Body Positivity Monday - REAL "Real Beauty" from www.myheartdances.com

Love the photo, but how are anti-aging products "pro-age"??  I call foul!

Do you all remember the Dove "Campaign for Real Beauty" advertisements from a few years back?  I was mostly thrilled by those ads, which featured a variety of women - of all different ages, ethnicities, shapes, and sizes - seemingly celebrating their "real" bodies.  It was a step in the right direction, and I continue to show Dove's "Evolution" video about photoshopping in all of the workshops I give for About-Face.

The only catch... the images in Dove's product advertising seemed lightly photoshopped, they reified the importance of "beauty" by ironically encouraged us to love our bodies while selling us anti-cellulite and anti-aging creams, and - this is the heartbreaker - Unilever (Dove's parent company) continued to blatantly chip away at our self-esteem through their other brands' advertising, including the horrifyingly misogynistic Axe deodorant spray ads, and a massive business selling subtly racist "skin lightening" products overseas.  For all the good that Dove's "Real Beauty" campaign did for women and girls in the U.S., I couldn't help but wish for something that was REALLY real.

Which is why I'm so thrilled to share this video, sent to me by Melissa King of www.myheartdances.com.  In it, we see REALLY "real" women, i.e. with no makeup, no photoshopping, not even hairstyling.  We also get to hear these women's own thoughts about body image and the impact of popular media.  (It doesn't get more "real" than hearing from the women, themselves, rather than ad copy, no?)  Rather than subtly promoting anti-whatever creams, we are offered thoughtful anti-body-hatred.  It's a "real" winner. I hope you agree.

Enjoy and have a great week!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7_6RB_ERGU&feature=player_embedded

P.S. - I encourage you to share links of this video through your own social media.  I'd like this video to go viral, wouldn't you?!