Well, at least it appears to be working as an ad campaign.

[omorka]

The whole recent ad campaign by Dove appears to be ruffling a lot of feathers. Suffice it to say that:

1) I think most of the models in the billboard ad are pretty cute. If they're smart, I might even find them fuckable. Which is more than I can say about the pencil-thin supermodel type.

2) Even if I lost eighty pounds, I wouldn't look like that, so I don't think the campaign is likely to have any effect whatsoever on my self-esteem. (My pelvic bone is a size 12 before any meat is laid on it at all.) Having said that, I have students for whom that might not be the case; seeing healthy women in their sizes and shapes celebrated in their underwear might be good for them to the extent that any advertising ever can be (a questionable proposition, I realize).

3) And why is anyone listening to what guys think about the ads? They are totally not aimed at guys, unless more middle-aged men are using Dove soap and firming cream than I had imagined. And, oddly enough, I have only heard white men complaining; any black or Latino male bloggers weighed in yet?


Oh, and:

4) This guy is evil. And has something against women having elbows, knees, and lower eyelids. (Thanks to moontyger, whose Link of the Day had a link to this page.)

Comments

[teegarden.livejournal.com]

da chicago fellow is a tad sexist and ignorant of the overall human condition, methinks. but then, meknew that already, medid. :)

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

I don't know if men are sexist, but men are definitely -sexual.- We hear a lot about how women hate being treated as a sex object, but men... well, most of us would do some really strange shit to become a sex object. It's difficult for people like myself to remember that some people might not -want- that.

Every once in a while I consider making up a card which reads thus:

"Good evening. I present you this card because I find you sexually attractive. I am certain you have many other attractive features, such as intelligence, imagination, and personality, but unfortunately brains are not visible from across the room, and boobs are. Therefore I propose that we settle the sexual question immediately if possible, so we may get to know each other without further distraction or misunderstanding."

I haven't done so yet because of money, precise wording, and my belief that said card would not be taken well by three out of four single women. Still, I only wish things could be that straightforward...

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Some men are consciously sexist. I think most men have absorbed a lot of societal sexist crap unconsciously. So have a majority of women. However, a lot of the sexist crap they've absorbed has a lot more to do with power or assumptions of competence than it does with actual sex or even sexuality.

For example, I take is as granted that most people are sexual, regardless of their gender. However, this does come with myriad individual caveats having to do with age, size, gender, number, kink(s), turn-ons, partner/poly issues, "presentability," power, and previous random unpleasant experiences. I think the resistance to "being treated as a sex object" is really more about power, specifically objectification, than it is about sex per se. After all, women are punished for being sexual much more often that they're rewarded; being a bimbo or a slut isn't nearly as much of a social issue for a male.

It doesn't happen to me very often, since I'm quite far from most (bi or heterosexual men or bi or lesbian women)'s standards of beauty or even attractiveness. On the odd occasion that a male stranger expresses any sexual interest in me, I find it creepy and intrusive because he's a stranger, and because that context is more likely to lead to an assault than to consensual sex. I would probably have the same reaction to sexual attention from a male authority figure (and this is one of the reasons I am glad that most of the people in my chain of command are female), again, not because of any aversion to sex but because of the implied use of power. I generally find sexual attention from people I know who are not authority figures quite flattering, even if I don't have any interest in them (and my peculiarities are such that my having at least some interest in them is highly likely unless they're underage), although again, that's quite rare for me.

[moontyger.livejournal.com]

He also seems to have something against facial bones and collarbones...

There was a black man who commented about the ads and complained about how what he and most black men find attractive is *never* reflected in mainstream media (even black women celebrities are chosen or edited to appear as white as possible) and, given that, he found Roeper's assumption of entitlement to find ads sexually appealing astonishing and appalling (paraphrasing here).

[quantumduck.livejournal.com]

The ad campaign is very striking in LALA. Most of the women walking by these posters and billboards are much thinner than some of the women in the ad campaign. At least, they are in certain parts of the city. For tose women I wonder if this is an invitation to become more human.

With regards to the touch up artist you linkd to, I'm not sure I'd use the word 'evil' to describe him. He's doing what every touch-up is paid to do. 'Sweetening' an image is common practice. I remember when the Red Hot Chile Peppers appeared naked on the covoer of Rolling Stone and they complained that Flea's 'third nipple' had been removed. In most cases this guy's doing a very bad job of it. He fails to understand that less is more. His need to retouch every little bit has him doing WAY too much work. The final result is so obviously manipulated that it ceases to be a photo. Good luck to him, he'll need it.