Like this:

Today I was browsing through Youtube, on the hunt for the links to the 2 Dove Self Esteem Fund videos that I enjoy so much (‘Evolution’ and ‘Onslaught’) to send as links to a friend.  And what should I come across – but a spoof of the Dove ‘Evolution’ video.  To give you some background – here is the Dove video….

And the link to the spoof version is here. (I can’t stomach the idea of embedding it into my blog!).

Now… I’m not a lugubrious killjoy and I actually do have a sense of humour.  In fact, I love to laugh.  And initially, when I watched the video, I was mildly amused – until the end of the video when the tag-line read as follows:  “Thank God our perception of real life is distorted.  No one wants to look at ugly people”.

Then I thought a bit about what I had just watched… and started to feel irritated, frustrated, angry.

In the work that I do, I meet countless women and girls who have such terribly low self-esteem – and a large part of the blame for their feelings of inadequacy can be placed squarely at the feet of the Western media (including the diet, fashion and beauty industries) and their extremely distorted perception of what beauty actually is!  The media, and it’s message, is impossible to ignore.  Our ‘inadequacy’ is blasted and trumpeted from the rooftops… magazines, internet, billboards, newspapers, movies, TV – everywhere you look – women are being told again and again and again… that we are not ‘enough’… that we need to be ‘fixed’… that we need to look a very certain cookie-cut way – and if (gasp!) we don’t fit into that cookie-cutter mould (which is a tiny mould indeed!) – then sorry for us – we’re not beautiful…and, if the video I watched today was to be believed – then we’re actually “UGLY” ! (unless, of course, we rely on make-up, lighting, camera crews, hairdressers and a small army of photoshoppers to save us from our ugly selves!)

Of course – the spoof video takes things to the extreme and you can see what they’re trying to say.  I can almost hear their comments after watching the original Dove movie for the first time … “Yeah, so what?  What are those Dove people trying to say?  Should we now use fat slobs in our advertising instead of beautiful women?  Isn’t that defeating the object?  Who is going to buy anything from fat slobs?  Who wants to look at fat, ugly slobs?   Huh?  Huh?”

Of course, nobody (certainly not Dove… not me… not any of the women that I work with) are saying that we’d like to endorse slovenliness and gluttony as a way of life.  I don’t know anybody in my field, in my circle – who would promote a lifestyle of binge eating, burgers, beer and cigarettes… this over-the-top caricature created by the spoof crew.

But wait… let’s just sweep all of that aside.  Let’s assume for argument’s sake that I am a grumpy stick-in-the-mud who missed the point of the funny-ha-ha video.  It’s just good ol’ harmless fun.  A bit of a poke in the ribs of a corporate giant (Dove).  A bit of a laugh.  Whatever.

The part I still have the biggest problem with is the sentence:  ”Nobody wants to look at ugly people”.

Who is the “nobody” referred to in that sentence?  Who are they claiming to speak on behalf of?   And secondly, who are the “ugly people”?  Would that be… uh… normal looking people?  People like you and me?  People who don’t fit into the media and beauty industry’s cookie-cutter mould of what defines beauty?  Because let’s be honest – Dove’s original video never implied that advertisers should rather use the likes of the ‘ugly slob’ on their billboards (as created in the spoof video)… instead of the photoshopped ‘beauty’.

All of this reminds of of a response to a post of mine, a few months back.  The post was titled: “Time to redefine beauty” - and one response was from a man called Ken who wrote this:

“You can ramble on with on how god created women to be this and that, and how women are all so lovely.  But fact is, i cant sell BEAUTY products using ugly girls like you.  btw:  You women set the standards!  If i could sell beauty products using “ordinary women” i would stop, but i CANT! And as long as you women buy the products plastered with these women, nothing will change!  Personally i would also rather look at these victorias secret models than age old fat asses like yourself “.

Nuff said.

PS:  I wonder if Ken was part of the crew who came up with the spoof on the Dove video?