It's GUEST BLOGGER TIME!! WOO-HOO!
Everyone's into this Dove video at the University of Michigan too, so you're not alone. But let's think like researchers for a moment, and examine the state of the evidence.
It's hard to find fault with someone who calls you beautiful, so
thanks, Dove--but research on self-objectification (i.e., definition of self in
terms of appearance, see Harrison & Fredrickson, Journal of Communication, 2003)
shows that adolescent girls and women who define themselves in terms of their
appearance are at greater risk for depression, body shame, and eating
disorders. Key point: it makes NO difference whether you think you're ugly or
beautiful. The fact that Dove is encouraging us to feel good about our appearance
is nice, but it doesn't make self-objectification any healthier.
I link this body of research on self-objectification being
harmful even if you like what you see with Carol Dweck's research showing that
telling kids they're "smart" backfires as well. They do worse on
successive assignments and choose less risky options. It's a compliment, but
the underlying message is "Your value TO US is your intelligence." So
they get scared of performing poorly and thus losing their value to others.
When we tell our daughters that they're beautiful and smart, they hear that we
value them for their beauty and intelligence. If not, wouldn't we mention other
attributes? It’s a sort of individual-level agenda-setting process. So they
conclude that they'd better not risk seeming stupid, or looking ugly, and those
duties suck energy away from what's important. Even telling someone she's funny
can put pressure on her to be funny all the time. If you think you look ugly,
you put energy into fixing that problem, because your value is your appearance.
If you think you look beautiful, you put energy into maintaining it, because
your value is your appearance. The solution is not to convince yourself that
you’re beautiful; it’s to reduce the frequency with which you think about your
appearance as a central aspect of self altogether.
As for beauty specifically, let’s be literal about what it is: an
observer’s brain’s judgment of the aesthetic pleasantness of the array of light
rays that bounce off your skin and hair and through their retinas. Kind of a
weird thing to incorporate into our definition of self. But our willingness to
make beauty part of our self-definition is essential to Dove’s success. Witness
the script line at 5:35: “I should be more grateful (for) my natural beauty. It
impacts the choices and the friends that we make, the jobs we apply for, how we
treat our children… it impacts everything… it couldn’t be more critical to your
happiness.” Really? I think the truth is, thinking about ourselves in terms of
our beauty couldn’t be more critical to Dove’s bottom line.
As a parent, I try to compliment my kids mostly on things they
have control over even if they're not at their best. Anyone can be persistent,
curious, thoughtful, inquisitive, humble, and honest--and all of those things
end up producing good performance without putting the child's "smart"
identity at stake. As for beauty, do I tell my kids they’re beautiful? Of
course, because they ARE and it slips out sometimes. But I try to make it the
thing I mention least often, so they don’t get the wrong idea about what makes
them people of value.
Harrison & Fredrickson (2003):
Article about Carol Dweck’s research and the inverse power of
praise:
I do not disagree with the fact that self-objectification is something that leads to greater risk for eating disorders and body shame, or that Dove is focusing on that aspect of women and society today and taking advantage of it. But I believe that as a society, we are extremely beauty focused and place such a heavy emphasis on how we look, that Dove should be able to do something like this. Women today have such a lower sense of confidence due to standards of beauty in magazines and celebrities, that it impacts many other aspects of their life. By Dove doing this, it doesn't make self-objectification healthy, but perhaps we should see it as a building block for society to start to erase this self-objectification. If Dove helps women (and even men) gain back confidence and start to realize that they shouldn't base their beauty on society's standards, maybe we can start to weed out this problem of self-objectification. I do not think Dove's intention was to propel this problem forward, but to help try to erase it.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it is important to support good body image, it is also important to note that this video that Dove created has all of its four participants as Caucasian women, three are blonde, and have blue eyes, all are thin, and all are young (the oldest looks around 40 years old). In addition, the majority of the non participants are thin, young white women also. We see that the three black women in the project were drawn from participation. Two of them are shown briefly, describing themselves negatively.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to the lack of diversity in the video, there is a clear distinction between negatives and positives as well. The assumed negatives include: freckles, fat, rounder face, starting to get crow's feet, moles, and scars. The assumed negatives include: thin face, thin chin, nice eyes short and cute nose, and very nice blue eyes. These ideas of beauty are very restrained and do not include much diversity - in the aspects of race, age, or body shape.
The end of the video, a woman states that beauty "impacts the choices and the friends we make, the jobs we go out for, the way we treat our children, it impacts everything. It couldn't be more critical to your happiness." This quote enforces the idea that beauty and "perfection" are the most important things in life, and that everything else in the world revolves around what society views as "beautiful."
The constant battle of self objectification and beauty will always be a problem in our society, and I believe that it will not go away. The aspiration to be thin, beautiful and desirable stems from the media and its portrayals in magazines, runways and movies, all of which will continue to be utilized in the future. It is all about how you see yourself personally, and having it affect your self esteem in a positive way. If you are a high self monitor, you will always care about what others think of you, even if you aren’t told often how beautiful or smart you are. You won’t necessarily feel the pressure to live up to those traits because of other people; instead you just naturally care about what others think of you. If you are a low self monitor you don’t care what others think of you, and don’t have a desire to be like the majority and always looking your best to fit a certain image. I think this issue of self-objectification has a lot to do psychologically, and the way you perceive yourself. However, I do agree that when someone is told how beautiful, intelligent or thin they are, then there will always be that need to live up to that stigma. I agree with Kristin, that the Dove campaign is a good stepping stone to helping women realize they are beautiful in their own way, and Dove shouldn't be criticized for the video. If you look at their other video that was posted, about the phases the model went through before the picture was plastered on a huge billboard, then you will realize that Dove is also telling women that it takes a lot, even for models, to look as good as they do.
ReplyDeleteI think parents complimenting children on controllable traits that they can work on is very important, especially during their developmental years. But to play devil's advocate- just because the parent is doing this, doesn't mean their peers are. Peer influence is obviously something that also affects how a person's self developments, so they are then left with conflicting information. Not to mention, many parents, with less education on this topic, may not understand why complimenting their childs' physical appearance can be harmful.
ReplyDeleteThis was an interesting take on a common issue. I think it's very hard to try to find the perfect balance in what we say and what we value. As much as we try, we as a society will never stray away from valuing beauty. Nevertheless we can control how we portray this to our children. Though I understand the standards that may be set for our children in what we compliment them on, I don't think we should have to monitor how often we call our children beautiful or smart. I think what is more important is to make it clear that though intelligence and beauty are valued, they are not the only qualities that are important.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I do want to point out that the version the the blog is an abridged version of a longer ad (which contains more diversity Jessie). It is helpful to have this differing perspective on the Dove ads. While I agree that we should not place so much emphasis on external beauty, I think it is helpful for many women to see these clear examples of how they see themselves differently than others see them. The self portraits were described not as "ugly" but as dark, sad, heavy, etc. While the non self-portraits were described as, "happy, lighter, free." It seemed, at least to me, to be less about beauty and more about self confidence. I think Dove is using these ads to promote and focus on internal beauty more than external beauty and often, we are more [internally] beautiful than we think.
ReplyDeleteBrittany Robles
ReplyDeleteI had never really thought of the Dove ad in this way. Media is constantly bombarding us with imagines of beautiful thin women which they feel we should all strive to attain. For this reason when I first saw the ad I found it to be “refreshing” in a way to have more real life people being used in in ads. To have people that aren’t celebrities and don’t have hours to spend working out every day with personal trainers and chefs. However I feel that the point raised here is very true. While the people in the ad have changed the message is still the same thing, you need to be beautiful in order to be successful and happy. It is typical for young girls to struggle with their appearance and want to try to change themselves for no reason, and this should stop. I like the idea of parents instead complimenting their children on actions that they have control over. By rewarding them from appropriate behavior and being a better person, it will help them to grow into people that are more beautiful then any models. This is what ads should be focusing on, building up children to want to be good people who focus on doing the right thing and being kind to each other, not focusing on their looks.
This topic bring up many different opinions. I feel as though the topic of self-objectification and appearance will never be escaped no matter who you are. I dont think its bad for to compliment everyone saying they are beautiful because when it comes down to it, it can be anything in life such as intelligence, athletic ability, etc. that may be ridiculed and cause self-esteem issues. But as a community if we uplift the younger generation with encouragement in all of these aspects it could in turn build them up to not pay as much attention to the standards we are supposed to meet and create a standard that can change society.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was told I was smart as a child it did make me think about maintaining the ability. i never thought they were valuing my ability through intelligence. I just wanted to be complimented. Through high school I continued earned good grades in less conceptual classes, all around easier classes. The idea that you are smart plays a big role in wanting to continue to be at the top of your class, even if it means to go to a lower level. I did not take the AP classes because i knew I was not going to be the brightest and best which discouraged me to take that leap and perform poorly.
ReplyDeleteNo one wants to be the 'dumb' kid in any class.
I really think the complementing of a child depends on the child itself. As a child my parents always complimented my siblings and I on many different things, and I never thought that they were placing my value on the specific thing they were complementing me on or pressure. I always just felt valued as a human being if they complemented me at all. I think it is good for anyone's self esteem to be complimented on things they are in control of ( for example: getting good grades or how they style their hair) and also on things they are born with (for example: a great smile or powerful runner legs). Complements still make me feel good and valued to this day. I don't think a healthy person with a normal self esteem would be led into the path of thinking their entire worth is placed on that one thing someone complements them on. Recognizing that you have lots of things to value inside and out is what gives you a healthy self esteem and I think the Dove campaign is just trying to help women realize this. I do agree they could've added a little bit of diversity to this particular video, but the rest of their campaigns have shown women of all shapes, sizes, and ethnicity's. I still say bravo to Dove!
ReplyDeleteI found this an interesting article because being 'beautiful' is so prevalent in todays society. Being beautiful is an incredible compliment but I feel that the way 'beautiful' is portrayed in the media isn't actually 'beautiful.' I think children should definitely know how beautiful they are inside and out but it is definitely more important for them to understand the different meanings of beautiful, especially in comparison to the way it is portrayed in the media. I also agree with Erin when she says it depends on the child, because some children may understand the way women are portrayed in the media is not actually what they look like in real life. When i was younger my parents were constantly enforcing the idea that I am beautiful. They were always proud of the things i did, and believed that my inner beauty was the most important. Growing up many children do feel pressures of being beautiful but I think the Dove ad honestly did a great job showing women how beautiful they really are. I think this advertisement does have some important criticisms but ultimately i do think Dove did a great job showing women they need to ignore all the media and see yourself for who you really are.
ReplyDeleteAs intriguing as these Dove campaigns are, they are also rather subjective. Not all women feel that they are not beautiful. Granted the vast majority of women do experience some insecurities, but I think that the Dove campaign may actually be causing women to feel that they should feel and have more insecurities about themselves, similar to the effects of most media has on women.
ReplyDeleteI think that beauty will always be valued in our society. When parents compliment their children, I think their intiative could vary-simply expressing,reinforcing what they value about their child, etc.-but what if they're simply trying to protect their child? When I hear a parent telling their child they're beautiful and smart,I see it from a motivational and protective angle. Maybe the parent's initiative is letting the child know no matter what society tells/ forces upon you, know you are beautiful and smart. I don't think parents should ever stop saying this.
ReplyDelete-Karlyn Tupper
"I agree with this post, putting to much value on one trait is very risky. Especially with something as fleeting and subjective as physical beauty. When a persons identity is wrapped around something like this their ego puts them in constant fear of losing it, and in their mind losing their value as a human being. I like the idea of complimenting kids on things they have control over because firstly it makes them process orientated, which allows them to take pleasure from simply doing an activity and not outcome oriented which puts emphasis only on a result. Secondly it allows kids to try new things and not have to worry of necessarily being "good at it." This fear of not succeeding i believe is a huge barrier that stops people from trying new things and growing as a person in general."
ReplyDelete--Rejdi Canaj