Campaigning for Real Beauty: Dove® and Changing Stereotypical Body Images as Seen in the Media

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Today society has never been more aware of the impact the media has on what is considered to be an attractive person. Those who are most vulnerable by what they observe as the American standard of attractiveness and beauty are young females. Their quest to imitate such artificial images of beauty has challenged their health and their lives and has become the concern of many. As a result, advertisements used in the media are featuring more realistic looking people. As the modern world has changed, the idea of what is beautiful has changed as well. Since the middle of the last century, female adolescents have developed an obsession with their weight and how their body should look according to what is depicted in the media. As a result, this obsession has turned dangerous. Stress is placed on thinness to the point where looking normal is being underweight. Such a body image has become perfection. This is not only seen on television, in live action movies, and in animation, but in real life as well. For example, in the animated film, “Shrek”, Princess Fiona is an attractive slender woman during the day. However, at night she becomes an overweight, hideous ogre (Kovar, 2009). This indicates to young impressionable females that thin means beautiful and being overweight means not being attractive. Due to such images, an increase in body dissatisfaction and the development of eating disorders have put the health and lives of some young female teenagers in jeopardy (Van Vonderen, & Kinnally, 2012). According to the National Eating Disorders Association body image is how a person sees themselves. For example, a young teenager will be critical of how tall she is, how much she weighs, and how developed her body is (“What is body image... ... middle of paper ... ... Interview by E. DeGeneres. "Plus-size model" knows what real beauty is., Retrieved from http://shine.yahoo.com/ellen-good-news/plus-size-model- knows-real-beauty-164200938.html Morris, A. M., & Katzman, D. K. (2003, May). The impact of the media on eating disorders in children and adolescents. Paediatr Child Health, 8(5), 287-289. Retrieved November 22, 2013 The Dove® Campaign for Real Beauty (n.d.). Retrieved November 17, 2013 Van Vonderen, K. E., & Kinnally, W. (2012). Media effects on body image: Examining media exposure in the broader context of internal and other social factor. American Communication Journal, 14(2), 41-57. Retrieved November 22, 2013, from http://ac- journal.org/journal/pubs/2012/SPRING%202012/McKinnally3.pdf What is body image?. (n.d.). In National Eating Disorders Association. Retrieved from http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/wh

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