I have a friend who often tells me that she thinks I don’t see myself the same way that others do. I always give her the “yeah, yeah, yeah” treatment and then change the subject. So a Dove commercial that I saw this morning really hit home to me.
Women we asked to get to know another person in a waiting room. They were then called in to describe themselves, and a sketch artist (without seeing them) sketched what he heard. The person they just met then came in and did a description of them to the sketch artist.
I cried just watching the women describe themselves. It was clear that they were focusing on negative things they had heard in the past (“my mom said I have a big jaw”) or things that they don’t like about themselves (“I have a fat, rounder face”). Compare that to the comments other people made like “she had nice eyes.”
The differences were amazing. The sketches were very different and the women were surprised to see those differences. From my perspective, the sketches described by the strangers looked MUCH more like the subjects than the sketches where they described themselves.
Check out the video below. It definitely reinforces the idea that we are our own worst critics. It’s a message that we need to hear but also do a better job of passing along to our daughters as well.
I have read some criticisms of this video by others where they talk about how Dove should not be focusing on beauty and appearance at all. But the reality is that no matter how much people tell us that, we are always going to think about it. Knowing that we need to focus on the positives about ourselves and understanding that other people do is a step in that direction.
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