Gallery of Winners: “America the Beautiful” exposes some ugly truths.
Produced by: Sensory Overload Productions
DVD available in Fall 2009. See the film’s web site for more details.
Questions to Consider:
* Is America obsessed with beauty?
* Do the beauty and fashion industries need to promote the thin body ideal to be successful?
* What are some mixed messages that girls get about their appearance and sexuality?
* Who decides what is beautiful?
What We Think:
In this award-winning documentary, filmmaker Darryl Roberts critically and light-heartedly tries to answer the question, “Is America obsessed with beauty?” He follows aspiring young models (and watches one crumble under the industry’s pressure). He interviews fashion magazine editors, celebrities, plastic surgeons, and everyday men and women. It’s a candid and enlightening movie that will make you feel more empowered and more aware, wondering, “Who decides what’s beautiful, anyway?” (by Kate Elston)
See more about America the Beautiful in our blog entry “America the Beautiful”: Why beauty is out of control.
Take Action! Contact:
E-mail the filmmaker, Darryl Roberts, your thoughts on the movie.
Gallery of Offenders: “A pageant girl is someone who gets on stage, smiles, and when they get off stage, they don’t [smile].” —Brooklyn, 10-year-old pageant contestant
Questions to Consider:
Source: TLC's Toddlers & Tiaras, Season 3, "Winter Beauties"
* What are the criteria on which pageant participants are judged?
* Do the girls seem to enjoy being in pageants?
* What skills or lessons are the girls learning?
* Why do you think Toddlers & Tiaras was renewed for a third season?
What We Think:
Who at TLC came up with the messed-up idea of publicizing pageants for little girls? Now in its third (third!) season, the documentary-style show follows children (usually girls) through preparing for and competing in a beauty pageant. Each episode shows more than one grotesque transformation of otherwise smart, wonderfully childlike children into made up, dolled-up, sexualized little women. Toddlers & Tiaras demonstrates just how much performance goes into being the “right kind of girl”. Most of the pageants come with cash prizes or scholarships, but I’d rather see the girls using their brains to get those scholarships, instead of their doll-like faces and stripper-like dance moves.
The pageant contestants are learning what a girl has to do to get approval. But in the end, these adorable kids just want the crown. Because it’s sparkly. (by Jennifer Berger)
Take Action! Contact:
David Zaslav, CEO
TLC
c/o Discovery Channel
One Discovery Place
Silver Springs, MD 20910
Discovery Channel online contact form corporate.discovery.com/contact/viewer-relations
Discovery Communications: (240) 662-2000
Reared to Compete: Toddlers and Tiaras
Two of the contestants from the TLC show Toddlers and Tiaras
While previous generations were playing with Barbies, current younglings are opting to become Barbie – and their mothers don’t seem to mind. In a current reality TV series on TLC, Toddlers and Tiaras, the cameras follow young girls and their mothers in their quest to win beauty pageants.
Beauty pageants have always been scrutinized, and the reason for that is becoming more evident. Continue reading
Mmmm, movies! “Little Miss Sunshine” and “The Devil Wears Prada”
Two movies came out on DVD recently — “Little Miss Sunshine” and “The Devil Wears Prada” — that are super About-Facey (that is, they take on issues of women’s and girls’ body image and media influences), so around the kitchen table the other night, we decided to make up a special rating system. Check it out — and let us know what you thought of these flicks.
Little Miss Sunshine (R, but should be PG-13)
The good: “This is for my grandpa, who taught me these moves.” Olive’s performance in the beauty pageant and more in that scene I can’t reveal here lest I spoil the fun. (Oh, and Alyza thinks Paul Dano is lovable.) Olive (Abigail Breslin) is the little girl we all remember ourselves being.
The sad: Whoa, the beauty pageant scene with the little freaky girls! Scary! (And the directors’ commentary reveals that they are for real.) And when Olive’s dad breaks it to her over breakfast that ice cream is going to make her fat. Heartbreaking. Luckily Uncle Frank (Steve Carell), Grandpa, and Dwayne, show her they love ice cream, even if it does make you fat.
Up in the air: Grandpa’s misogyny.
Reckoning: A funny, sweet comedy. Do four Oscar nominations (including one for Best Picture) lie? Also great to watch with your mom.
RATING: 5 out of 5 About-Faces
The Devil Wears Prada (PG-13)
The good: Meryl Streep being perfectly evil. Was she just having fun, or was that just me? (Oh, and she’s up for a Best Actress Oscar too…)
The sad: Emily (Emily Blunt) says to Andy (Anne Hathaway) “I’m just one stomach flu away from my goal weight” as they enter a gala. Andy tells Nigel she is now a size 4 (down from 6) and they toast with Champagne. C’mon people, seriously.
Up in the air: Doesn’t really take on the insane thin ideal fashion-y people and models feel they must conform to at all times. But at least it kind of makes fun of those ideals. It also makes it seem that Andy can have either a high-powered career or a boyfriend, not both. (The older women we know dispel that myth handily.)
Reckoning: Eh. We’re not so thrilled from a hard-core chick perspective. But it’s pretty entertaining, especially if you REALLY like fashion. Or you’re contemplating the work/life balance. Or both.
RATING: 2 out of 5 About-Faces
Some other About-Face-approved movies:
Lovely and Amazing: Serious body-image talk, with a mom having liposuction, an actress being self-loathing, and a little fat girl trying to make sense of it all.
Drop Dead Gorgeous: If you’re into black comedy, this movie represents some of the blackest. Its take on beauty standards is nothing short of skewering.
If you’ve see any of these movies, tell us what you thought! Just click “Add Comment” below!
– J.B.