Choose Beautiful

Dove’s new #ChooseBeautiful Campaign has sparked some heat on the internet. And I love the conversation that has grown out of it. Obviously, it’s main intention is to be a marketing deploy, but I really enjoy the topic it has brought up. It stirs up conversation that we has women need to have. The campaign revolved around real women having to choose between entering one of two doors–one marked “Beautiful” and the other “Average.” As I watched the video, my heart sank when I saw women hesitate and choose to walk through the average door. I even got teary eyed hearing that the reason some of these women choose average was because they didn’t see themselves as beautiful.

One of the qualms that people are having with this new campaign is that “…Dove [is] only focusing on beauty, it seems as if this is a marketing campaign, which, at the end of the day, it is” wrote Desiree Pharias of State Press. “For Dove to make the change that it is seeking out, it needs to add in more in-depth campaigns that will make women think of their other admirable traits.” And they expressed that a more viable campaign would have had door options for Funny, Creative, Kind, or Intelligent. And I agree, this would have definitely opened it up for more positive choices to be made. Although I don’t think it would have brought up this conversation around beauty, or point out, there is still something very wrong with the way we view beauty.

I think the word beautiful has many connotations attached to it. To some people its a word that doesn’t describe them and its an unreachable attribute, to some its a superficial word that shouldn’t be use to describe a woman, and to others it a word that holds a lot more meaning to it than depicted in media. I definitely fall into the last category. Let’s look at the definition of beauty:

noun

1. the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest).

2. a beautiful person

3. a beautiful thing, as a work of art or a building.

4. an individually pleasing or beautiful quality; grace; charm:

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Here is what sticks out to me: possessing qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind: a beautiful dress; a beautiful speech.

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For me beauty isn’t just about the physicality. It’s the depth of person. It’s their whole person. It’s every quality that makes up a person. Whether they see themselves as funny, kind, creative, or intelligent etc. It isn’t a word that should be used to compare or just describe our physical attributes–which we as society have accepted. We have accepted that negative connotation. Yes, its often thrown at us via media on a daily basis, but that doesn’t mean we need to catch. We should have conversations about self-worth and identity as women.

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We should be able to say I am beautiful, without shame. I am beautiful, I am intelligent, kind, creative, unique and I am beautiful with my imperfect skin, wild hair and chubby cheeks. I am beautiful because of who I am and what I look like. Beauty isn’t what billboard ads tell us is beautiful, its just who we are  (we are both our internal and external attributes. To not acknowledge one, I feel, is to not accept your whole self.)

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There are three stances we can take:

1. Let’s throw out beautiful, and focus on personal traits and never acknowledge our physical traits

2. Let’s throw out personal traits and focus on physical traits.

3. Let’s throw out beauty all together

4. Let’s celebrate all that we are skin & heart, pimples & ideas, scars & creativity, hair & humor.

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I vote Let’s celebrate our beauty! 

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If you watch my videos on a regular basis, you know that I usually always sign off saying “Remember that you are absolutely beautiful.” And I genuinely believe you are. We all are. It doesn’t matter what you look like or what you can offer. You are first beautiful just because you exist. And there is no one else like you.

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I think the only thing that can make someone “ugly” is a baaaaaddd attitude haha. And even then it usually stems from a place of hurt that no one bothered to reach out to.

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So, I choose to celebrate our beauty without shame and celebrate each other! What’s your choice? What are your thoughts on #choosebeautiful?