Locating the Bodies of Women and Disability in Definitions of Beauty: An Analysis of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty

Abstract

<p>Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty" aimed to widen cultural understandings of diverse bodies and embodied beauty. In this essay, however, I question the ability of the campaign to confront the limits of our current cultural understandings of embodied beauty and diversity. Drawing on feminist-disability theory, I argue that the campaign represented an ideology of naïve integration. While the acceptance of diverse physical bodies was espoused by the campaign, the textual and visual discourse simultaneously reflected many traditional beauty standards and practices. I draw key examples from the discourse to support my claims that the campaign's discourse (re)inscribed meaning to the normate body and (re)made the body through traditional beauty practices. The subsequent ramifications of societal understandings of the body and the aesthetic value of women with physical disabilities are discussed.</p>

Youth for Sale: Using Critical Disability Perspectives to Examine the Embodiment of ‘Youth’

“…Uncovering the notion of youth as an aesthetic project begins with recognizing the body as discursive and culturally inscribed with meaning [6,[14][15][16]. During the 1990s examining the consequences of bodily representations became central to feminist theory [15,16].…”

“…As the literature points out, youth is a commonly recurring feature of the idealized body [6], something that becomes anecdotally apparent when considering the number of products available on the market claiming to prolong youthful looks, especially for women. Research has considered the aged experiences of living with images of ‗bodily perfection'.…”

“…One of the aims of such bodywork is to retain a ‗youthful' body [6,8]. Youth is abstracted from the lived, embodied, experiences of young people's lives to be sold as a commodity through beautification products aimed at prolonging…”

“…In other work [1], I have asserted that young people are demonized as risky and rebellious, whilst simultaneously criticized for being lazy and apathetic; two intertwining, yet conflicting discourses meaning that young people's here-and-now experiences take a backseat to a focus on reaching idealized, neoliberal adulthood [2]. Critical examination of adulthood ideals, however, shows us that ‗youthfulness' is itself presented as a goal of adulthood [3][4][5], as there is a desire, as adults, to remain forever young [6]. As Blatterer puts it, the ideal is to be -adult and youthful but not adolescent‖ ([3], p. 74).…”

“Disabled People Are Sexual Citizens Too”: Supporting Sexual Identity, Well-being, and Safety for Disabled Young People

“…Even twentyfirst century on-screen portrayals of the sexual body are focused on the non-disabled body. One example is Dove Company's "Campaign for Real Beauty, " which failed to include disabled women (Heiss, 2011).…”