ALiGN researcher Nasreen Rajani was interviewed about feminist-oriented corporate companies, such as the Dove Beauty Campaign, by Manta Mahas from the CarletonJHR in an articled titled “Femvertising: Is it really progressing women’s rights?”
Rajani commented:
“There is a lot of criticism around how they talk about real beauty and self confidence but at the end of the day they still want you to buy their products. Their products are for women to look better and live up to certain beauty standards.”
Rajani said she can see an upside to these types of initiatives.
“These campaigns are definitely a sign of progress because we haven’t see them before. Especially with people still trying to understand feminism and what it means it to be a feminist,” added the former women and gender studies student, “seeing those commercials is really helpful… Money is still going to programs that help young girls, those are all great things.”
“Social media policies also affect what kind of feminisms go through social media,” Ranjani explained. She uses a photo by Canadian author Rupi Kaur as an example. Twice, Instagram took down Kaur’s photo showing a menstrual bloodstain on her pants as it violated their policies.
“Why is it we can’t see menstrual blood even though half our population will experience it, but its treated as something gross? There’s definitely a face of feminism they like to portray.”