This heaven gives me migraine

[substitute]

Waiting for my mother at the doctor's office just now I picked up a magazine called "Organic Style", thinking "this should be good!"

It does not disappoint. A more descriptive name would be "The magazine for women who need to be so healthy and virtuous and beautiful that they are all hot yoga adepts and Jane Goodall and Susan Sarandon at once".

Ads for Shell Oil face editorials decrying Arctic drilling. A product sidebar touts a $249 "earth/peace scapulare" that makes a statement in 14k "recycled gold". There are many, many skin moisturizers and breakfast cereals. One is commanded to indulge everything, always.

The best part was a Dove ad. It was actually an ad for an advertising campaign (!). Dove wishes to celebrate "real beauty" of "women with curves" who are not size 2 models. They laud their own ad campaign, in which they stand firm for real women and unretouched photographs and celebrating... Anyway the women in the ad for the ad are impossibly hot twenty year olds with perfect everything laughing in their underwear. I guess it's okay to be a size 4 catalog model now, gals! Size 0 is no longer mandatory!

Comments

[hexennacht.livejournal.com]

Bah, bah, bah! I hate that commercial. The first woman you see is a beautiful, graceful, lean redhead with perfect, fresh-scrubbed skin. I alternately hate her guts and want to be her. My thighs make me a very bad person. :(

[ch.livejournal.com]

the problem of leisure ... what to do for pleasure ...

[sakkaranoush.livejournal.com]

i think i saw that dove ad in vogue, as well. but i noticed that although the women did appear to be hot women in their twenties, one had a tattoo that wasn't airbrushed. collectively, all those thighs i saw were a lot more chunky and normal than the usual sleek alien limbs i see in magazine pages! it was almost refreshing, but not quite.

it's progress, albeit minute. what can one expect from proctor and gamble anyway?

[substitute.livejournal.com]

You're right that it's better than the usual stick figure girls! I am a negative guy about media. I just reactly badly how they were patting themselves on the back so much for being slightly less insane and evil.

[besskeloid.livejournal.com]

Did they not have any nice women in their fifties/sixties in the US Dove ads?

[satoribee.livejournal.com]

Here Here! I used to read Glamor Mag back in high school. No one would have ever DREAMED of putting "less-than-perfect" models in their ads, even though they always had stories about loving your body, and it's ok to be imperfect... as well as the "how to lose 10 pounds in 10 days!" articles.

Back then, just lip service. Now a-days, someone got a piece of their good idea through, but unfortunately, still had to "sell" it.

That's harsh

[zrusilla.livejournal.com]

The Dove ad women in question look to be in the size 8 to 16 range. While not every single woman, they do represent a kind of Everywoman, as they are close to the statistical mean in body size. Last I heard, the hypothetical average woman was 5'4" and 144 pounds.

The strong reactions these ads have provoked are incredible. Craig's List Rants and Raves had a major flame war over whether these women were 'fat' or normal. In light of outrageous standard of beauty seen in advertising, I think you can see where Dove has had to only gently stretch the boundaries out.

Re: That's harsh

[hexennacht.livejournal.com]

Last I heard, the hypothetical average woman was 5'4" and 144 pounds.

Freakoes like me could use some positive reinforcement, and possibly a little bit more than the hypothetical average or statistical mean. Five-four, ha! I was hoping for a fiery redhead, six feet tall and built like a Viking.

I agree, absolutely

[zrusilla.livejournal.com]

It's not reasonable to ask a soap company to do that, though. At least not at this point in our culture's development.

BTW

[zrusilla.livejournal.com]

Red haired Valkyries are OK by me.