Becoming 100 Percent Straight Summary

While the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty challenges women to feel confident in their own skin it also, uses hierarchal structures and oppression caused by our societies historical view of the ‘right’ female body in order to sell their product. By doing so, this campaign is teaching women their body is what defines them as a person and in reality, reinforcing what they are trying to prevent.
It is evident that throughout history, a women’s appearance including the colour of their skin, the texture of their hair and the amount of weight they carry is what has defined them. This has caused certain women to become oppressed if they do not fit into the ideal image that society looks for. Historically, if a women had fare skin, she was seen as a

In the reading “Becoming 100 Percent Straight” by Micheal Messner, we can see how individuals will follow certain patterns and norms in order to veer away from being oppressed. Not only have women been affected by this, however it is evident that the idea of being ‘different’ will affect the way both males and females fashion themselves. Messner speaks about a male who strives for complete masculine identity in order to fit into the institutionalized social constructs. He explores how males will carry on certain traits and do certain things, such as being a jock on a sports team, in order to avoid stigma, embarrassment and the suspicion of being gay (Messner, 2013). It’s not always that these males have a desire to play sports, however the desire to fit into to what society has deemed as masculine. We can see how being labelled differently by society has affected the way we manner ourselves and fashion our gender of choice. Companies such as Dove, have been able to take the oppressed body image and use it as a marketing tool, seeking those whom are deemed as “different” to buy their products. Women believe into such advertisement because they fear the idea of being

Unfortunately, the Dove campaign has not been the first to do so. This marketing technique has been used for centuries. Rice speaks about how the use of oppression towards the female body has been used to market products just like what has been done in the Dove Campaign. Rice explains, “industries have colonized and capitalized on women’s most intimate worries and wishes about their bodies to sell a dizzying array of products to expanding consumer markets” (Rice, 2013, pg. 390). In this Dove Campaign, they have actually used women’s insecurities and non- perfections as a way to sell their