodies" action. Nike has just launched an image campaign in a similar vein, celebrating “big butts, thunder thighs and tomboy knees" -- or at least that's what Advertising Age said. I looked at the ads myself but the closest thing to a fatty here is, as Charles put it, "a tight, perfectly round ass."
Nike's campaign celebrates athleticism, not "real" bodies. I can't begrudge 'em for that (at least they're not selling anti-cellulite cream); still, the self-satisfaction of it all is a bit much to take. Dove's campaign was unbearable for similar reasons.
The ad agencies that come up with this stuff are largely responsible for perpetuating the anorexic model ideal in the first place. The only reason Dove's campaigns have caused such fervor is because advertisers have ignored feminist critics for decades and continued to parade the same bony skeletons with such uniformity that simply using non-anorexic models is enough to cut through the clutter. What advertisers are doing, then, is kinda like kicking someone in the shins and then offering to sell them a bandage. Far from thanking them, we should be kicking 'em back.
Posted by carrie on 08/21/2005 | Permalink
Comments
Even the NY Times stepped in this weekend to celebrate "real women" as portrayed by Dove and others, who are "giv[ing] heart to women everywhere."
Posted by: Jake | Aug 22, 2005 9:37:40 AM
Thank you! I've been getting so sick of hearing people talk about what a "great thing" Dove is doing for women. Ugh.
Posted by: Lisa | Aug 22, 2005 9:51:58 AM
Yikes!! Guess the Nike big butt ad is appealing... if you're Bobby Brown.
Posted by: Jim | Aug 22, 2005 10:11:50 AM
Out of curiousity, why is it politically correct to insult the slender with phrases like "bony skeleton" or "anorexic" but to suggest a person of larger physical stature is a "porky tub" or a "binge eater" suddenly one is labeled a "jerk?"
Sour grapes.
Posted by: ScoT | Aug 22, 2005 12:21:24 PM
"Bony skeleton" could theoretically be self-deprecating - at least that's within the realm of possibility - but sour grapes? You know not of whom you speak.
Posted by: Nina | Aug 22, 2005 12:32:50 PM
My complaint is with the repetition and uniformity of the models used in advertising -- the fact that a body type of very few women is trumpeted as the norm -- and not skinniness in general. As Nina suggested, that would be self-defeating.
"Bony skeleton" is indeed a terrible phrase, though. I've got to watch out for those redunancies...
Posted by: carrie | Aug 22, 2005 12:39:23 PM
Nina: Self-deprecating or not, the statement does not attribute itself to an individual but rather a group of people. Admittedly I meant to put a question mark after "sour grapes," but didn't. I did not intend any insult toward Carrie.
My question wasn't designed to call someone who believes that there are too few people of "real beauty" names but rather to question the vicious double-standard that seems to permit and encourage the slander of the slender. Carrie is, by no means, the only person in the media to report on the Dove advertisements and include what seem to be insulting descriptions of so-called thin models. I don't see a problem with expanding the scope of body-types chosen to appear in advertisements, I just find it irritating that Dove's "Real Beauty" ad campaign -- which is just another basic advertisement suggesting that beauty can only be obtained through the use of specialized products -- has been pegged as liberating for a segment of the female population while used as some sort of platform to slander the another segment of the population.
Posted by: ScoT | Aug 22, 2005 2:58:47 PM
Can I just point out that there is nothing progressive about reducing women to component body parts, no matter what their apparent size or buffness? I'm supposed to be grovelling in gratitude, but the underlying principle of this sort of advertising isn't any different to that underlying Buttman. Fuck 'em.
Posted by: Ms .45 | Aug 23, 2005 8:52:04 PM
i love them both even thought they insult booth my non existant ass and extra smooth skin
Posted by: Jeri | Jan 1, 2008 12:49:55 AM
