As I watched "Killing Us Softly," I began to think about what it truly means to be beautiful, and that made me remember a Dove commercial that I've seen some time ago. In the commercial, which I've posted at the end of this post, you'll see what Ms. Kilbourne has touched up on in the documentary: our manipulated perception of beauty. The media relentlessly plays with the public physcology, and distorts our definition of beauty. Nowadays, the formula of beauty equals to this:
Razor-thin body+colorful eyes+straight hair+always make-up ready face+stylish and expensive wardrobe..
OR
to make it easier to visualize in our minds, it is either Angelina Jolie or Cameron Diaz.
I bet for the ladies who are reading this, my 'formula' is not a big surprise because after all, don't we hear that men find these women attractive and chase after girls with similar qualities or don't our friends say they wish they had a butt like celebrity A or lips like celebrity B??
But why must such feature of a person be beautiful? Who decides this?
Obviously, the media does, and women are the ones who are victimized by these impossible, unrealistic, and shallow standards of beauty. These days, it seems like having a unique appearance or an amazing personality is not appreciated at all.It actually scares me to say this, but if this is how we are in year 2009 when the rates of eating disorders have skyrocketed like never seen before, then what will we be like in year 2019?? That is the core issue that we must tackle as soon as possible.
Finally, please watch the video below:
Wow the video was impressive. Avoid photoshop and artificiality please!
ReplyDeleteThat video gave me chills - I know these sorts of advertisements have damaged my self-esteem, and they continue to do so, even though I know they're not real...
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comments :)
ReplyDeleteYes, when I saw that video for the first time on facebook, it stunned me as well. Subconciously women tend to feel that they have to look as flawless as those ad girls. When I watched Killing Us Softly, I just knew that I had to combine it with that commercial! I hope by seeing things like this us, women, can be more self-assured and confident about ourselves and not let the media control our self-esteem.