Late Night Video — You Are More Beautiful Than You Think

Filed in Open Thread by on April 19, 2013

John Young posted this in the Friday Open Thread. I had seen this some days back on Facebook and was not prepared for the emotional impact of this video. On the one hand, this is part of a Dove campaign. On the other hand, this is a remarkable demonstration of one of the ways women underestimate and sabotage themselves. This is close to 10 minutes long, but I think well worth every minute.

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"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." -Shirley Chisholm

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  1. Blu Gal in DE says:

    My sister sent this to me a couple of days ago. Yes, I agree, emotional impact. Hard to describe its effect. Worth watching.

  2. John Young says:

    I agree it does feel long, but it’s only 3 minutes long.

    This just struck me.

  3. cassandra m says:

    Oops! The one that I saw was this one and it is about 6.5 minutes long.

  4. John Young says:

    The idea that my wife doesn’t see herself as I see her is somewhat disturbing. She is perfect to me.

  5. Roland D. Lebay says:

    John Young-

    I saw those drawings on reddit.com last week. It WAS disturbing that so many women had such a low opinion of themselves. None of the women in the video were ugly by any stretch of the imagination & none had any features (such as an outsized nose, Jay Leno-esque chin, etc.) that SHOULD make them feel bad about themselves. They were all “average” looking women.

    What amazed me is that I, and random strangers, judged their looks FAR less harshly than the women themselves. One (someone other than me) could probably write a doctoral thesis based on this theme.

  6. Pencadermom says:

    Roland, you could be included in their thesis. “none had any features (such as an outsized nose, Jay Leno-esque chin, etc.) that SHOULD make them feel bad about themselves. They were all “average” looking women.”
    Did you really mean ‘should’, or did I misunderstand?

  7. Dave says:

    Interesting video. But I think we all are aware (at least on a subconscious level) that we view ourselves with a more critical eye than others. I would like to see the same video with men in place of the women. I suspect that the result would be equally interesting.

    The video does highlight (and reinforce) the paradigm that women are characterized (by themselves and others) by how they look. It would be the same for men but we seem to be able to compensate through the use of power, money, and deeds.

    Certainly there is a biological imperative at work for some of those differences but cultural norms do play a part. Thought provoking video. I would have like to see more of the gender differences, expecially how women see (and judge) other women.

    Michelle Obama, for example, is discussed in context of how she looks, especially regarding her fashion choices. As a guy, I can assure you I have never given her fashion choices a single thought. About the only thing I can tell you is that she has never been naked. So who is the target audience for discussion about what she wears? Women. The same gender that women dress for, because women do not dress for men. They dress for other women.

    That’s why it would have been interesting to see the same “experiment” with a greater attention to gender differences.