Locating the Bodies of Women and Disability in Definitions of Beauty: An Analysis of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty

• In Event: Disability and Media

Abstract

Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty aimed to widen cultural understandings of diverse bodies and beauty. Drawing on feminist sensibilities, however, I argue that the campaign was mark by an ideology of naïve integration; while the acceptance of diverse bodies was espoused by the campaign, the discourse simultaneously reified many traditional beauty standards and practices. The subsequent ramifications on societal understandings of the body and the aesthetic value of women with physical disabilities are discussed.

Author

• Sarah Heiss, Ohio University