Is Anything Good Enough?

Is Anything Good Enough?

In today’s culture, women are often forced to believe that one look is not good enough or that they have to change how they look to fit into what society says is okay. In Rosalind Gills Postfeminist Media Culture: Elements of a Sensibility, she talks about these issues. Women are viewed as objects to the male eye and they have to conform to all norms or what is appropriate to be accepted as beautiful and get men to want them.

Television shows such as Extreme Makeover embrace them makeover paradigm, which constitutes postfeminist media culture (Gill, 2007). As stated in the article, this requires “women to believe first that they or their life is lacking or flawed in some way, and second that it is amenable to reinvention or transformation by following the advice of relationship, design or lifestyle experts, and practicing appropriately modified consumption habits” (Gill, 2007). The show Extreme Makeover is about people who get a so called “once in a lifetime” experience to change their appearance. “Participants are then variously advised, cajoled, bullied or 'educated' into changing their ways and becoming more 'successful' versions of themself (e.g. looking younger, getting past the first date, having a better relationship with their children, etc.)” (Gill, 2007). They can get surgery so fix any flaws they dint like and they can receive a whole new wardrobe makeover. During the show they get a whole new insight on what is appropriate and fashionable. They are then shown what is the “true definition” of beauty and now they all of a sudden have then confidence to go out into the dating world and try new things. This show teaches women that how you are, is not good enough for what society thinks. You are not beautiful enough to be yourself.

Society can make women feel as if they are not pretty. There is a song by TLC written in 1999 called “Unpretty” which talks about how an individual can make a girl feel unattractive if she doesn’t look a certain way or fits the cultural qualities of beauty. The song goes:

 “I wish could tie you up in my shoes

Make you feel unpretty too

I was told I was beautiful

But what does that mean to you

Look into the mirror who's inside there

The one with the long hair

Same old me again today (yeah)

My outsides look cool

My insides are blue

Every time I think I'm through

It's because of you

I've tried different ways

But it's all the same

At the end of the day

I have myself to blame

I'm just trippin'”

In this verse of the song she states how the guy makes her feel bad on the inside, like her worth isn’t good enough for what he wants. She could in return make him feel the same way but she doesn’t because she feels as if it is her fault why she lets him make her feel this way. The chorus of the song is what is most relevant to this topic because it talks about how she has to do anything to please him and make him happy. She says that she has to change her hair and her nose just to feel like she is good enough for him. The chorus goes:

            “You can buy your hair if it won't grow

You can fix your nose if he says so

You can buy all the make up

That M.A.C. can make

But if you can't look inside you

Find out who am I too

Be in the position to make me feel

So damn unpretty

I'll make you feel unpretty too

Never insecure until I met you

Now I'm bein' stupid

I used to be so cute to me

Just a little bit skinny

Why do I look to all these things?

To keep you happy

Maybe get rid of you

And then I'll get back to me (hey)”

This song is a great example of how the media can make men view only one form of beauty. And it is the one that they see on TV everyday, not the realistic women that we come across everyday. The women we see daily do not have fixed up bodies and faces made out of other body parts and altered bone structures. The makeover paradigm is a result of this.

            Although there are TV shows that embrace this type of action, there is individualism, choice, and empowerment. Gill states, “the uptake of breast augmentation surgery by teenage girls are widely depicted as indicators of women 'pleasing themselves' and 'using beauty' to make themselves feel good.” Women have the right to enhance themselves and no one can be the judge of whether or not she does that. We want women to feel in power and capable of doing whatever they want. To add onto that, Gill says, “Scant attention is paid to the pressures that might lead a teenager to decide that major surgery will solve her problems, and even less to the commercial interests that are underpinning this staggering trend e.g. targeted advertising by cosmetic surgery clinics, and promotional packages that include mother and daughter special deals and discounts for two friends to have their ‘boobs’ done at the same time.” The media uses many tactics to get women to feel like they aren’t good enough and need to “make” themselves better.  But if she wants to do it she can. She has her own mind and choices. We can’t forever try to control what women want to do. The have their own sense of individuality and can do what they please. They shouldn’t be judged for what they want to do forever.

                 

Works Cited

"Extreme Makeover." TV.com. N.p., 25 Oct. 2006. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.

Gill, Rosalind (2007) Postfeminist media culture: elements of a sensibility. European journal of     cultural studies, 10 (2). pp. 147-166.

Gorfain, Louis H. "Extreme Makeover." Extreme Makeover. ABC. 11 Dec. 2002. Television.

TLC. Unpretty. La Face, 1999. CD