Reading this made my weekend. I had to share it. ‘Hands up if you’re feeling any less revolting…’ Germaine Greer in the Canberra Times, Saturday.
At an event in Amsterdam recently, I was ordered by a woman on the stage to take the hand of the woman next to me, who happened to be 76-year-old Hedy d’Ancona, and tell her she was beautiful. This would be more conducive to her self-esteem, apparently, than reminding her that, having served as a minister under two Dutch governments, as a member of the European Parliament, and as chairman of Dutch Oxfam, she was immensely distinguished and I was honoured to be sitting next to her.
Read full article here (including her take-down of the Dove ‘real beauty’ marketing campaign. Greer could have added Dove parent company Unilever’s diet products, cellulite creams and skin whitening creams and its sexist Lynx brand also!)
See also my piece in the Sunday Herald Sun a couple of weeks ago where I argued it was time to replace ‘Love your Body’ campaigns with a ‘Love your Mind’ campaign.
December 16th, 2012
December 17th, 2012 at 2:05 pm
Greer’s experience in Amsterdam brought to mind the ‘Miss Holocaust Survivor’ beauty pageant held in Israel earlier this year. Organisers defended the event because “physical appearance was only 10% of the criteria”. Because apparently 10% is the acceptable amount by which to judge women who barely escaped Hitler, on how hot they still are.