Friday 27 April 2007

Beauty and Tech

Personally, I love Dove's beauty campaign of real women with real bodies as models, and I was thrilled to find that they have two new commercials that can be viewed online--one aimed at young girls' self-esteem and one showing the evolution of beauty by showing a model from the no-makeup stage to the billboard stage (and she barely looks like the same person, which I assume is the point!). Both are very powerful, and I immediately sent the videos to my friends who are health and wellness teachers. I thought it could be a great tool for discussion and written reflection with upper grades. For the research/library twist, I'm thinking that ideas of beauty in different cultures would be a great project to provide young girls with a different perspective of what is beautiful in other places. Something like a "Did You Know...?" activity. For example, in Africa, the bigger you are as a woman, the more beautiful you are perceived because it shows you have enough money for food. And for the Kuna people in Panama, albinism is considered a sign of good luck because their faces tend to be round like the moon.

http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/commercial.asp
http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/flat4.asp?id=6909

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tara -

I believe that Dove will provide you with a teaching package, complete with lesson plans. One of my classmates in Teacher's College this year used it during her practicum (and then ohters followed on her recommendation). Her only concern was the lack of diversity (non-white representation) in the package. She contacted Dove and they were apologetic about the lack of representation of other ethnic groupings.

This was somewhat significant for us here in TO because, the vast majority of our students are not white. SO - while the campaign is good, and the lessons quite excellent, during the classes where this was used by my colleagues, there was some very real disconnect in that the students did not recognise themselves in the material (I speak specifically of the girl model being made up for a photo shoot).

I do not mean to detract from the positive that Dove is attempting to put forth but just letting you know how some edcuators over here felt about using the materials.

Sharon

Anonymous said...

Wow...I have been focusing on your family blog and haven't seen your recent additions here. Way to go girl! You are going to set the library on fire with inovative ideas. Can I tell you how proud I am to have such a strong feminine woman in my midst! How fortunte SAS is to have such a strong female model in their school. Could it be hearing "I Am Woman" all those years ago? Ha! Ha!

Love, Mom

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the information, Sharon, and I'm so glad your friend contacted Dove and told them about it. I have been noticing a shift in advertising in just the last year or so to include more diversity. Just recently, I even saw an ad in People magazine with East Indian women. Hoping the trend becomes something we don't even think about anymore.

Tara

Anonymous said...

Just went to the websites "T". Powerful messages to our little girls of today. I am going to send your site to Michele for her girls. They are at the perfect age to be hearing this positive message. Thanks for sharing with your library world.

Love, Mom