Blogging for beauty? A critical analysis of Operation Beautiful

The Confidence Cult(ure)

“…LYB discourses rely upon and reinforce the cultural intelligibility of the female body as 'difficult to love' (Lynch 2011;Murphy 2013). In doing so they 're-cite' (Butler 1997 Women are recruited and asked to wear the patch (which resembles a plaster, hormone or nicotine patch) for 12 hours every day for two weeks and to make a video diary each day to report on how they are feeling about themselves.…”

‘Awaken your incredible’: Love your body discourses and postfeminist contradictions

“…An article in The Week, commenting upon this, noted that Dove's 'come as you are' campaign has an 'if you're flawless, that is' clause attached. (To say nothing of the assumptions about age, cis gender and able-bodiedness involved) Thirdly, it is striking to note that many of the companies at the forefront of promoting LYB are precisely those invested in maintaining female body dissatisfaction in order to sell their products (Gill, 2007;Johnson & Taylor, 2008;Lynch, 2011;Markula, 2001;Murphy & Jackson, 2011). 'ssshhh' say the women together, 'let's shut down fat talk'.…”

“…Online discussions testify to many women's relief and joy at the positive message of LYB discourses, and the emotional power of being encouraged-for onceto feel okay about themselves (e.g. Lynch, 2011). We have experienced this too, being moved to tears by many of the LYB videos circulating virally -marking the perpetually under-explored affective dimensions of ideology (Gill, 2008).…”

“…It has been argued that the shortage of literature addressing this discursive formation contrasts with its proliferation over recent years (Lynch, 2011). The latest advertising campaigns by Dove (2013), Special K (2013 and Weightwatchers (2013) -and we could add many others -testify to the sustained spiralling of these discourses in the space of just one year.…”

“…Here, then, confidence becomes a 'technology of sexiness' (Radner, 1993) that is more important than the look or size or shape of the body. This is reinforced through interviews with heterosexual men who extol the sexiness of body confidence, and advice from psychologists and lifestyle coaches who warn that neediness and insecurity are unattractive (see Gill, 2009; see also Lynch, 2011;Murphy, 2013;Murphy & Jackson, 2011). (Rodrigues, 2012), the show's narrative arc leads to a regular money shot in which the (previously insecure, shy, bodyhating)woman must 'bare all' in a public space-for example walk in only her underwear along a catwalk set up in a shopping mall.…”