On March 29 at 7 p.m. in Jarman Auditorium, Stacy Nadeau, one of six models in the Dove Soap's "Real Beauty" campaign launched back in 2004, came to speak on behalf of female body image and share the story of her involvement with the "Real Beauty" campaign.
Longwood student Whitney Beale made introductions before a large crowd with a high Greek attendance. Special thanks were given to Phi Beta Sigma and the Women's and Genders Studies department.
After the introductions, Nadeau took the stage and explained how a "normal girl" ends up on Billboards across the country.
Picked up in 2005 by a modeling agent in Chicago, Nadeau was an industrial organizational psychology major at DePaul University. At the time, she was also a Resident Advisor and part of a business fraternity within the school.
Nadeau recounted how she originally blew off the agent who was to land her a photo shoot with Dove, and her friend Katy had to set up this opportunity for Nadeau behind her back. The condition that Nadeau come to the photo shoot in her underwear also made her slightly uncomfortable.
But over the next six months, Stacy got six callbacks and ended up being part of something "new in the history of advertising," where women sizes 4-12 were being portrayed as underwear models on billboards across the country.
The campaign called "Real Beauty" was launched in response to a global survey that revealed 98 percent of polltakers were uncomfortable with calling themselves beautiful.
The image commonly used to illustrate a beautiful woman in Western media is a thin woman with straight, blonde hair. The fact that most women don't look like this leads to a lot of confusion over body image.
The issue is complicated even more by the fact that most of the common presentations of beauty in magazines or on runways is due to three hours of work from hairdressers, makeup artists and sometimes computer manipulation.
Stacy also addressed the focus on men needing to have well-defined abs in order to be found attractive. She revealed that some men are genetically predisposed against developing defined abs.
Throughout her presentation of what people think they need to look like, Stacy presented the theme of being "healthy" instead of simply "thin."
In contrast, she also used the example of how a friend of hers with a naturally high metabolism and thin figure is often judged by others to have an eating disorder. Stacy also said that the size she has always felt most comfortable with was 10-12.
Stacy then talked about going with the other Dove beauties Julie Arko, Gina Crisanti, Shanel Lu, Lindsey Stokes and Sigrid Sutter to see ten street-blocks filled with fans in New York City, one of whom shared a very inspiring story. The woman in question shared the story of her anorexic daughter and how the Dove campaign encouraged her to get healthy and gain thirteen pounds.
Stacy wrapped up her presentation with a Q&A session, answering questions about her continued contact with the other Dove models and her family's feelings about her having modeled for Dove.
After the event, audience members Matthew Leeds and Jordan Maupin commented on what they had just been a part of. Though both said they had never been directly confronted with what Maupin phrased "the issue of ... not being skinny," both generally agreed it was "an extremely empowering" event.
Maupin said "I think more people should have come, I think it's a wonderful thing for everybody to see."
