When you’re in need of a Dove vox pop

In my last post I described the new Dove advert, both the one that aired in the UK, as well as the one on US TV, in a disparaging manner. My opinions on the US advert weren’t revolutionary or original, because as I’d mentioned previously, I had already read a post which had the same gist.

However, I wasn’t so sure of my opinions on the UK advert. Firstly, I couldn’t track down the video or any reference to it at all on the huge chasm that is the internet, so was half wondering whether it was actually a one-off advert and no one would have a clue what I was talking about, and secondly, I didn’t get many likes or comments on the post so lacked the validation that comes with online appreciation; although people told me in person they liked it – thanks!

Overall, I had gone from feeling very forthright with my opinions, and glad to be posting about something I truly cared about, to feeling I may have missed the spot a bit.

That was, until I was perusing my favourite online celebrity news site, and came across an article which mentioned the advert. Hooray – I’m not the only person to have seen it – however, the article was lamenting the advert’s greatness. Humph. But, being the perfectionist I am, I was more concerned with tracking down the video of the advert that I simply couldn’t find before so as to add a reference point for any readers.

After a quick Google search, I located the video (which is now inserted into my post), as well as an article from a real newspaper, not just written by a tabloid columnist, but a real intelligent writer…and the writer agreed with me! Albeit, they articulated their opinions much more clearly than mine.

It was probably one of the first times when I really needed some kind of reassurance in what I had written; as before when I’ve written posts on subjects that have divided opinion, there have always been those other opinions to side with, but I was writing fresh with this post and was relying on conviction in my own beliefs. Which in a weird way took me back to the Dove advert. In both the UK and US adverts, ultimately, that’s what the women are gaining – reassurance.

So although I don’t particularly like the adverts, and can’t empathise with viewers who have cried at the US advert (millions of people apparently, really?! really?!), I do understand how important reassurance can be. Among the most confident characters throughout the history of time, I can’t imagine there isn’t one person who at one time or another hasn’t suffered even an inch of self-doubt.

My problem with the Dove advert is the implication that all women, or indeed only women, suffer self-doubt about their appearance. I believe there are some women who truly give little thought to their appearance, those who are comfortable in the body they’ve acquired and those who think they’re fabulous from head to toe.

Giving reassurance to those with less confidence is an admiral thing to do, but isn’t anyone else tired of being told our appearance should be the main source of our woe? Do Dove really want to make women feel more beautiful, or is it a case of making sure that we’re continually worried about our appearance so that we continue buying their products?

What Dove could learn from a nursery class

As a matter of course, I generally don’t watch adverts, there’s normally something better to do in those crucial 10 minutes between whatever trashy TV I’m currently watching, however when the new Dove advert came on TV, I couldn’t help but sit up and take notice…then get annoyed.

Within the next couple of minutes I had opened my laptop and found a blog post also berating the new Dove advert. I didn’t set out looking for the post, it was the first thing that happened to pop up in my blog reader. Maybe on a subconscious level I wanted to connect with people who had similar thoughts, or maybe it was just a massive coincidence. Either way, it only inflamed my rage as I read on about the contradictions behind the company (Unilever) that tells us to love ourselves in our own unique way (or whatever the official spew is), while also selling skin lightening cream to Asian women, and telling men that the ‘Lynx effect‘ will get floods of women chasing after them; coincidentally women that look nothing like the ‘real’ women they use in the Dove adverts.

The Dove advert being critiqued in the post I found was the US version of the advert, which made me feel kind of lucky I’m not subjected to such drivel – I thought the UK advert was bad – but the US one is almost doubly cringe-worthy. The main premise of the US advert is that women enter a room, sit down on a therapist-style sofa, and describe themselves to this guy who draws people for a living, but the catch is – he can’t see them. The women are so annoying, all of them say ‘I have a big chin’ or ‘my forehead is huge’, then someone who has only just met them also comes in and describes that same woman, but lo and behold describes them in a much more complimentary manner. Don’t these women see how beautiful they are in the opinion of someone else? Isn’t that what’s important – how we’re judged in the eyes of other people? According to Dove, yes. Never mind if YOU don’t like your face, these other people’s opinions should be valued more.

If these women who have described themselves as being wrinkly or something along those lines do hate themselves, or feel like they would progress better in life if they looked more beautiful, as one of the women in the ad says, that is genuinely sad, but I can’t help think there are more sad things in life. Apparently this advert has moved lots of people to tears, but it just doesn’t move me – these people aren’t actually deformed in some way as the melancholic music tries to suggest, they are simply healthy women who point out aspects of themselves they’re not keen on. If something is actually sad, it probably doesn’t need the dramatic music, the words alone should move us.

The UK advert had the same message behind it – ‘can you believe these women can’t see how beautiful they are?’. What, you mean, after making Lynx adverts that depict the most desirable women in the world as being slim, tall, tanned with long hair, these ‘real’ women don’t think they’re beautiful – it truly is amazing, hey Dove?

That wasn’t my main annoyance with the advert, it was that they stopped pairs of women in the street and asked them what part of their friend’s body they envy – the ‘Beauty Spot’ campaign apparently. I just thought it was quite creepy – one woman out of a pair answered ‘I really like your bum’. Why should we have to be envious of each other’s bodies? I know that the message is ‘these women don’t realise they have really lovely body parts’, but I don’t like that we’re supposed to be envious of each other, or that we can’t just appreciate our own bodies. If I was stopped in the street, I’d be stumped to answer, not because my friends aren’t beautiful, but I’d find it easier to say I like her sense of humour or we have similar interests, not that I like her bum!

So what could Dove learn from a nursery class? Well, that there is no need to encourage people to compare themselves to other people (wanting to have someone else’s life is a sign of depression, stop it!) and that we should be happy being ourselves. But telling women to love ourselves – throw caution to the wind and stop obsessing over our bodies, wouldn’t make the beauty industry into the multi-billion machine that it is today – the notion that there’s always something we could and should be doing to make ourselves more beautiful, and henceforth a better person is what keeps the industry alive.

If Dove truly cared about women and their self-image, they would take note of this nursery song my four year-old niece likes to sing, and stop trying to get us to compare our bodies (whether they’re counted as ‘real’ or otherwise):

’1,2,3 it’s good to be me and I want the world to know it’s good to be me

I’m a special person and there’s only one of me

And no-one else is prouder of the person that is me!’

A Shuffle Ball Change Makes Everything Better

You should probably only blog when you’ve got something to say, but I’ve got a bit of a problem. It started last Monday when I realised that I had in fact coincidentally also blogged the previous Monday, which left me in a bit of a predicament. I’ve unwittingly attached a day to my blogging updates. I could throw caution to the wind and leave my blog alone until a bolt of inspiration strikes me and I have to scribble something down, but similarly to my need to have an even number of Facebook friends, and my younger self’s obsession of always having to have my quilt completely crease-less, I feel like I’m being dragged into a whirlpool which isn’t letting me get out of this Monday rut.

I’m erring away from writing anything critical or negative, there’s enough of that about, instead I’m opting for writing a post on things I really like at the minute, or things that are just giving me pure joy.

Musical Theatre Workout

This is a fitness class at my local leisure centre, which is so much fun! It’s only on once a week but I could do it all day, every day. For one whole hour, we basically dance to all the songs from the musicals, from Wicked, to Billy Elliot, to Legally Blonde, every musical you can think of our fitness instructor (who is such a good dancer!) has choreographed dances to, is there really anything better than that?!

‘Reality’ TV

This is such a guilty pleasure, and I know it’s not actually reality, but I love the escapism it provides. My favourites are Geordie Shore (groans from the whole nation) and Made in Chelsea. Geordie Shore, apart from the completely questionable antics they get up to, is actually quite funny, and I love that they’re completely unpretentious, something which is hard to come by now the UK has an extra four social classes to clamber through (really BBC, really?!). I don’t like Made in Chelsea quite as much as it’s much slower and there are a LOT of dramatic looks, which makes the actual dialogue quite sparse, but I like the little glimpse you get into a completely different world (these people are nearly all heiresses or just rahdiculously rich!).

Work, work, work…working on my shit

I love this song by Iggy Azalea, especially when it wasn’t played as much, I’ve heard it three times today so I think I’m getting over it – but it’s so catchy and fun!

American TV

Erm, so this is another TV thing, but I think American TV is really having a moment right now, or maybe I just never noticed it before. There was always Friends, then Will and Grace, but I think the humour in new American programmes is really spot on. I’m talking programmes like ‘The New Normal‘, ‘New Girl‘ and ‘The Mindy Project‘, which just really seem to have gotten out of the cheesy, canned laughter genre and are actually really funny.

Is there anything bringing a little bit of sunshine into your day at the minute?

Cake, cake, cake!

On Sunday just gone, I went to the Cake and Bake Show in Manchester, and thinking there’d be lots of yummy cakes on show, I took my camera along. Luckily that I did, as when asked for tasters from the audience I was picked out as the girl with the camera round her neck, so it scored me some yummy freebies!

There was so much on show, my sister and I really didn’t know where to start! The first table we encountered was displays by companies who do weddings and parties etc, not much free tasting, but a lot of creativity!

We had a further browse around the show and came across Stacie Stewart, owner of The Beehive Bakery and ‘Food, Glorious Food‘ judge, carrying out a demonstration of a hazelnut meringue and brownie cake, I then got my two seconds of fame by going up and tasting – I can confirm that it was delicious! She’s also a great personality – as anyone who’s watched ‘Food Glorious Food’ has probably worked out.

We had a general mooch around the massive array of cakes on sale – only actually buying a salted caramel brownie from The Brownie Bar which was delicious, if not a little bit overly gooey.

As well as watching a demonstration by Paul A Young, a lovely chocolatier, we watched a mini Great British Bake Off with some past contestants and saw even more wonderful cakes from the Clandestine Cake Club, a cake catwalk competition and cakes from the Squires School of Bakery.