If you haven't seen the Real Beauty Sketches campaign by Dove, it is an absolute must watch. I've since watched the video about 10 times.
The campaign tells a wonderful story of seven women who sit down with a forensic artist. He asks each woman a series of questions to get a visual as he sketches. As you watch the video, you hear the women say things like "My mom told me I had a big jaw", "When I smile [my chin] protrudes" or "I have a fat, rounder face."
In the next scene, the women are asked to describe one of the other women in the group. The forensic artist then makes a second sketch of each woman as described by another person. The dialogue has a sharp contrast. You hear the other women saying things like: "her chin was a nice thin chin" or "she had nice eyes, they lit up when she spoke."
The difference in the sketches was astounding, I couldn't help but tear up as they reacted to the contrast of the drawings. The ones derived from stranger's descriptions were much more beautiful, welcoming, and true to life.
I read a lot of comments that this campaign was just a marketing ploy or a facade, because, in the end, Dove sells skin care products that women use to make themselves look better. Or that this campaign is still focusing on women's looks, and is still tying women's self-worth to looks. I disagree entirely. This campaign was created to open our eyes to an epidemic surrounding women: we need to learn to love ourselves. We are so incredibly hard on ourselves, it is disheartening. This campaign is not trying to tell us that looks are important, but how you perceive yourself is important.
As women, we spend so much time worrying about what people will think and being critical of ourselves. Time is spent wondering if others will judge what we're wearing, if we look good enough, if our hair needs a trim, if anyone will notice we gained 3 pounds -- the list goes on and on. It is exhausting! This campaign really shows us that no one is as critical of ourselves as we are. Our friends and family love us because of our positive qualities, our true character and the wonderful things about us. If we can begin to see ourselves just a fraction as positively as others do, we'll be on the right track.
The more we tell ourselves we aren't good enough, or focus on things we don't like, the more we will believe it. Continuous reinforcement of negative thoughts results in these thoughts becoming a belief core to our being. In order to change how you think about yourself as a whole, you have to change how you think about yourself each day!
I've been working on being more positive and accepting of myself. If I catch myself saying something bad about myself or my looks I immediately think "how is this benefiting me?" Usually my answer is that it's not benefiting me in any way! Tuning into my thoughts, and being more aware of how I talk to myself has made me realize how hard I am on myself sometimes.
As the woman in the video said, "I have some work to do on myself." I think we all do.
No comments:
Post a Comment