This video isn't new, by any means. I have seen it on other blogs, and thought the message was so powerful that I should share it here. It is a commercial from Dove showing what a model looks like before the shoot and after a dozen or so makeup artists do their magic. Carolyn Mahaney wrote an excellent response to it on the GirlTalk blog, and since she so squarely hit the nail on the head, I have nothing to add. So I will share it here: (see here for the entire post.)
The Dove Campaign got it partially right—the fashion industry has certainly contributed to a distorted perception of beauty. And yet, their solution—“every girl deserves to feel beautiful just the way she is”—is well-meaning and yet fundamentally unbiblical.
You see, women believe that physical beauty will make them happy, successful, popular among the women, desirable to the men – so they pursue it with a fury!
Physical beauty, however, does not deliver as advertised. Proverbs 31:30 reveals the falsehood and the futility of this quest for beauty: Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain.
Even if every girl did “feel beautiful just the way she is,” it wouldn’t bring her true joy or lasting happiness or solve even one of her problems.
Truth be told, what we all deserve is not to feel beautiful but rather to be condemned to hell for sinfully seeking to attract the worship of our fellow creatures instead of living to bring glory to God.
God did not send Jesus to this earth to die so that women could get over their self-esteem problem and feel better about themselves. No, He sent his Son to die to rescue us from our sinful, futile quest for physical beauty and to reveal to us the satisfaction that comes from knowing God—whether we are beautiful or not!
What freedom and hope is found in Christ! We don’t need to feel beautiful about ourselves to find happiness! In fact, we’re better off not even thinking about ourselves. Rather, God has offered us in Jesus Christ forgiveness, hope, freedom from sin and a joy that never ends.
So while this little video effectively exposes the false front of beauty presented by our culture, let’s not look to Dove’s advertising executives for the solution to the beauty crisis. Rather, let’s join the campaign to tell others of the true freedom that is found in Christ!
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2 comments:
That video is amazing! I always knew they did so much to the poor girls to make them look like that, but this is even more than I imagined.
The only part they left out was the model making herself barf that morning. :)
That is an awesome reminder! So often I am sucked into trying to "be attractive"--yet I am missing my devotions or screaming at my children. Who cares if my clothes are top-fashion or my hair is the best style for my face?! There is so much more I should be focusing on.
By the way, I love all of insightful posts at Girltalk--they are so transparent.
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