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[vaughnfray]

The above picture is from one of Dove’s Real Beauty campaign ads. One can say many things about Dove’s picture, I choose to analyze two; why do these “real” women look so touched up, and also the women of color in the ad.

The first thing that popped out to me about this ad, was the three different "shades" of black women. I must say, seeing the dark skinned woman was quite refreshing. Women of color have it hard enough as it is, but being of a much darker skin tone, is almost a double whammy. There seems to be an overall negative view of dark skin, I am ashamed to say it, but I have been guilty of looking at darker skinned woman in a certain way. So not only do women of darker complexion get talked about badly from whites, but they also get ridiculed by their own people. The entertainment industry plays a large part in this unspoken view of “lighter is better” by repeatedly presenting women of lighter skin tones as the standard of beauty for women of color. In an article titled Mammies, Matriarchs & other Controlling Images, author Patricia Hill Collins quoted Gwendolyn Brooks "One of the first 'world' truths revealed to me when I at last became a member of SCHOOL was that, to be socially successful, a little girl must be Bright (of skin). It was better if your hair was curly, too --- or at least Good Grade (Good Grade implied, usually, no involvement with the Hot Comb)---but Bright you marvelously needed to be" I for one think that black people as a whole will never be able to grow as a people if stuff like this still exist.

We need to cut the BS and get rid of such stupidity like #teamlightskin #teamdarkskin because at the end of the day we are all black.

At first glance, the picture shows me that yes, Dove is trying to step away from the stereotypical aspect of what most Americans would consider beauty, you know, the white & thin type. I thought wow, Dove is truly being bold, but then I took a close look as these “real women” women, and realize that dove hasn’t truly made such a bold move after all. The women are obviously above the typical weight of women used to cover such billboards, but just like the thin women before them, these women don’t truly reflect the average looking women in America. Yes, the women might not be supermodels, but these women are all young, with good looking (Photoshop) skin, nice white teeth, and although they are rather shapely, there didn’t seem to be one stretch mark or “love handle” or cellulite for that matter. “Cellulite is unsightly, women’s natural aging process is shameful and flabby thighs are flawed”, that’s a quote I read in the article Dove’s “Real Beauty” Backlash. But I think it’s still a good thing that Dove is at least trying to somewhat step outside of the unattainable beauty that we are bombarded with on a daily basis. The author of DRBB, Jennifer Pozner said it the best when she said “Yet even though Dove's "real beauty" ads play to and subtly reinforce the stereotypes they claim to be exposing, it's impossible not to feel inspired by the sight of these attractive, healthy women smiling playfully at us from their places of billboard honor, their voluptuous curves all the more luscious alongside the bags-of-bones in competitors' campaigns.”

Well I suppose some progress is better than no progress.