Feminist Consumerism and Fat Activist

     In the article"Feminist Consumerism and Fat Activist" it compares the two different campaigns focusing on woman's body image. One group is known as PPPO which stands for Pretty, Porky and Pissed Off and the second group was the Dove body campaign. Each group focused on woman feel positive about themselves and feeling confident in their own skin and not give in to stereotypes. In the video above it is a part of the self esteem campaign by dove which helps younger girls become aware of the doubts that they may have about themselves and turn it into something positive and show that they are beautiful and carry great qualities. PPPO is a feminist activist group that shares with the community that being a bigger woman is okay and should be accepted and that they are beautiful, have confidence and should not be stereotyped.
        The dove campaign has great qualities and the I believe has some good intentions ,but their reasoning for doing the campaign and focusing on body image may not be for the best reasons. Dove targets woman and their body image ,which is a huge factor for many woman , both thin and with curves. As a huge company they see this as a perfect opportunity to make more sales. A consumer is going to think that is great a company using real woman of all shapes and colors to advertise and show off their product and not be into norms, but dove is still advertising things that give into the worldly stereotype. Dove sells anti aging products so that people still look youthful and may have less wrinkles, yet in the campaign show woman of age and that is described as a natural beautiful thing. The campaign also promoted "fat or fabulous" this included woman of different shapes judged whether they looked just large or did they look fabulous being of that size. One mans quote included "Here I was staring at a "big-boned"woman in her underwear, but it wasn't a Adam Sandler movie, and I wasn't supposed to laugh at her. It felt revolutionary."(Stevenson 2005)
    As for PPPO it was a group of real woman unlike a huge corporate company who felt that by society they were less beautiful because of their size and not fitting into the norm. The woman in the group however felt very different and felt confident and did not want to change their appearance and loved the way they were and wanted people to understand that. The woman in the group would go to local shopping centers and would dance and hand out flyers and promote their activist group. They often held plays and had groups where woman could meet and discuss their daily struggles. The woman of PPPO did fundraisers to help youth go to camps to help with confidence and self body image. Other projects they worked on was a clothing swop so that woman were able to find clothes that actually fit their body and were not too loose or too tight.
    In conclusion both campaigns focus on body image and what society feels is the norm and what really is the norm. The average size for a woman is not a size 2 or even 4 and that is what society says is. Woman should feel beautiful no matter what size ,shape, color, or ethnicity. There should be no catch when it comes to campaigns as in trying to sell products so that you feel more confident or better about yourself. No matter what product you use you have to be happy first and confident a cream isn't going to do that for you. I like the idea of PPPO because their was no catch and it was genuine woman. Do I feel it was necessary to go to malls and dance around in boas no , but it did get peoples attention. And just because an individual is thin doesn't always mean that they are healthy. I believe that is an important thing that is not always brought up.