Just remember that all this Dove crap is, in and of itself, an ad as well. Take it with a grain of salt
Hey, what ever floats yer boat! Personally, I don't think makeup and manicures make for an attractive woman. But that's how somebody feels. The important thing is you are happy with yourself. That's what I respect about this ad campaign - that it's encouraging women and girls to be happy with themselves rather than living up to some impossible standard. I take it you live in LA? I've got to mention, though, that you said "healthy body" and from what I've seen come out of LA, the popular image of a beautiful woman usually has a body that is FAR from healthy. I'm not saying fat is healthy. I'm saying anorexically skinny, is NOT. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Health is another thing entirely.
I live in San Diego county. There are a lot of women who are too thin and I realize that's not healthy. I am not too thin though. I am exactly what I should weigh for my height, maybe a tad less but I work really hard to be there not by dieting (I always eat at least 1800 calories a day) but because I run, play volleyball, take ballet classes, go for long walks on the beach, go clubbing a couple times a week to burn the drinks off and park my car in the farthest parking lot everywhere I go. I really work my ass off and am very healthy. Most of my friends are thinner than me and they are even more healthy, only eating organic foods, never touching sugar, play more sports than I do. I have very few friends with eating disorders and I know very few people with them. We are really active down here because we have outdoor weather year round. With that beig said I have both been hospitalized with an eating disorder for being too thin and have been 190 pounds at 5'9 before...I know I feel way better now at 137 even though to the rest of the nation my 190 prob did not look that large.
an manicures themselves are not what make me feel attractive. but i work so hard at bettering myself inside, going to therapy, trying to get into decent graduate schools, studying, reading that why shouldn't my outside reflect that? I want people to know what I am about when they look at me and I want to attract people who are similar to me and have similar interests and I have met some of my best girlfriends at the bar from recieving a compliment. To me it's not about being attractive, it's about being appealing-to everyone.
The extremities that the beauty industry go to to make women "beautiful" in ads and the media is insane. God forbid someone should have a zit or a dimple in their ass. I miss the days of natural beauty, when makeup wasn't needed and most women didn't wear it. I rarely wear makeup and when I do I surprise myself when I look in the mirror. Who I'm looking at isn't who I see everyday. But as for the image of beauty, it has been raped repeatedly and made into a false concept... I honestly worry for the next generation. Look what they have to grow up with. It's worse than my generation, in my opinion. I could rant for hours on this, but still. It's just terrible what we have to look at through advertisement.
