The essay regarding Dove’s response is one that people have been calling for a long time. The whole idea, as facilitated by the media and pop culture, is that a woman will only be happy and considered beautiful if they have the features of the models that promote certain products. Dove set out to create a new precedent in which the people promoting these products weren’t the supermodel with the perfect body, but the normal person that was happy with who she was and what she looked like, whether it was skinny, heavy-set, white, dark, etc.

            The root of this issue is insecurity. A great deal of girls in modern Western Society are insecure due to the images used in mass media. This insecurity leads many girls to develop unhealthy eating habits, low self-esteem, and low self-confidence. These girls suffer as a result, and thus Dove began revamping its marketing tactics to reverse these effects. Dove is the first step that society as a whole has taken in order to truly better the lives of all people, not just women. While women are famous for being insecure, men too can be just as much, if not more insecure. Images seen in magazines such as Gentleman’s Quarterly (GQ) and Esquire also promote a certain image men must imitate, with toned six-pack abs, huge arms, and a perfect, well-chiseled face. Men have pressure, just as much, if not more, to look good as women do. It’s more of an egotistical matter with men, as our egos are stroked when we think we look like the models in GQ. It is promoted by the media, for both men and women, that looking a certain way will make you happier, increase your sex appeal, and make you more accepted. This precedent doing the exact opposite: it is decreasing the self esteem of both men and women, and driving them to do unhealthy things both mentally and physically.