The Dove Real Beauty Sketches - a Raising Men opinion & perspective.

Dove recently launched their Real Beauty Sketches campaign on the 14th of April and have been creating quite the stir online. By stir, I mean the video alone has about 28 MILLION views to date. 28 MILLION in two weeks. 

Dove conducted a compelling social experiment to explore how women view their own beauty in contrast to what others see. The film shows Gil Zamora, an FBI trained forensic artist, creating composite sketches of seven women based on their descriptions of their looks. Prior to their session with the forensic artist, each of the women were unexpectedly asked to spend a short period of time with a stranger without being told why. Zamora then drafted sketches of the women from the stranger’s depictions. The difference between each rendition was quite remarkable, and many of the women had strong emotional reactions as they were forced to reassess how they see themselves. I've been tracking the campaign (as one Head of Social Media for a digital agency does) and in light of my 'photo shoot' blog post this week, I had to share it. 

I have never considered myself particularly beautiful for any length of time. I have never looked at the mirror and went "Hey you, you're totes good looking" par the odd glass-of-wine-induced-vanity. I've been getting undressed in the dark since my teens, I've had kids, I've gained and lost weight, had skin problems and never considered myself a physically beautiful woman. Looking at these pictures, I realized how this affects me on a daily basis in all my interactions. How my insecurities have affected not only me, but my marriage, career and even friendships. Tell someone that you think you look or feel good might open  up to a whole other sort of criticism -from others. "Oh she's so full of herself" but grant every woman you know a bit of ego and vanity because we ARE all beautiful. We give life, we nurture, protect, heal and we love with our whole hearts. A woman's body is incredibly powerful. Her smile, and her ability to light up an entire room with a confident and sunny disposition. 

I got hold of Dove head office (I could start my own Carte Blanche right now you guys) to get my hands on these high res sketches because you need to see them close up. I particularly wanted to share it with all husbands, fathers, brothers and sons in my life too. Be very careful of the words you use on women. On little girls. On your sisters. Your girlfriends. One comment about her hips, her legs, her anything could leave a stain. Beautiful is not skinny, not perfect. Beauty is self confidence, intelligence, kindness and taking care of yourself. Pride. Grace. Generosity of spirit. Here is the campaign on how women perceived themselves, and how they are seen by others. 

This is obviously an incredibly powerful campaign that stirred a lot of emotion and realization in a lot of women, including me. Watch the video for the women's reactions and a documentation on how the process was carried out here. While I have your attention, please do like the Dove South Africa page on Facebook here for more updates, inspiration and launches. I leave you with my favorite quote from the most beautiful woman of all time. Preach.