I’m seeing this video making the rounds on Facebook again, so it seemed timely to revive my post about the huge manipulation of images in today’s advertising. As a new blogger I wasn’t savvy enough to embed the video; now I am but the Dove people won’t allow it, so click here to watch the one minute transformation of actual pretty girl to manufactured supermodel.




As my friend (and hair stylist) Glory likes to say, “Inner beauty is for amateurs.”

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A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the expectations of beauty we have for Christian women in the public eye. As a follow-up, check out this short video showing the work involved in transforming a regular girl into a billboard stunner. As one blogger put it, “Seems those magazine beauties don’t really exist after all…which means that many of us guys have a subconscious measuring stick no female can measure up to without moving in and out of Photoshop at will.” You’re just now figuring this out?


But we shouldn’t come down too hard on the men. Many of the women who complain about our culture’s unreasonable standards of beauty are the same ones spending huge sums of money on Botox and miracle wrinkle creams. We claim to resent it, but our dollars and attention fuel the machine.

(And I can’t prove this, but I think we do it more to impress and compete with other women than we do to attract men.)


This video is part of Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty” which promises to, among other things, donate grant dollars toward “the Program for Aesthetics and Well-Being” at Harvard and develop a “self-esteem fund” for young girls. I doubt Dove will single-handedly change the nature of advertising in this country, but it’s a brilliant advertising ploy in its own right. And I have a pimple today so I’m going to watch the video again.

Filed under: life, men and women, opinions Tagged: aging, airbrush, beauty, Campaign for Real Beauty, Dove, evolution video, Photoshop, self esteem

<====  Really?

Why just one small section of my hair is naturally wavy.

Voluntarily checking carry-on luggage.

Most of what my neighbors do.

Dry-clean-only pajamas.

Sororities. So with enough votes she’s your lifelong “sister”—without them she’s a nobody?

Couples who sit side-by-side instead of across from each other at restaurants.

Long nails, real or fake. How do these women get anything done?

Buying expensive baby clothes.

How men are brave enough to storm the beaches of Normandy with a canteen and a bowie knife but can’t initiate a ten minute conversation to break up with their girlfriend.

Enjoying winter.


Yes, there’s more.

Filed under: opinions Tagged: Idiot's Guide, self esteem