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In many past cultures, men were the breadwinners, the providers, the decision makers and the bosses of society. Men got to tell women who and what they were and what they were allowed to do or like. However, things began to change in 1848 when the first women’s rights convention took place, galvanizing the law to allow women to vote. Feminism and female issues have come a long way since then. Woman today want much more than the ability to vote. They are in search of female empowerment in all aspects of life. Women want equality in politics, in the workplace and at home.
Society’s views of feminism have changed as well. Gone is the stereotype of a hairy lesbian woman burning her bra while angrily shouting at men for their transgressions. Inspirational women like Beyoncé, Amber Rose and Taylor Swift are proudly declaring themselves feminists and in the process are defying what a feminist is expected to look like. Because of these celebrity women and ever-powerful social media outlets, feminism has become widely discussed and has even become trendy. It’s trendy to hate it and trendy to support it.
In a Salon Magazine article, Andi Zeisler, founder of “Bitch Magazine,” talks about her new book, “We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement,” and feminism as seen today. Zeisler made some interesting observations about how much feminism has changed, who is now embracing it and most interestingly, how it’s being used to sell products. She critiques businesses like Lean In, Always and Dove as the main culprits of “feel good feminism.” Her comments are intriguing if not a little troubling. Dove? Really? The people with the big hair commercials? That company with the self-esteem commercials? Always, too? Lean In? They can’t all be using feminism to sell their products … right?
First, what exactly is Lean In? Lean In is a social movement that encourages women to “lean in” instead of back out of their careers. It’s a non-profit organization complete with classes that teach women how to command authority with their speech and their postures. They also instill in women the confidence to go after the careers they want. There is no fear in Lean In; what you don’t know can be taught to you with Lean In’s free online classes.
Afraid to go at it alone? No need to be. There are Lean In circles where women share their experiences and help each other with life advice and inspirational stories. Sounds like a female paradise, right? Well, not to Jessice Grose, a writer for Slate. In her article, “Sheryl Sandberg’s ‘Lean In’ Circles Completely Miss the Point on Workplace Maternity,” she says her experience was not ideal when following Sandberg’s advice. After a TED talk with Sandberg, Grose followed her advice to not “leave until you leave” when she was offered a better job at a web magazine.
Grose made that phrase her mantra. On her second day of work, Grose discovered she was pregnant. Her downhill spiral into the discovery of maternity leave began and she began to reconsider Sandberg’s advice, which she found doesn’t cover actual life but instead focuses on self-confidence as the only key to success. For a woman who understands the pressure of balancing motherhood and career, Sandberg didn’t equip her followers with information about the unjust maternity laws in America.
The main critiques of Lean In are that the movement is geared towards privileged women (as Kantor points out, what working class mom with a full time job has time to spend her evenings in a “lean in” circle?) and that the entire movement undervalues massive structural barriers.
Next in line is Always, a company that sells menstrual products such as pads, tampons and liners. They have several viral videos from their #LikeAGirl series that tackle gender stereotypes about women. This series exposes some essential trials young girls have to go through, such as the ideas that women do things worse than men, how there are no emojis that truly represent women and how young girls are told they can’t do certain things simply because they are girls.
Always has consistently been a company for women, specifically for menstruation. However, Always is actually a part of a larger business, Procter & Gamble. You may recognize P&G’s other brands including Bounty, Febreze, Gillette and, most interestingly, Olay.
Bounty is a paper towel product, its commercials exclusively featuring women – with no fathers- cleaning up after their children’s messes. Febreze almost exclusively shows moms and other women freshening the rooms of their sons or husbands. Gillette is mostly for men, but there is a Gillette Venus line for women. They still promote the beauty standard that women must shave their legs to be attractive. In their commercials they claim shaving with Venus will make you feel like a goddess with legs that men will want to touch. Olay was the most interesting one out of all because it is a brand dedicated to fighting off the ravages of time to look younger and more appealing. They have products like Olay Regenerist, Olay Ageless Makeup and more. And not surprisingly, nothing of the sort for men at all.
Lastly, we have Dove. Dove is most certainly the most vocal of the three and has created the most videos on the ideas of beauty and self-confidence. They have done some truly inspiring self-realization videos that shed some light on just how hard women are on themselves and each other. The Dove: Love Your Hair video is a consumer favorite.
Nevertheless, one feminist campaign does not make a feminist company. Zeisler says, “The language is kind of switched to be about this vague idea of empowerment and personal sense of well-being that comes from feeling good about yourself.” Many of the Dove commercials that are made are centered on this idea of self-confidence and feeling beautiful. Their tactics range from showing women embracing their diverse types of hair styles to taking women to studios to get their portraits done by a police sketch artist solely by describing themselves. Then they have other women come in and describe them. Additionally, there are “beauty patches” and other things that all reinforce the idea that women are beautiful. They just haven’t seen it yet.
How does Dove advertise to men?
Dove has a Dove Men line of shower products designed specifically for men. It’s not nearly as advertised as the women product line, but there is a crucial difference. While Dove advertises beauty and self-confidence to women, it advertises strength and care to men, playing into gender stereotypes that created feminism in the first place.
All campaigns and ideas presented by these businesses are not inherently wrong. Women should aim for their dream careers and not back down. Women should see how beautiful they are and accept how they were made. But what companies like these fail to understand is that feminism is a complex issue that is so much more than feeling confident or feeling good about oneself. It’s a struggle. It’s a right. It’s believing that women are equal to men.
Overall, it’s healthy and even refreshing that companies are sharing these kinds of positive messages. Even so, it’s important to keep in mind that regardless of what these businesses are promoting, they are, at the end of the day, trying to sell you something as opposed to promoting a political cause to benefit you. As, Zeisler says herself, “It’s worth trying to differentiate between what is trying to sell us stuff and what is trying to really talk about a more complex agenda toward equality and autonomy.”
