We are all human. This means that, unfortunately, all of us have at least one physical aspect that we dislike about ourselves. Such physical features can range from the daily pimples that gather around our chins, the subtle cellulite in our thighs, the braces that crowd our mouths or the pinchable excess skin that lines our waists. When it comes to making judgments on our outer appearances, we are cruel, insensitive and unbelievably harsh.
I had never thought about how unkind I was in my making judgments on my physical appearance until I came across a specific YouTube video: Dove Real Beauty Sketches. This short film was produced as a part of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty marketing campaign. While this video was quite brief, it had an incredibly long-lasting impact on the perspective in which I viewed myself, as well as others around me.
In this social experiment, several women and a few men—all complete strangers—were paired up. Each couple was given a chance to chat shortly, and then they were separated. Dazed and confused, all of the participants truly had no idea what they had gotten themselves into.
One by one, each person was asked to enter a room in a big warehouse. This loft was large and empty, except for a man sitting on a stool with his back to the door with a large drafting board sitting in front of him. He told the participant who was present to take a seat in the chair behind the curtain. This man was named Gil Zamora, and he was a Forensic Composite Artist. He began the session by asking each participant to describe him or herself. Each question focused on a specific physical feature. For example, he would instruct the participant: “Tell me about your chin.” He would follow the directions that each participant gave, and sketched out a photo of him/her based on the descriptions he was provided. He never saw their faces.
The participants that were featured in this study were mainly women. Each woman clearly felt uncomfortable when describing herself. One woman named Kela claimed that while she was being questioned, she was thinking, Oh man, now I have to talk about myself and think about my looks, as if doing so was one of the worst things in the world. The few blurbs that were featured displayed how hesitant and critical the women were when describing their features. Each woman’s explanations of her appearance often held quite negative connotations, even if the features she was describing were unique and lovely. Some phrases included, “fat, rounder face,” “protruding chin” and “crow’s feet”.
After all of the women had been interviewed about themselves, they were brought into the loft separately once again. This time, however, they were instructed to describe their partner that they had chatted with earlier. All of the participants, some of whom included men this time, were incredibly complimentary and positively highlighted the features that their partners were so critical of when describing themselves beforehand. Some of these compliments included: “She had nice eyes. They lit up when she spoke and were very expressive,” and, “Her chin was a nice, thin chin.”
Once everyone had been interviewed, the women were brought into the loft to see these mystery sketches. In all cases, the second portrait (which was the one described by the stranger) was more flattering, and more importantly, more accurate than the first one, which was described by the women themselves. After witnessing the dramatic difference between the two portraits, tears gathered at the rims of the women’s eyes, as many of them admitted that they were indeed more beautiful than what they had described.
While there are certainly several criticisms about this advertisement, I am going to look past those, and simply reiterate how important Dove’s message is.
As women, we attempt to live up to society’s standards of what is considered "beautiful," which results in us maintaining a tremendously skewed perception of what "beauty" truly is. This misled outlook causes our self-perceptions to be swarmed with what we consider to be imperfections and flaws, as opposed to the incredible attributes that make us the unique and gorgeous beings that we are. But regardless of these imperfections that stream through your mind on a daily basis, I want you to know something: You are more beautiful than you think. Unique, confident, self-loving and strong. That is beauty, and that is you.
Beauty is a state of mind, and is one that is always available for you to acquire. People obtain this mentality when seeing you, meeting you and getting to know you every single day. You are constantly seen as beaming and beautiful. It is time for you to immerse yourself into this mindset. It is time for you to love yourself as others do.
It is time to see yourself as the world sees you.
