In this report I will discuss the nature and role of campaigns that operate within the UK business sector.  I will employ the critical and academic research I did throughout my dissertation, exploring the inclusivity of fourth wave feminism and how it impacts the organisation of campaigns. To do so, I will use the Be Real; Body Confidence for Everyone campaign to discuss how the body positivity movement has been developed and changed within contemporary, Western society within the discourse of fourth wave feminism. I will discuss the possibility that campaigns are becoming the new for-front for the body positivity movement, as they base their business practices on inclusivity and accessibility, much like fourth wave feminism.

 

My literature review will lead to the last section of this report, my findings and analysis, where I will discuss future developments of my research into ‘fat activism’ campaigns, and further project developments on audience interactions, acknowledging the importance of a collective engagement within a movement. I will use several developing spheres of feminism that have changed over time to explore the impacts of how ‘’we socially view one another, observing the possible ways in which social change impacts the acceptance of plus size and ‘curve’ women’’ (Holder-Williams, 2020, p. 2). 

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Industry

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To begin, I will broadly outline the definition of the campaign business sector, paying particular attention to the developing trends and techniques that it’s employing. Over time the campaign industry has undertaken several tasks,   

 

“social media platforms can be a promising tool for retailers marketing campaigns. Especially for the purpose of new product introductions, social media may facilitate social interaction and online word-of-mouth and therefore, may broaden the reach and accelerate the diffusion of information about the new product” (Baum, Spann, Füller, Thürridl, 2019, p.289). 

 

The Collins English Dictionary defines a campaign as “a planned set of activities that people carry out over a period of time in order to achieve something such as social or political change” (Collins, 2020). The campaign industry reflects and stands for social change, attempting to adapt the aspects of society and ideology that cause disarray at that time. In the same respect as a fashion trend, campaigns are a product of their time, they reflect the ideologies and debates of that specific zeitgeist, they rarely represent a previous ideology. My dissertation and this report both explore this in relation to the body positive movement, how mass social engagement can potentially reposition an ideology within society.  

 

Be Real; Body Confidence for Everyone as a campaign is working on the reclaiming of confidence and your body as your own, rather than the media’s, using the ethos “that women’s bodies belong to those observing them rather than to the women themselves” (Wilson, 2018, p. 152) as their motivation or change. Campaigns work alongside social media for advertising and mass engagement purposes, however they can sometimes be seen to contradict one another when exploring ideology. Social media can often explore ideology in exploitative ways, for example patronising plus size women within the media, or completely ignoring them in general, however campaigns tackle ideology from a positive, non-exploitive perspective, saying “it has become useless to argue with social media agitators, but what [we] can do is be part of uplifting women” (Yee, 2018, p. 159). Campaigns have a “vast impact of the perception, representation and reception of the plus size and ‘curve’ female body, [they’re] a space for sharing, platforming opinions and setting new ideologies” (Holder-Williams, 2020, p. 14) as they are often the most accessible view point that people can explore online to develop and evoke change.   

 

Organisation

 

 

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To further explore the notions of inclusivity and accessibility within social campaigns, I will now use Be Real; Body Confidence for Everyone as a case study. Be Real is a British “national movement made up of individuals, schools, businesses, charities and public bodies” (Be Real, 2019), that aims to rewrite attitudes towards body image by prioritising “health above appearance” (Be Real, 2019). Be Real’s objective is to positively impact and strengthen the social ideologies and discourses that centre around the plus size and body positive movement, using education and inclusivity as their grounding. Be Real as a company allows opportunities for social involvement, by providing easy access to donate to the campaign, share their own stories and experiences through blog posts.  

 

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The campaign has a strong partnership with the body positive, company Dove. As a partnership, their ethos is in sync, they each stand for the normality of every form, “whatever our age, gender, ethnicity, size and shape, and regardless of whether we have a disability” (Be Real, 2019). Both companies work alongside the other to create a safe environment online to feel seen and heard, no matter of disposition. The campaign encourages people’s authenticity, they encourage people “to be real” (Be Real, 2019) by signing a pledge under the name “#IPleadgeToBeReal” (Be Real, 2019) that stands for body confidence and self-acceptance, taking “back the control of how we feel bout our bodies” (Be Real, 2019). 

 

Literature Review

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In this section I will analysis and discuss the relationship between the academic studies used in the debates and topics raised in my own dissertation literature review, and the Be Real: Body Confidence for Everyone campaign. Be Real grounds its ideology in inclusivity of gender, ethnicity, religion, sexuality and size, much like fourth wave feminism, both are accessible. There are strong parallels between the campaign industry and social media when referring to mass social engagement when trying to trigger change and debate, they both utilise “a number of disciplinary technologies” (Brook, 1999, p. 112) to gain a following.

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Lewallen (1988) explores the cause and effects of modern society on the “context of current ideas about the representation of women” (Lewallen, 1988, p. 86). That idea has directed this report and its analysis of modern western society and the impact it has on the “liberated expression of female sexuality” (Lewallen, 1988, p. 86) in relation to expression and change through campaigning.  

 

In relation to ‘fat activism’ there is limited research and debates within the academic field of research, however there are strong connections made between the movement and the practice of forth wave feminism. Academic studies suggest that modern technologies’ purpose is “to regulate a women’s body in a public space, across the spectrum from constituting her purely and explicitly as a sexualised object of the male gaze” (Brook, 1999, p. 112). However campaigns such as Be Real: Body Confidence for Everyone respond to social technology in a more affirmative and satisfied manner by attempting to undo the pre-formed opinions that academia hold within society, reaffirming that technology has begun to help women within the body positive movement. Gill and Orgad (2018) explore the notion of a “digital self” (Gill and Orgad, 2018, p. 1313) in order to create “self-representations in the construction of sexualities and sexual identities” (Gill and Orgad, 2018, p. 1313), something that social campaigns often take advantage of. Be Real: Body Confidence for Everyone features a pagethat gives you an opportunity to explore your own identity, by telling your own or reading sorties from ‘every day’ people on body positivity. By reading or exploring (personal) experiences of body positivity within a movement it allows for development of ideology that campaigns can utilise to spread the change. 

 

There are direct parallels between fourth wave feminism and contemporary social campaigns. During the 1960’s and 1970’s feminism was “an exclusive privileged move for middle class, white educated women, who had wealthy husbands and access to society” (Holder-Williams, 2019, p. 7), therefore not an accessible ideology to all. However as technology has engaged with society, “media and communication [has become] a central element of modern life” (Gauntlett, 2008, p. 1) for campaigns to take advantage of when developing social change, creating an accessible path for all to acknowledge ideology. The topic of gender and sexuality is now beginning to be prioritised by youth culture, as a generation that are hyper aware of themselves and social surroundings, “whilst gender and sexuality remain at the core of how we think” (Gauntlett, 2008, p. 1). Campaigns such as Be Real: Body Confidence for Everyone use this to their advantage to get their ideology across, to spread a positive change within society and individuals.  

 

Be Real: Body Confidence for Everyone explores “forms of engagement” (Gill, Orgad, 2018, p. 1313) between an ideological movement and society. It targets discourse and the way society views this, taking into account social interaction and attitudes, triggering an “increasing interest in the way that sexual identities and practices are constructed in the media” (Gill, Orgad, 2018, p. 1313). As ideology is paying more attention to gender studies and debates, campaigns have “become a major focus of interest with work on feminist and queer digital activisms opening up new questions about social movements, practices of critique and ‘call out’ new affective ties and solidarities” (Gill, Orgad, 2018, p. 1313). 

 

Campaign such as Be Real: Body Confidence for Everyone has become the new for front for movements like body positivity, they have utilised modern technology and social ideological shifts to perfectly reach their targeted demographic. They encourage “girl power” (Douglas, 2010, p. 2) for new age feminists and young women to feel a “postfeminist zeitgeist” (Douglas, 2010, p. 1, see also Hermes 1995) amongst one another. Over the last decade social media and campaigns have combined by utilising “post-feminist ideology to alter and demystify the previous misogynist political and social stance, creating a new take on female sexuality” (Holder-Williams, 2020, p. 10).        

 

Findings and Analysis 

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The key academic debates taken from my dissertation literature review, that most coincide within the grounds of the Be Real: Body Confidence for Everyone campaign are as follows: 1) the importance of mass engagement within a movement or campaign to shift and develop ideology: 2) the importance of social media to gain a following, both for recognition but also inclusivity, innkeeping with in the fourth wave feminist ideology that post feminists have created: 3) the importance of engaging with your soundings, keeping in touch with social changes and developing representations. The next section of this report will engage with these concepts and expand on how the research from my own dissertation could possibly aid and develop the campaign industry as a business when referring to body positivity and ‘fat activism’. The next section’s findings have come from observing the media, the discourses it uses in reference to plus size women, how they are received, and how women are using social media and campaigns to create a positive change.   

 

As mentioned before, campaign organisations are a product of their time, they latch on to debated ideology in the hope of triggering changes socially and politically. Be Real: Body Confidence for Everyone, much like this report, “employs the study of feminist waves that occur over time to explore the developing ‘trends’ in the sexuality of a favoured body type, and what has contributed to society’s current archetypes” (Holder-Williams, 2020, p. 4), by engaging with social opinions and individual stories. Be Real; Body Confidence for Everyone and other campaigns alike “began to notice the lack of empathy [plus size-women] were previously receiving from the media and fashion brands, as well as a deficit in awareness from the general public and feminist community alike” (Holder-Williams, 2020, p. 13), noticing there was a representation of women that wasn’t being seen within the media and used that as their forefront for change. Campaigns have utilised the growth of engagement with social media, observing that often a short, snappy message catches eyes, a hashtag for example. Within the last year “the #BodyPositive movement [has gained] more than 9.5m Instagram posts” (Abha, 2019), becoming the main focus of millions of social media accounts and campaigns. 

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Campaign’s such as Be Real: Body Confidence for Everyone has helped normalise the representation of plus size women, “as ideology has become more liberal, the discourse used and attitude towards the physical bodies themselves have relaxed” (Holder-Williams. 2020, p. 13), allowing for campaigns to no longer be seen as taboo by attempting to redirect ideology. Campaigns such as Be Real: Body Confidence for Everyone and others alike provide opportunities to share and explore personal stories and experiences about body positivity and self-identity,  

 

“Since the extraordinary beautiful mass uptake of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, I feel like scales are falling from my eyes. Things that I was worried about alone at 4 a.m. suddenly seem like things I can talk about in public, and certain ‘insecurities’ that I has previously had been ashamed of, I now feel proud of having because I am realising they’re a very coherent response to some incoherent aspects of our culture” (Wilson, 2018, p. 149).  

 

Campaigns as a business industry have positively developed and grown the way they have due to recognition from the public and media, mass engagement has led to mass social development. Online social campaigns are a uniquely modern way of positively spreading and changing ideology. They are obviously bias in their opinion, however unlike other media outlets such as magazines and headlines, campaigns endorse a positive change rather than exploiting a minority (like many headlines often do.      

 

“It is radical because it disrupts the idea that activism can only take place in certain spaces by certain people for particular ends. It is accessible and has the capacity to transform people who would never otherwise be invested in social change into social justice agents” (Cooper, 2016, p. 94). 

 

Employing the research from this report and my dissertation, I will further develop the concept of mass engagement in a movement, to see if it triggers ideological, social change. I’m going capitalise the inclusivity of online campaigns and the accessibility of fourth wave feminism to create a blog exploring body positivity and size prejudice and discrimination for women on a daily basis. It’ll acknowledge that the “the desirability of each individual physical female form has changed and shifted over time, according to what is attractive socially’’ (Holder-Williams, 2020, p. 4), often aided by the development of contemporary technology, such as social media and online campaigns. The blog will feature stories, experiences and photography from plus size women, as a “reflective study of contemporary feminism” (Holder-Williams, 2020, p. 4).   

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Bibliography

 

Abha, S (2019),  ‘25 Best Plus Size Clothing Brands and Websites: The Trendy Dress Shops and Fashion Brands for Curvy Women’, Evening Standard, 17 May, Available at: https://www.standard.co.uk/shopping/esbest/fashion/best-plus-size-clothing-brands-and-websites-a4142701.html(10/11/19). 

 

Brook, B (1990), Feminist Perspectives on the Body. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

Baum, D, Spann, M, Füller, J, Thürridl, C. (2019) 'The impact of social media campaigns on the success of new product introductions', Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Volume 50, P. 289 - 298.1        

 

Be Real (2019) Be Real Body Confidence for Everyone; About Us. Available at: https://www.berealcampaign.co.uk/about (25/03/20). 

 

Collins (2020) Definition of Campaign. Available at: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/campaign(17/03/2020).

 

Cooper, C (2016), Fat Activism: A Radical Social Movement, Bristol; HammerOn Press. 

Douglass, S J (2010), The Rise of Enlightened Sexism; How Pop Culture Took Us from Girl Power to Girls Gone Wild. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 

 

Gauntlett, D (2008), Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction. Second Edition. Oxon: Routledge.

 

Gill, R. and Orgad, S. (2018), ‘The shifting terrain of sex and power: From the ‘sexualization of culture’ to #MeToo’, Sexualities, 21(8), pp. 1313–1324: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/91503/1/Gill_The-shifting-terrain.pdf. 

 

Hermes, J (1995), Reading Women’s Magazines. Cambridge: Polity Press. 

 

Holder-Williams, E (2020), A Discussion of a Sexual Movement in Favour of the Plus Size Woman, Dissertation submitted to Bath Spa University (FSS6000-40).  

 

Wilson, L (2018), ‘Women’s Bodies’, in Scarlett Curtis (ed.) Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and Other Lies. London: Penguin, pp. 149-155. 

 

Yee, A (2018), ‘Braless White Women’, in Scarlett Curtis (ed.) Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and Other Lies. London: Penguin, pp. 155-165. 

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