Beauty and the Beast0

I’ve just finished watching the first episode of Beauty and the Beast: Ugly Face of Prejudice from Channel 4, originally aired in Feb of this year, and I’m awe struck. Although at first it seems like a bit of a reality tv set up (beauty obsessed girl moves in with facial disfigured person for a week, unaware beforehand that they’re disfigured), it moved quickly into the realm of discussion, and into the psychological.

Upon discussion with a therapist, they came to the conclusion that this particular young girl was concentrating so heavily on make up and being beautiful as she had a seriously low self esteem. She was not comfortable in her own skin and therefore wanted to do everything she could to change that. I’ve found that this is an incredibly common reason for ladies to be wearing make up and to aspire for surgery, as they are not happy with who they are physically. But I truly believe that this will not change, no matter how much make up and surgery they have, as the issue is their self esteem, not with anything being actually wrong with them physically. Why is it so difficult to embrace what we have? Why do we look at ourselves and only see the bad? Sure it’s easy to just blame the media, but to be when we’re constantly bombarded with the “perfect” body through advertising, and through criticisms of celebrities in nationwide publications, we’re TOLD to judge ourselves based on the guidelines these individuals set.

What I find so infuriating is that we live in a world where women are supposed to be free, supposed to be empowered. We fought for the right to vote, for the right to matter and be trusted in higher paid jobs, yet we still believe that beauty will bring more success in life than intelligence. A study mentioned in the program stated that 63% of 15-19 girls would prefer to be a glamour model than a nurse, doctor or teacher. I find this truly astounding. But from a young age, women are told that beauty wins, beauty gets you a man, gets you respect and gets you happiness. But true happiness comes from being happy with who you are and what you look like – embracing these so called flaws and acknowledging that it’s who you are as a whole. Every bump, every crack is who you are. People don’t respect beauty, they respect personality. Same goes for love. The women who I know that are the most beautiful don’t get men falling in love with them, just lust. Who cares if a man is desperate to sleep with you? Wouldn’t it mean more if they would marry you?

Anyway, am escaping on a tangent. This program involved individuals who are speaking the same language as me on this venture. One even described this obsession with beauty as a beast that needs to be tamed. I couldn’t agree more. These walls need to be broken down. Bravo Channel 4.