September 15, 2005

| American Privacy >>

I have been meaning to write this post forever — ever since, in fact, I walked into the Montgomery MUNI station one afternoon several months ago and saw every surface covered with Dove’s new ad campaign. I don’t know if you’ve seen it — the signature image is the one at the top of this post.

My first reaction was totally positive. I was like, hell yeah! Diverse depictions of beauty! Rock on!

But my appraisal soured as I read some criticism. For instance, from Alas (a blog):

Let’s not forget how very little Dove is giving us. All the women in the Dove ads are conventionally attractive; all of them are below the average dress size of American women. No one in Dove-land is fat, no one in Dove-land is disabled, and no one in Dove-land has any wrinkles.

And Mind the Gap says:

But at the risk of sounding like a humourless, spoil sport, never satisfied feminist I