Debbie Allen, Chelsea Harris and Caralyn Singleterry take a selfie on the set of “An Hour With Her” (Photo courtesy of Dove)
The following is a press release from Dove:
With Shonda Rhimes returning as Chief Storyteller, Dove Real Beauty Productions releases its first film of Season 2, “An Hour With Her.” Dove Real Beauty Productions launched in March 2017 to shift the power of storytelling from Hollywood into the hands of real women who are boldly expanding the definition of beauty in their communities. This year, Real Beauty Productions is showing the incredible journey of women and girls who have been impacted by the Dove Self-Esteem Project and the inspiring intergenerational connection each has made around beauty, confidence and self-esteem. The four-minute first installment, directed by iconic dancer, choreographer, and actress Debbie Allen, follows Chelsea Harris and Caralyn Singleterry whose shared journey of confronting appearance-related negativity inspires each to embrace their beauty, develop confidence and reclaim their power.
Girls today navigate a 24-hour pop-culture, social media, always-on news cycle that can negatively impact their self-esteem. Dove research shows six in 10 girls believe that media and advertising set an unrealistic standard of beauty most women can’t achieve.1 The result, 8 in 10 girls with low body confidence will opt out of important activities such as raising their hands to voice their opinion.2 The Dove Self-Esteem Project launched in 2004 to help change that. Leading experts agree that one hour spent talking to a girl about beauty, confidence and self-esteem can help change the way she sees herself for a lifetime. In “An Hour With Her,” Chelsea Harris taps into the lessons she learned participating in the Dove Self-Esteem Project 10 years ago to mentor 17-year-old aspiring actress and student Caralyn Singleterry. During their hour together, they connect through similar experiences of low self-esteem and bullying that pulled them both back from pursuing their dreams. Through her experience with the Dove Self-Esteem Project, Chelsea overcame her self-doubt and now she’s paying it forward to Caralyn.
1The Dove Global Beauty and Confidence Report, 2016 2The 2017 Dove Global Girls Beauty and Confidence Report
Shonda Rhimes and Cathleen Meredith (Photo courtesy of Dove)
Dove Real Beauty Productions and its creative director Shonda Rhimes debuted its first short film called “Meet Cathleen,” and it has resulted in very divided reactions on the Internet. Dove Real Beauty Productions is from personal wash brand Dove, whose parent company is Unilever. Rhimes is best known as the executive producer/creator of the TV series “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal.” The film showcases Cathleen Meredith, who founded the dance group Fat Girls Dance. She talks about being a large woman who has self-confidence and and self-acceptance about her body and the way she looks, and she wants other overweight women to feel the same way.
Since debuting on May 18, 2017, “Meet Cathleen” has racked up more than 2 million views on YouTube in just five days. However, there have been polar opposite reactions: While about half of the Internet commenters love the film for its message of self-confidence, the other half of commenters hate the film because they say it’s socially and medically irresponsible for not addressing the health problems that come with obesity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-owM4crSd4Q
This was Dove’s response in a YouTube comment: “We believe in showing women as they are in real life. Dove does not judge any woman’s size, shape or ability.”
Rhimes issued this statement in a press release announcing the “Meet Cathleen” film: “Dove and I have a shared passion in emphasizing what’s real. The characters that I write about come from the fact that I wanted to see real women on TV – the real and messy stuff that makes us human. In working with Dove and Real Beauty Productions, we get to talk to real women and hear their own beauty stories. The idea that Cathleen defines beauty as self-love is a very mind blowing concept. I don’t think a lot of us, me included, define beauty in terms of self-love. And, to me, that is so empowering.
“Dove and I have a shared passion in emphasizing what’s real. The characters that I write about come from the fact that I wanted to see real women on TV—the real and messy stuff that makes us human. In working with Dove and Real Beauty Productions, we get to talk to real women and hear their own beauty stories. The idea that Cathleen defines beauty as self-love is a very mind blowing concept. I don’t think a lot of us, me included, define beauty in terms of self-love. And, to me, that is so empowering.”
Meredith added in a statement: “I don’t think we know how much we are told that there is something wrong with our bodies. I think beauty should be fearlessness. I think beauty should be resilience. I think beauty should be creativity. I feel so lucky to have worked with a powerful role model like Shonda Rhimes on such an important project—one I hope will inspire every other woman out there to define beauty for themselves.”
Cathleen Meredith and her group Fat Girls Dance (Photo courtesy of Dove)
Here is a sampling of reactions on YouTube:
“I love the concept. But part of the self love is taking care of your body. hopefully she is eating healthier and losing weight with her dancing.”
“I think it’s wonderful that Cathleen is so happy with herself, but there was a point in the video where she said “I don’t think we [fat women] know how much we are told that there is something wrong here (pointing to her body)” and it’s great to love yourself and others but being obese IS a disease and I’m positive that if this video was about anorexia, people would be outraged. Just a thought.”
“Dove can try and make it seem like being overweight is okay all they want, but ultimately it’s only okay if you go see a doctor and they tell you that your weight is not an issue. Don’t depend on commercials to make you feel good about yourself, depend on your doctor to make sure you are healthy-not just for yourself but for everyone that loves you.”
“You obviously do not know much about the human body. Sometimes human beings have medical issues in which they have ZERO control of how their bodies store weight. Not everyone is fat by choice. Just as you are not white, black, or brown by choice. Just as you do not contract cancer by choice. Perhaps keeping your thoughts to yourself a little more frequently until you actually know someone is a better way to go about life.”
“I’ll agree that I don’t know Cathleen or how her body works or what kind of issues she has, but I am going to continue putting my opinion out there on topics I care strongly about because I feel that every person’s perspective should be respected, even if it is not one’s own. I would never tell somebody to keep their thoughts to themselves. I feel it is rude, controlling, arrogant, and disrespecting someone’s value as a human with a sentient brain. Thank you for your input though.”
” YOU ARE AMAZING! I don’t care if I’m fat. I don’t care if you are fat. I care about your personality. And yours is amazing.”
“This is AWESOME! I was immediately drawn to her!”
“I’m all for loving yourself but remember according to the World Health Organization, around 2.8 million people die from obesity or over weight related illnesses every year… So love yourself enough to get healthy if you need too, whether fat or thin.”
“I struggled with weight after the birth of my 4th and last child. It can really be hard to lose it. I do love this video. You go girls!”
“It takes a lot of courage to love yourself. Even thin girls are told they aren’t good enough either. What disgusts me the most is when men fat shame women who aren’t even fat.”
“This ad is a huge joke. The common sense idea is for anybody to take responsibility of their own body.”
“Just beautiful. Thank you Cathleen!”
“The point is they don’t need to be told they have health issues. You don’t go around telling people that they have cold when they’re sneezing, they already know it. That is exactly what is not ok. People with health issues should have the ability to live normal lives while they’re trying to solve them.”
“Having a cold is not a significant health threat but being morbidly obese is and a person wouldn’t take it personally if you told them they might be coming down with a cold if they sneezed. If a person wants to put more emphasis into being fat, I mean “awesome” vice taking care of their health (so be it) but why spread the nonsense. Most fat people live normal lives among st society and there are just as many fat women with husbands as there are thin but excessive weight is unhealthy and that’s the bottom line!! She should stop trying to make this something else…”
“I love this! I’m only a little fat and I’m self-conscious about it. This video has helped me expand my horizons, and to see that I’m happy with who I am.”
“Chub is okay. People struggle with their weight and that’s okay. Obesity is crossing the line, it’s just flat out unhealthy.”
“I will never understand labels. A body being large or thin. Skin being a certain hue. Hair color, etc. Cathleen demonstrates the positive process everyone should have. Thank you for that Cathleen. Thank you to the people that gave us this positive video also. 🙂 She got some moves!”
“This is so honest and just beautiful. To all you judgy people, we live in the same reality you do, but none of us know everyones struggles, so stop pretending like you do. And To All the awesome positive and supportive people, keep posting light and outshine the haters.”
“But, deep down inside she wishes she was a size 8, she knows it and so does Dove.”
“I love this video, it is so empowering and everyone should be able to feel great about themselves, and I love this video.”
“Dove is doing this for sales. They know you have to use two soaps to get the same outcome.”
“This dancing is a good thing – for these women any sort of movement/exercise is a positive thing. As far as beauty – it’s in the eye of the beholder. There have been and still are cultures and groups of people that view obese women as beautiful and desirable. There are fetishes for everything out there. But when she talks about negative connotation to the word ‘fat’ she should understand that it’s about HEALTH, not beauty. And being as fat as she – is damaging to her health.”
“This makes my heart so happy! I’ve been watching this video over and over. I’m 18 and I’ve grown up with a mom that fat shames, especially towards me. It’s hard to try and not show her videos like these because it’s so uplifting but I fear she might say something like this..’Those girls are kidding themselves, no one wants to look at that’ I don’t consider myself ‘fat’ but I don’t like my weight. I try to watch videos and read articles about this type of thing because it reminds me that I should love my body. I’m not quite there yet, but I want to be.”
“Dove is just trying to make more money. The fatter the women the more area. They’ll just sell more bars of Dove. If Whales had credit cards they would be in a Dove commercial.”
“Losing weight is 90% diet. All the exercise in the world won’t save you from a bad, unclean diet. Sugar and wheat are evil. Cardio is okay but weights is what you have to do to burn calories and it takes up less time.”
“Thank you so much for posting this on Youtube it changed my view of how I should feel about myself. I’m going to work towards that new goal. I’ve been overweight for most my life and felt bad about it, I can hardly find clothes my size and i was made fun of in school. Again thank you! We need people like you with the inspiration to change the world into a better place. :)”
“This is nice. But the fact is fat is not healthy! Obese people are at a greater risk of diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and every single form of cancer. So really loving self is taking care of your temple.”
“I get the loving yourself concept. But being obese if not healthy and should not be promoted. Love yourself enough to get healthy.”
