Beauty and the Beast

[miriam_e]

Y'know how they say that the moral of the story Beauty and the Beast is that even if you look horrible on the outside you can still find someone who can see the deeper person within? Well, I don't seem to get that. All I see is the message if you are a guy then you can be an ugly, bad-tempered asshole and still score, but if you are a girl you are not worth anything unless you are beautiful... even then you have to be 'understanding' and be prepared to take shit. It is amazing there is a sane woman on the planet with this being constantly drummed in.

Sorry, but it really does seem to be the same message over and over again in film and TV. I really can't think of a movie or TV series where the heroine was not good looking. Plenty of ugly heroes but not heroines. The closest Hollywood seems to be able to come is to get a catwalk model, put her hair up in a bun, give her glasses, then try to call her 'plain' when anybody with two eyes can see she is gorgeous.

I'm not outraged... just a bit bored. Why doesn't someone do something different for a change?

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I have to admit Steel Magnolias came close. Daryl Hannah actually did a brilliant job of looking self-conscious and unattractive. She is a heck of an actress, that woman. But she wasn't the heroine.

I thought of one: The short-lived (just 13 episodes) but, brilliant The Others which starred Julianne Nicholson. She is not exactly unnattractive, but not gorgeous either. She looks like a normal person. I wonder if it got dropped because the heroine didn't look pretty enough. Nah. It seems to be normal these days that very cool shows are soon killed. Those that actually survive quickly develop cult followings.

Comments

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you had some bad luck. But resist the temptation to generalise it to all men. I know a lot of men who love women who are not good looking. (My brother adores his wife, who is a wonderful person and very smart, but certainly no fashion model.) I also know a number of men who love other men who don't look great.

This is really quite a surprise when you consider the constant brainwashing of men through TV and movies, that only beautiful women are worthwhile.

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

I can see why you would think that, but the message men get is not that only beautiful women are worth while (women seem to get that message far more than men do--in fact, I don't know any men who think or feel that). The message men get is "women are beautiful". Beautiful women are seen as beautiful women, not the norm or the only acceptable version. Only women think that, it seems to me.