The previous video from Dove's campaign stresses the influence a mother's identity can have on their daughters. Take for example the woman of Asian ethnicity, who says that she does not like her eyes and her nose. Her negative identity has influenced the way her own daughter identifies herself. This video shows the importance of a positive image of beauty, and the consequences of not being able to have that. On the other hand, the Caucasian mother who loved her legs because she could run with them, had a daughter who embraced her larger sized legs as well. I love this video because it makes us more aware of how our own identities can affect others around us, and also makes me upset that it is so easy for young girls to have a negative identity based off of a society with unrealistic norms.
Additionally, a New York Times article “Why Does the Beauty Industry Ignore Curvy Models?” emphasizes the lack of size diversity in marketing of the beauty industry. To have such a large, powerful and influential industry portraying an unrealistic identity for women, men and children, results in a society with normative views that are distorted and dangerous to the mental health and stability of so many people across so many cultures. I loved the creative director and senior vice president of MAC cosmetics view on this issue: “There is no formula… if a model has confidence in who she is and how she carries herself, size is irrelevant.” This is the mindset I wish that most companies had. The problem, however, is that the issue of body image acceptance becomes a cycle – how are these women of different color and size supposed to reach that level of confidence when the rest of the industry tells them they can’t? Much of these ‘idealistic’ elements of patrician features, height, white and thin, as stated in the article, can tie back to class and racism of the 1920s when American consumer culture and the modeling industry grew. Luckily, we are in an era where light is being shed on to this culture of beauty.
