Dove: Do women need to be naked to be beautiful?

We were watching the TV last night, and the Dove commercial came on (the one with all of the different sized and shaped women) and my stepkid makes a gagging noise and starts talking about how him and his stepfather think that its gross and that he really hates the one with old women - no one needs to see that. BLECH.

I agree with what Dove is trying to do. www.dove.ca I made the point to young grasshopper that commercials are designed to target the people who will actually buy the products, and men aren't big Dove consumers so why shouldn't they pick women who look like the women who buy their stuff. I'd love to see more regular selling me products, most of us aren't 20, and if you're over 30 you just look stupid trying to look 20, so lets broaden the scope and see a few more ways to look good at 30, 40, 50 and beyond. Without botox.

HOWEVER. While they get the idea across that people come in all shapes and sizes, colors, I think young grasshopper might have identified a sociological scab for me to pick.

This kid wouldn't say peep about an adult woman's body to her face. So why the scrutiny now? Because its shoved in his face. He rarely gets an opportunity to see more than arms and legs and I"m sure that's just fine by him and fine by us. I don't want other women flaunting their good in front of him either. The point is, we don't need to see naked grandmas and people's personal flabby bits to know women aren't hideous after if they're over 30 an/or weigh more than 130lbs. We all know enough women to know that's not true.

So Yay, for the happy robust ladies in their underwear and the "Pro.Age campaign with the older, wise women posing nude. But consider the context. Regular women. In a highly irregular setting of vulnerability and nakedness that most regular women wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. Do we really need to strip women down naked to see beauty? The media has spent decades peeling the clothes off beautiful women to sell stuff. Now regular women who were happy to 'hide' behind their clothes are supposed to feel great about standing around in their underwear too. I'd like to see a men's deoderant campaign with a bunch of hairy house husbands and see how beautiful everyone thinks it is.

In real life I don't think anyone else REALLY cares that much what anyone else looks like. Celebrities are paid based on their appearance and we like to look at them, but the rest of us are just schmucking along trying not to smell or get too fat and uncool. We're getting paid and valued and judged on our contributions to the world most of the time. Basic grooming and attire go a long way.

Please put some clothes on the Dove ladies.