Changing definition of beauty versus being healthy

Dove Case Study The author of this report has been asked to assess and review the Harvard Business Review case study that pertains to the emergence of marketing and message therein that counteract the "beauty is everything" paradigm that pervades so much of the cosmetic, clothes and other industries that in any way center on the beauty and appearance of women.

Indeed, women are in many ways pressured or even bullied to fit into a certain "box" when it comes to the appearance and the efforts they engage in relating to the same. The HBR review talks about the efforts of companies like Dove to beat back such shallow and incendiary rhetoric that is used as a vehicle to sell beauty products.

While beauty is something that society currently fixates on to a great degree, Dove and other corporate entities are making an effort (and they should) to change the paradigm and shift people towards not bullying and mocking people over beauty and focus more on solidary as women or people in general as well as health. Analysis The conclusion that should be drawn from this case study and the associated analysis will be stated first. It was touched upon in the introduction and it bears separate mention within this brief report.

The point and lesson to be learned is that entirely too much value is placed on beauty. To be sure, there are plenty of stereotypes and other issues that related to people that are perceived to be beautiful by society. For example, many hold that people that are attractive (as society defines it) are obtuse yet they only get what they want and need because of how they look. Indeed, the term "trophy wife" is in the American lexicon for a reason.

At the same time, the degradation and dehumanizing of people that do not meet the traditional definition of beauty due to skin tone, race, weight, facial features and so forth is less than mature and civilized. It is a lesser variant of people that are outright bigots and sexists. To be sure, people that are overweight and overall "curvy" will probably have health concerns associated with their body type and overly justifying or disregarding that part of the equation is not wise either.

However, even suggesting that people are worth less as people or parts of society because they are a little heavier than the average girl or man is something that has to stop. Again, the ofcus should be on health and not worth of the human being. The author of this report will be blunt and say that the woman in the black dress on page three of the HBR case study could stand to lose a few points.

She is not morbidly obese or anything and she is worth no less than any other human being. However, she is indeed a little heavy than she should be. However, that is her own concern and it is a conversation to have between her healthcare professionals and herself. Unless someone was to suggest that there is absolutely nothing wrong with her weight, that is simply not true. Even so, mocking her or degrading her over her weight is not ethical or the right thing to do.

The verbiage in the HBR study is to shift the definition of beauty away from being elitist and towards a person's psychological makeup, their personality and what they bring to others and society. Indeed, that it is the way it should be (Deighton, 2008). The case to be made here is that there needs to be a balance between not being incendiary and being rational.

Indeed, there is a lot to be said about not being elitist or cruel when it comes to assessing the looks and beauty (or lack thereof) when it comes to women while at the same time not being apologetic or accepting of body types that are clearly not healthy. Indeed, a woman that weighs 200 pounds might very well be very confident and a very productive member of society.

That is a good thing but it goes without question that the woman is overweight and she will almost certainly experience some sort of health issues if she does not lose weight. It is going to be tough because here are people out there that are presumably combating the elitist view about beauty by saying that "big is beautiful." Beyond that, one might suggest that Dove is facilitating people being overweight and for them to see that it is not a problem.

This is not the way it should come about. If the focus is to move away from bullying and elitism, that is a good thing. If the move involves an ignorance being extended towards what can truly happen if one is overweight, then the message by Dove or others would be misguided, at least in part (Hauser, 2016). As far as support for this analysis, it is absolutely true that there is a rather skewed view of what beauty is and should be.

Further, so much of that focuses on the weight of the woman (or even the man) involved. That is wrong and needs to be changed. However, there are so many people that are contracting diabetes, heart disease and so forth. In short, Dove has a point about the definition of beauty but they need to be careful to not suggest that being overweight is "no big deal" and that it does not come.