Report from LA: You Need a Makeover

Our summer partner-in-crime, Australian filmmaker Dianne Ellis, filed this report for us from LA:

I.
While I was in Santa Monica, I came across a TV crew doing some street interviews. I believe they were from E Entertainment doing a “Who wears it better” segment. The interviewer asked an older man his opinion of which out of two women wore a similar outfit better, but when he gave his answer, the interviewer screwed up his nose and said “Well why don’t you just say the other woman wears it better.”

When the man didn't agree, the interviewer said “Well just for the heck of it just say so and so wears it better.” The man wouldn’t budge. The interviewer kept on it at him and eventually exasperated said “I need you to say so and so wears it better!” He eventually wore the man down until he agreed to say this!

The same thing happened again for another set of photos. The man then signed a release and walked off as the TV crew got ready to interview their next victim, at which point I walked away too.


II.
Kelly Clarkson recently did an interview for Self magazine entitled “Total Body Confidence” where she mentions that she is happy with her size, but guess what: They photoshopped her on the cover to look much thinner. So much for Total Body Confidence! I wish they’d stop asking women about their diets. I’d much rather hear about their music or movie tastes.

That same week I was watching The Rachael Ray show, and surprise surprise it was a makeover show. The first victim, ahem, guest, was shown in her 'hideous' before state with what her sister deemed “caterpillars eyebrows.”

The woman looked fine to me - even Rachael Ray her eyebrows were fine – but the makeup artist said those eyebrows needed work. So even if other women think you look OK, you still don't. I wondered what kind of person would tell her sister she had eyebrows like caterpillars. No one asked the obvious question: “Why is your sister such a bitch?”

III.
All of this constant scrutiny of appearance made me think of a survey I just read, which more or less said that men were happy to sleep with any woman whether they find them attractive or not. I'm pretty sure that if I went into a bar tonight and asked every guy in the bar if they would sleep with me someone would oblige. I doubt a man asking a similar question of women in a bar would have as much luck, unless of course he looked like Brad Pitt, even then he’d probably get his face slapped a few times.

We women seem much fussier about a man’s appearance then men are about a woman’s appearance, so why is the media so obsessed about with the way women look? Shouldn’t there be shows about men trying to perfect their appearance to get women to sleep with them?