Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Real Beauty

Via Nashville is Talking:

Rachel at Women's Health News links to an unbelievable film that's part of Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty. She's got more links to photo retouching exposes here and here. We all know that photos in magazines and such have been retouched, but it's powerful to see actual before-and-after evidence. Sheds a new light on the standards we hold ordinary women to...

UPDATE: GirlTalk weighed in on this same video today:

The Dove Campaign got it partially right—the fashion industry has certainly contributed to a distorted perception of beauty. ...their solution—“every girl deserves to feel beautiful just the way she is”—is well-meaning and yet...Even if every girl did “feel beautiful just the way she is,” it wouldn’t bring her true joy or lasting happiness or solve even one of her problems.

Truth be told, what we all deserve is not to feel beautiful but rather to be condemned to hell for sinfully seeking to attract the worship of our fellow creatures instead of living to bring glory to God.

God did not send Jesus to this earth to die so that women could get over their self-esteem problem and feel better about themselves. No, He sent his Son to die to rescue us from our sinful, futile quest for physical beauty and to reveal to us the satisfaction that comes from knowing God—whether we are beautiful or not!

What freedom and hope is found in Christ! We don’t need to feel beautiful about ourselves to find happiness! ...Rather, God has offered us in Jesus Christ forgiveness, hope, freedom from sin and a joy that never ends.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, what a great campaign, love it!

Bethany said...

I couldn't get the Dove Film to work. It would start and just stop. Will have to check later.

Being a photographer I know what goes into a lot of images and how easily some thing can be touched up. Photoshop is quite amazing. I had a link on my blog awhile back called www.fluideffect.com

they have a before and after section that you can click on the before text and it shows the image before touch up. There are quite a few famous people on there.

These are a great reminder for all gals out there.

Kayla said...

Powerful words....but so hard to accomplish!

Amy said...

yes, they're hard words. lots to chew on.

Steve asked me last night after I showed him the video, what it made me think. and honestly, I really wasn't sure. but a couple of things came to mind: one, I don't think the girl looked better in any of the "before" pictures. as much as I hated to admit it, or as much as it wasn't reality, she looked more beautiful after they covered and fixed and adjusted everything. and two, I wished someone would retouch all my pictures like that--and somehow make me look like that in real life. sad, but that's what ran through my head.

it was refreshing to read the girltalk response later and be reminded of how to think biblically about this. outward beauty (lack thereof) has always been a sensitive issue for me...so as hard as it is to hear "you don't deserve to feel beautiful" I know they're right about subtle pride and where real satisfaction comes from. I need to be reminded of truth even if (ESPECIALLY if) I struggle to live in it and apply it.