There is an ongoing trend on social media that speaks of empowerment and challenging stereotypes. Even some brands like Dove are supporting these ideas. They talk about "real women", they offer a variety of mothers, women or models or women of different shapes instead of the one type only. There are multitude of photographic projects to show stretch marks, bellies and hanging breasts in many occasions these campaigns are more objectifying than the worst sexist ad. And while we women post and repost in fervour with a tear of joy, feeling vindicated after many years of being repressed by a system that tells us who to be, we often miss the obvious, the system is still telling us who to be and how to look…
These campaigns are still reinforcing that the most important attribute of a woman is her physical appearance, they are still telling her that beauty is an external concept that it has to be validated socially and defines who she is and what she will achieve. The message perpetuates not only the war on women but also the war between women. We produce money while fighting amongst ourselves competing to be the best, the best mother, the best princess, the best looking, the best of whatever is demanded of us, the war now is also between the skinny women vs the so called "real women".Don't you get it? The longer we keep looking at ourselves in the mirror and buying the right soap, the longer that our interest is how we look, and how we comply, the longer it will take us to fight this manipulation.
Who cares if having stretch marks is ok or not? To whose standards? Let's look deeper. Even if in some cases it is well intention and not with commercial purposes it is still the same old promotion of women as objects, please do not fall in the trap. There is no empowerment in having to be told by a soap brand or a photographer that you, "you good looking fatty" have also been accepted in the "privilege beauty club" Who cares!!! Capitalism cares! The capitalist patriarchal system that keeps the world running is still deciding on us women inside out, our uterus and our breasts are political matters because otherwise we will have to matter politically.Why are we justifying our postnatal bodies, why do we have to undress ourselves to show reclaim who we are, we are falling again and again in the trap. We are offering ourselves to be judged physically with the hope of acceptance. I think we have been captives of this way of thinking so long it feels normal, and I think that is the biggest success of any form of manipulation.Beauty is a harmony of attributes that might matter in certain circumstances, that are subjective and superficial in the big scheme of things, the fact that our world reinforces that a big part of its population should worry about it prevents any deeper thinking and offer magnificent ways of repression and control that should never be underestimated.You want to rebel? Do not ever allow anyone to tell you who you are or how you should look, these days that is one of the biggest forms of disobedience a woman can perform, and start by telling Dove to do not be so patronising. Real women will only be real when they matter beyond the surface.
