Reading Response 2: Dove Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHX6frPHpQo

This commercial shows a little girl looking at a billboard of a young woman dressed inappropriately. It goes on to show more billboards of other women dressed the same way with the words “irresistible, diet, and hot” showing up with the different billboards. At the end the girl is sitting on the couch in front of the TV with similar images. Writing pops up on the screen saying “girls are under more pressure than ever.” In the end it shows Dove workshops and women working with girls to find their true beauty. Dove wants girls to see themselves as beautiful. What I really got from this video were the words that popped up on the screen. America today describes people as hot or irresistible. And girls and women today always think they have to go on a diet to look that way. In reality women and girls should feel beautiful just the way they are. Our culture and the media is telling women and girls otherwise. In the olden day’s beauty was looked on as being heavier and pale, not skinny and tan like today is. Dove is trying to bring natural beauty back and make girls feel less insecure about themselves. In the commercial it said “two million girls have started to see themselves as beautiful.” The commercial is telling women to help little girls see themselves as beautiful. By going to Dove workshops it will help improve their self-esteem and make feel that they are beautiful. The cultural knowledge this commercial requires is that we know how people perceive beauty and how the media and America perceives beauty. We need to know what images are out there that younger generations are looking at and what images are being thrown at them constantly. Music and media today is all about being hot and sexy. The media and America needs to change their perception of beauty to that everything is beautiful in its own way. Girls and boys today are under so much pressure to be hot and irresistible and to follow trends that they need a reminder they are already beautiful and should stay just the way they are. Dove is reinforcing that you don’t have to look like the person on the billboard or the person in the magazine. You should see yourself as beautiful and just be yourself. Beauty comes in all different shapes and sizes you just have to look and see the beauty for yourself.