Reclaiming the Idea of Beauty

   For many of us, a long time ago would only be thinking back so far as the early 2000's; if you can remember as far back as that ancient era, then you'd recall the anorexia trend that engulfed Hollywood.  Everyone was obsessed with being skinny, the skinniest, no matter how detrimental to their health it was.  Few dared stand up to those killing themselves in the name of beauty; one brave company however did.  In 2005 Dove created its "Campaign for Real Beauty," an effort to show that real women had real beauty, and didn't have to torture their minds and bodies to reach some unnatural physical state.  

   With a tagline like "Real Women have Real Curves," Dove sought to explore reality and promote the idea that the image of beauty is what the beholder makes it, not some airbrushed, stripped down, malnourished shell of a human.  Dove recruited real, everyday women, and created a slew of ads to promote the image of real beauty as what's really seen in everyday life.  Those working at Dove knew through research and even just looking at women of the world, that the frenzy to continue getting smaller and smaller was nothing short of extremely dangerous.  Susan Orbach's essay further explored the backing for the necessity of some intervention on behalf of women everywhere.  From as young as adolescence, girls to grown women felt imperfect, flawed, and thought they needed to change themselves in order to be beautiful.  Eating disorders became epidemics that seriously harmed women everywhere in their pursuit to make themselves this unnatural "beauty."  Dove's mission then became not only helping save these girls and women from a terrible fate, but also fixe their psyche so that future generations could come and go without having to fear for their health or self esteem.  I personally commend Dove for its actions; women don't need to feel pressured into feeling any less than what they are.  Real beauty, like the old adage, is not just skin deep, but in the eyes of the beholder.  If a woman feels beautiful, then in her eyes she is beautiful, and doesn't need to have that image of herself challenged by others.  

   Remind me to personally send Dove a Thank You card on behalf of all the guys in the world, because they were able to reach women in a way that we've been trying to do for forever now, to tell them that as a woman she doesn't need to go out of their way to be beautiful, just be who she really is.