Changing the World--Babies & Dove

How have you changed the world today? My most recent bit of activism is that I spent yesterday doing cartwheels in the fresh powder and making snow angels with A, throwing snow and playing tag. Today I spent time with my children, read to them, got them all in bed and they still know I love them. Is that world-altering? Check out this great quote:

"When God wants a great work done in the world or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn't stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunderbolts. Instead, he has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home and of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mother's heart, and she puts it into the baby's mind. And then God waits. The greatest forces in the world are not the earthquakes and thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are babies." (E.T. Sullivan, quoted by President Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, Dec. 2007, pg. 5-6.)

Two days ago I wrote a few letters--one to Dove of soap and lotion fame, and one to Reader's Digest. Here's what I wrote.

Dove Consumer Services
920 Sylvan Avenue
Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632

RE: Nude Advertisement

I was browsing through my January Reader’s Digest when my young daughter sat next to me so I could read her a story. I put down my magazine and we were both flashed by the nude Dove advertisement on the back. Horrified, I quickly turned the magazine over. I am very disappointed that Dove is stooping to nude advertising and I cannot support such an immodest campaign.

I understand that the Dove advertising campaign is an attempt to encourage and promote the courage and self-esteem of (older) women. In theory that sounds noble. However, the idea that posing nude is proof of confidence and self-esteem is fundamentally flawed. Nudity is not a measure of confidence. When you go to a board meeting, does the most confident of you come naked? Of course not! In my experience, the more confident a woman is, the less likely she feels that she has to “prove” anything by wearing revealing attire, or as in this case, nothing at all. A confident person dresses in a way that is appropriate for the occasion. And nudity in a magazine in my home is never appropriate.

I do not want my young daughters to grow up thinking they have to show their bodies in public to prove they have self-esteem. Modesty is not shame of ones body, it’s respect for one’s body. The model, Athena, is quoted as saying she’s never felt more powerful. The irony is that she looks nothing but vulnerable. How little self-respect she must have to sell out her body for something as trivial as a lotion advertisement.

I hope that you will stop your nude women advertising campaign. If I see another such advertisement, I will choose not to buy Dove products.

Sincerely,


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Here's the question of the day: Is it really a good thing when more women sell out their bodies? Dove's take is that all women are beautiful, regardless of age and shape. Sounds good, right? But do we really have to "prove" our beauty by baring all? Okay, you get my point. I think that's enough for now. Have a good night!