Seventy-five per cent of women in Canada say they get more compliments about how they look than on their professional achievements, according to “The Dove Global Beauty Confidence Report.”
It’s a struggle Montreal family lawyer Marcia Vieira is all too familiar with.
“With male clients, I do get comments, such as: ‘Maybe because of your looks, you are not so intelligent,'” she says in a new Dove campaign called “My Beauty My Say.”
Instead of letting people’s judgement hold her back, the 33-year-old has used it to prove them wrong and now owns her own law firm.
She’s one of three Canadian women included in Dove’s body positive campaign, after auditioning for it with her story in Montreal.
Another fellow Montrealer featured in the video refuses to let society’s “age appropriate” norms dictate what she wears.
“I don’t dress my age, I dress myself the way I am,” says the 66-year-old psychologist named Judith.
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Elaine, 32, from Toronto speaks in the spot about embracing a tooth gap she’s often been told to fix. “I don’t want to change my teeth,” she states in the video.
“I’m not going to be defined by anyone’s expectations,” says one of the six other women in the video.
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Unfortunately, research shows some women let the negative comments get to them, belittling their confidence and accomplishments. That’s what Dove hopes to change with its campaign, says Unilever Canada’s marketing director Diane Laberge.
“In today’s culture,” she said, “there’s just incessant commentary and judgment on how women look.”
“Whether it’s intentional or not, it does end up limiting women.”
She’d like to see women celebrate beauty on their own terms, rather than try to fit the expectations of others.
The message has received plenty of praise on social media.
Dove invites women to share their own stories of overcoming beauty limits by using the #mybeautymysay hashtag online.
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