What is Beauty? Dove Helps Deal with Body Image Issues

One of the many ways our culture is more than just “a bubble off plumb” is our notion of beauty. Dove has produced a wonderful 1-minute movie to show how artificial our perception is. Click here to view it. The campaign by Dove also provides some wonderfully insightful articles by experts dealing with body image. Since it’s a “campaign” I’m not sure how long these links will remain accessible, but their well worth a visit while they last. I think there are two extreme reactions to this debate (both harmful) — those who react to cosmetic enhancement altogether and refuse to “fix up” at all and those who buy into the image and assume that they have to use $500 worth of goop and paint every month in order to fit in and be accepted. I like the biblical perspective that a woman’s beauty “should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” (1 Peter 3:4) That still leaves a lot of room to groom and enhance one’s appearance.