Why Are Real-Life Beauty Campaigns Not Truly Inclusive?
On today’s show, Oprah kicked off her O Girl, O Beautiful Revolution to celebrate a girl’s beauty regardless of her physical attributes. Similarly, “Every girl deserves to feel beautiful just the way she is,” is the slogan for Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty, which includes women of all colours with jiggly bits. These initiatives aim to embrace a broader, healthier view of beauty and to boost self-esteem. Interestingly, neither initiative included girls and women with obvious disabilities. Are we not beautiful?
Our society equates the ability to walk with valued and beauty. A questionable apartment manager once commented to me, “Too bad you can’t walk, you’re pretty.” For that moment, I was thankful I didn’t rely on biped mobility.
Like African-Americans and –Canadians who lighten their skin colour or relax their hair and individuals of Asian descendant who resort to plastic surgery in order to feel beautiful according to Western society’s standard of beauty, people with physical disabilities are often treated or fixed, or wait for a cure, to be more normal, more acceptable, and, thus, more valued.
These real-life beauty campaigns are encouraging and are definitely a needed step in the right direction. But, if we are going to celebrate the beauty of diversity, let’s make the celebration truly inclusive.
Dove, if you need a real life, fiery red-head woman, I am available!
If you enjoyed this post, consider buying me a chai tea latte. Thanks kindly.
Receive blog updates via
email
Subscribe via RSS
