Recently the U.S. consumer was treated to Dove’s “Campaign For Real Beauty” – a broad media effort aimed to show that women with curves were beautiful too. Sadly, the campaign failed to reach my friend Dave who still believes that 98% of women have “cankles.”
That hasn’t stopped the campaign from heading Eastward though. Behold, the women considered “chubby” in Shanghai:
Brian Sack
I started Banterist in 2003 after this conversation with my cat. It led to all sorts of good things.
Yeah, they’re a bunch of cows, alright.
That one on the right has to be pushing at least 105.
I almost dread to ask, but here goes: What is a “cankle?” I assume it’s a contraction, maybe of cow-ankle, or calf-ankle. Uh-oh.
I’d like to be that chubby.
Their lingerie looks like it hasn’t been updated since the Great March. It’s a pity to hang such gadawful undies on such attractive women.
Having recently visited Southeast Asia, I can provide assurance that, lingerie from the Great March is limited to China (it’s quite adorable in Vietnam, if you are fortunate enough to be no larger than a B cup). Also, the average man weighs something like 90 pounds dripping wet so a woman that weighs in at 105 is massive.
Funny, but not totally fair. This is not an attempt to glorify fat as beautiful. For a long time in China, physical heft has been equated with wealth and not stigmatized, although western influence is eroding this tradition. The strangest part of China’s beauty advertising are products that promise to make you whiter. One skin-care commercial promises the user “Beautiful skin! Truly white!” TV tricks are applied to change the model’s face three shades paler right before your eyes!
Well, all ankles ARE conveniently missing in these photos. I’m not a conspiracy theorist..but if I were…..
Wikipedia has this to say about “cankles”:
“Incidentally, a colloquialism derived from ankle is ‘cankle’, meaning ‘a thick ankle, particularly one which appears to be a continuation of the calf’.”
I’ve always found heavy women attractive as long as they are still identifiably femine — just curves of a slightly different proportion in my view. Fine examples: Delta Burke, Kirsty Alley
However, I’ve yet to see a large woman of Chinese descent that pulled that off — they all seem to be pot-bellied or barrel-chested much like a man. Eww.
In short: in China they could use a little slimmin’… I applaud Dove for their gracious public service.
(And, come to think of it, I may actually like ‘cankles’. I’m going to have to think about that definition…)
Why are they wearing pants?
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I wonder what the campaign looks like in Germany, or Russia…?
im 152 and a model so what now and i not fat of cubbie in 6ft 4in
Are you sure this is part of the campaign? I can’t tell clearly from the picture, but some of those women look like Chinese celebrities, including Shu Qi and Sylvia Chang… it would really break the spirit of the campaign in celebrities were in the bloody photo.
What’s equally interesting is that Unilever just dropped this campaign in China. The idea had no traction in that market.
PS: I sourced you in a recent post of mine about this topic from a branding perspective- click my URL. Cheers.
Gosh, now I feel obese.
I don’t think the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty focused on heavier, “curvy” bodies because the average Chinese woman is slender. And yes, it did use Chinese celebrities.