Understanding Body Images in the Media: A Feminist Critique of Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign
Faculty Sponsor(s)
Brenda DeVore Marshall
Location
Jereld R. Nicholson Library: Grand Avenue
Subject Area
Communication Arts/Rhetoric
Description
This study examined the Dove Real Beauty Campaign to better understand how young girls and women view body images in the media. Specifically, the campaign’s advertisement Sketches – You are more beautiful than you think was analyzed using the lens of feminist criticism to explore the messaging tools that Dove employed to help young girls and women become more confident in their own natural bodies. This particular advertisement challenged societal norms and traditional media practices through the use of the words and images of real, “unedited” women. By exploring the variations in one’s own view of one’s body image and how one is seen by others, the advertisement contributed to the disruption of the ideology of “beauty” dominant in the U.S. culture
The paper upon which this poster was based was written for the Senior Seminar course in Communication Arts. The paper was competitively selected for and subsequently presented at the Northwest Communication Association Conference in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho in April 2019.
Recommended Citation
Ditore, Megan, "Understanding Body Images in the Media: A Feminist Critique of Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign" (2019). Linfield University Student Symposium: A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Achievement. Event. Submission 29.
https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/symposium/2019/all/29
Understanding Body Images in the Media: A Feminist Critique of Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign
Jereld R. Nicholson Library: Grand Avenue
This study examined the Dove Real Beauty Campaign to better understand how young girls and women view body images in the media. Specifically, the campaign’s advertisement Sketches – You are more beautiful than you think was analyzed using the lens of feminist criticism to explore the messaging tools that Dove employed to help young girls and women become more confident in their own natural bodies. This particular advertisement challenged societal norms and traditional media practices through the use of the words and images of real, “unedited” women. By exploring the variations in one’s own view of one’s body image and how one is seen by others, the advertisement contributed to the disruption of the ideology of “beauty” dominant in the U.S. culture
The paper upon which this poster was based was written for the Senior Seminar course in Communication Arts. The paper was competitively selected for and subsequently presented at the Northwest Communication Association Conference in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho in April 2019.
