I just want to point out for a moment: Dove paid for this. Dove, the same company that preaches about how beautiful every woman is.

Now... I'm not denying that every woman is beautiful, or that women often see themselves as looking worse than they do.. but, the conflict of interest with this project remains. less

I'm not 100% sure what you mean in your first statement.
Dove recently has been doing more to include all types of women in their campaigns (while still fairly whitewashed and have women, while "fat," have curves in all the right places) and show that beauty is a spectrum and there is no "right way" to be a women. While i acknowledge there are a few problematic things behind this may be, it's still a nice change that a company is actively trying to show women who are atypical and are often hidden in media.

I'm just going to pull a quote form the article which sums up my feelings about it pretty well, "they're actually empowering individual women to appreciate their inherent beauty, and in turn, allowing us all to wonder if we've been judging ourselves too harshly."
This is what i feel dove is trying to do with this project by having these photos set up side by side and then having the individual look at them. In the video you can see how these women are really reflecting on how they have critiqued themselves vs how others see them. I do believe that women are put under a lot of societal pressure to look a certain way, and while it may not always be on the forefront of our minds, i feel we subconsciously will bring ourselves down based on our appearance - and i feel this experiment illustrated that very well. To me, it's telling anyone who watches it to take a step back and think about how we see our appearance and why we feel this way (negative or positive) and what it says about ourselves. less

In my opinion, even if this wasn't a legitimate project that these women knew nothing about, even if it was simply a 'paid marketing stunt', I absolutely loved it! To me, it was very thought provoking and I instantly found myself considering how much I do this myself, and how unnecessary it is. Whether it was done as they're claiming it was or not, I don't care. The idea was beautiful in itself and was a great way to get women to take a moment to think about themselves in the same way. Thank you for sharing this, I really enjoyed it! less

What I mean is it is a paid marketing stunt. "We'll pay forensic artist Joe Blow to draw pictures of women the way they describe themselves, and then how they look. Next, we'll publicize it just enough for it to sound like it was a cool project, and get boat loads of publicity! Then, people will argue about it in forums and people will openly support us because we are amazing!"


Just saying, be careful of any art or media project with a big company behind it. less

I was not in the least surprised by the results, yet it was as compelling to me as this topic always is. I think this will resonate with most women, regardless of experimental method & perceived conflicts of interest. Thank you for posting this.

I hate to say it, but there is a parody of this, but as if they tried it with men: link It's so damn funny, please watch it!

"Men. You're less beautiful than you think." less

What I mean is it is a paid marketing stunt. "We'll pay forensic artist Joe Blow to draw pictures of women the way they describe themselves, and then how they look. Next, we'll publicize it just enough for it to sound like it was a cool project, and get boat loads of publicity! Then, people will argue about it in forums and people will openly support us because we are amazing!"


Just saying, be careful of any art or media project with a big company behind it. less

I am going to say this very clearly and carefully: Dove is full of crap. I don't mean that we shouldn't consider everyone is beautiful (we should), or that the beauty industry doesn't need a revamp (it does). But consider this: Dove's parent company is Unilever, which also makes Axe body products (have you even seen the women in the commercials?), Slimfast, and --now pay attention-- Fair and Lovely, which is a skin lightening cream sold in places where it is completely normal for women to have darker skin and lighter skin is considered more attractive.

But don't worry. I'm sure they really want YOU to feel beautiful. In short, they want you to think they are some sort of benevolent, progressive company so you'll buy more product out of respect for their supposed position. less

I just actually learned about this recently, obviously after writing up this post, but as any company they are out to sell a product which i have acknowledged. However the company was not the focus of this post, ever, and i wish people would realize that before trying to derail the conversation and fixate on why Dove is a horrible company.

The whole point of this post was for people to reflect on how we see ourselves, and to think about why that is.

I literally do not care what company planned or give money to this experiment, only about the experiment itself, weather it was a planned marketing scheme or not. I don't support any of those companies and their products, as a personal choice, i do like that the dove campaign dose show a variety of women in their ad's because i feel the more media acceptance of all bodies is important to the development of young people and how we see ourselves. But like i said it's still done in a very problematic way, and being owned by Unilever only adds to the problem, however the "love yourself/body" campaign by dove is still an important one. It doesn't mean you have to support that company or buy their products but it's important to note that campaigns like such are valuable to the growth of our society. less

I just want to point out for a moment: Dove paid for this. Dove, the same company that preaches about how beautiful every woman is.

Now... I'm not denying that every woman is beautiful, or that women often see themselves as looking worse than they do.. but, the conflict of interest with this project remains. less

I was not in the least surprised by the results, yet it was as compelling to me as this topic always is. I think this will resonate with most women, regardless of experimental method & perceived conflicts of interest. Thank you for posting this.

I hate to say it, but there is a parody of this, but as if they tried it with men: link It's so damn funny, please watch it!

"Men. You're less beautiful than you think." less

Omg I started crying through the movie, it's true women (and men) often have such a harsh view of themselves and it was so interesting to see the different pictures, I would have liked to have seen all of them. I always wonder how I am perceived through other peoples eyes. I just thought it was sweet how kind and honest the strangers were, I think a lot of the time women feel judged by other women and men, that all of their flaws are on spotlight to others, but really we are our hardest judges. I really love dove and the campaigns it runs, they are so good for women. less