About the Dove thing:

Yes, I agree with AGDSquirrelGirl that companies are still in the business to make money so they can't depart from what's expected too much.

I'd be completely behind the campaign as a progressive idea had they in a low key way started to use these women in campaigns. The departure from Cosmo and typical advertisement IS commendable.

The amusing/absurd part to me is that they've wrapped themselves in a rhetoric of liberation that doesn't really match the scale of what they've done or even what some of their product line is all about.

But again, I'm not anti-Dove particularly. I don't consider this campaign to be worse than traditional campaigns using the clinically underweight. I just question how much it's really progressive considering that a company who sells cellulite diminishing lotion can't really afford for you to believe that you don't need it.

The article with the stats was Recruitment Redefined and Redesigned by Christine Barnacki of Chi Omega for the NPC.

I don't think they're point is that we're all absolute models of perfection at all times. I think it is much more of a "love your body" message. I strongly believe that it should be OK for women to be confident in themselves. I DON'T believe that that attitude and wearing make up or using self tanner or cellulite lotion are mutually exclusive. Men work out, tan, get hair plugs, and buy red cars that make lots of noise because it boosts their ego. Women wear make up and sexy or flattering clothes for the same reason. The problem is that today when I babysit a twelve year old girl, she is giving me a constant barrage of questions about dieting, getting skinny, make up, what boys like, how to make her boobs look bigger...etc. And it's not so she can boost her ego, or because she wants to be nice healthy. It's so that really cute guy in homeroom will like her better than her friend. She's twelve. That's too early. She will probably be stuck in this rut for years. She'll be miserable, because she will base her self worth on the pictures in magazines, skinny models, and tiny teen stars. Beauty is health and confidence. To me that is their message. No one is perfect. Personalities and minds can always use a tune up. So can a body. Humans aren't plastic...we change. But one person's beauty doesn't apply to the next. That's what I get out of their campaign...beauty is health and confidence.

They're certainly making that message a critical part of their campaign more than, what was it 33Girl said, the Latvian waifs?

And I think a lot of people are more favorably disposed to their products because of it.

In the context of this thread, what was the point again?

One of the lines from the Alpha Gamma Delta Purpose is:

So, any chapter that was completely living up to our Purpose would place some sort of priority on health and fitness, just as our Founders intended.

(Note - this doesn't mean that our Founders would have advocated "hiding the fat chicks," just that they felt we should aim to take care of our bodies.) :)

Here you are, it's the eleventh post down:

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...=88145&page=23

A healthy body and healthy mind are equally important. If you lose the first, well...the second doesn't do you much good, does it?

On the other hand, not all "fat chicks" are unhealthy. Some people are just built bigger, just as some are just built smaller. An obese person isn't healthy. But the size 10 or 12 girl who works out for 30 minutes a day three times a week, tries to drink water, and eat as well as a college student can is healthier than the skinny chick who won't eat and exercises too much.

Yes, unfortunately. But not unfortunately in the sense that I advocate forced calisthenics for new members or actives, or something like that. I don't necessarily see anything wrong with making "work-out hours" just like many groups have study hours.

It'll never happen, of course, but it's not neccesarily a sin.

Help me out here; I still don't see the link to recruitment or how my feeling about Dove's ad figures in. I know I didn't bring it up.

ETA: was I supposed to look at KDs involvement with the Real Beauty campaign as having implications for improving situations in recruitment where people rely on image to make judgments?

Ok do you see where KD begins talking about it? It started there. Read it. Then go to the next one. Read it. Then repeat until you get it.

Would this include Nerds?:confused:

Probably.

I like "nerds". They can actually hold an intelligent conversation...and most of them are nice enough to adjust the level of conversation for the person they're talking to:D

I think health is part of a lot of groups' values, and fitness in this regard could totally be part of a group's programming.

But, as you note, it would seem REALLY wrong to evaluate potential or current members based on weight to see if they were living up to that part of purpose and exclude those who seemed to weigh too much.

Tom, I'm not sure how this factors into the equation, but yes, NERDS ROCK. Plus, if you want to be superficial, they keep the chapter's GPA up, which makes them look "good." buahaha

So, "some others" do not?

Well Jugdish?

I now name this Barbieism thread!;)