British tabloid The Sun wants women to realize how beautiful they truly are by posing for the paper in a thong so they can rate their own naked bodies — and be judged by a panel of men, natch — for a piece on how we ladies are “overly negative on ourselves” but “needn’t be.” Gee, wonder why that is!
The Sun is often criticized for its regular boobalicious ladies feature; turn to Page Three and you’ll see boobs for boobs’ sake while clothed men do Important Things throughout the tabloid’s other pages. Now the paper has devised a new and ingenious way to make women feel like shit by showcasing “Real Beauty,” a tactic recently illustrated by those Dove ads that try to sell women beauty products by telling them they’re already sooo beautiful. Here’s a call for “real” models that was recently circulated to charities that fall into the “women’s group,” “children” or “family welfare” categories via AskCharity’s answer service:
I’m looking for women who are able to come to a photoshoot in London on Tuesday next week. We are asking them to pose in a nude thong and we want them to rate their naked bodies. We will also be asking a panel of men to look at the pictures and to rate the women’s bodies too. They will have a full read back of the piece and get $400 plus all expenses paid — it’s a piece about body perception, how we’re overly negative on ourselves, with psychologists discussing how we needn’t be, and how to get happier. It’s for the health section, so has that slant (similar to this, it’s about real women) Please get back to me asap if you can help. We can plug any relevant charity/medical condition, etc.
“Real Beauty” features and advertisements cleverly sell you products under the guise of body-positivity while actually reinforcing the idea that a woman’s worth is based on the way she looks to others. The editors still get to publish lots o’ boobs — which is awesome for them, because boobs garner paper sales and pageviews — while ducking criticism by pretending they just want to help ladies love themselves.