Image Analysis: Dove "Eolution" Video

Shelbie Ezell

A person can basically change anything about their appearance at the click of a button.  You can look as if you lost 30 pounds, make yourself have thicker lips, clear complexion, change bone structure, and much more.  Online can make you question the authenticity of essentially anything.  In the Dove “Evolution” video, it shows a woman at the beginning that is completely natural.  Her hair is not done and she has no make-up on her face.  But as the short video continues, it shows a make-up artist that changes the appearance of the woman.  She undergoes her hair being made up and make-up to cover any blemishes or her overall natural beauty.  But the makeover does not end there.  A picture is taken of the woman and then put on the computer.  What we see after that is the woman changes completely.  She does not look the same in the end of what the Photoshop does to her.  Her neck is elongated and slimmer, her eyes become larger, her face becomes narrower, and the position of her eyes are changed.  Everything that changed is unrealistic.  She now has an unnatural beauty that shows the world what “beauty” should look like, which therefore gives women an unrealistic standard of how they should appear to the world.  These are standards that are impossible to accomplish, even undergoing plastic surgery could not make you look the way these women do that are edited with technology.  People are changing for the simple fact that they are wanting to impress others around them.  We have this sense that we should please others by the way we act and the way we appear.  Society shows people what image we should have.  Generally we are told that we should have this "perfect" image.  But if everyone looked the same, or had all of these perfect qualities, we would no longer be unique and one-of-a-kind individuals.  Therefore, people need to focus less on the models that they see in magazines, on billboards, on TV, or anywhere in general, and they should be focusing on what they see in themselves as beautiful.  Technology does not have to make us insecure with appearance.  We just have to realize that what we see online or in pictures, is not always as it truly is.