Thompson 1 Alexandra T;]hompson Luann Henken ENC 1102 5 October 2010 The Value of Beauty and Fame As I watched

the third episode of the 15th season of Tyra Banks prized television show, Americas Next Top Model, I covered my mouth in awe and disgust. It was the highly anticipated seasonal beauty episode in which the contestants get makeovers that are supposed to them a high-fashion look. Ms. Banks shocked many viewers when she destroyed a young ladys teeth to give her a distinguished look. Chelsey, a twenty-two year old contestant from Boise, Idaho, had by far the most extreme makeovers of the shows history. Instead of the usual hair coloring, extensions, or eyebrow wax, her day started with a trip to the dentist to exaggerate the gap between her front teeth. She said, I went to the dentist and he actually shaved off a quarter of a millimeter off of each tooth. Her seemingly unnoticeable gap was widened! When asked about the change she replied, I will do anything that [Tyra] thinks looks good. The competition is so big and intense, and the stakes are so high, that I take it really seriously. Luckily, she is still a contestant unlike competitor Tera who was kicked off an hour after getting her hair chopped off for crying. Therefore, I ask the pose a question. Are the mental and physical pains and pressures that Hollywood puts on youth worth gaining the title of beautiful or famous? People have a natural desire to be beautiful but why be willing to suffer, be disfigured or even die in the quest? The French even have a saying L'un doit souffrir pour tre beau which translates to One must suffer to be beautiful. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder why are

Thompson 2 women undergoing suffering to fit into the images that our celebrities portray? The media is a primary factor in the development and maintenance of women's body image problems. Their portrayals of the ideal woman through ads, commercials, celebrities, and the fashion industry lead females to spend outrageous amounts of money, undergo extreme surgeries, and develop severe eating disorders. Young girls who want to gain celebrity status have to make these types of decisions to keep up with their competition in order to break into the business. To earn a role on Foxs hit television show Glee, 18-year-old singing sensation Charice Pempengco underwent noninvasive plastic surgery and got Botox injections. (Monson and Schoenstadt) It is recommended that one waits until at least the age of twenty-six to undergo such procedures. According to emedtv.com risks of Botox include Ptosis (a severe drooping of the eyelid), nausea, muscle weakness, facial pain, or hypertension. At the age of 18 how does one justify putting themselves in the way for such risk? Heidi Montag, Kim Kardashian, Megan Fox and Lindsay Lohan are just a few celebrities under thirty who have either admitted or are rumoured to have gotten Botox injections or plastic surgery (Rowe). Times have changed and young Hollywood feels the pressure to keep their celebrity beauty by turning to plastic surgery. Surgeries are being performed to prevent what might not even occur. In what way does this make sense? According to feminist writer Naomi Wolf there is a trap called the beauty myth- a nearly unreachable cultural ideal of feminine beauty that uses beauty as a political weapon. By this standard, women are trapped in an endless cycle of cosmetics, beauty aids, diets, and exercise fanaticism. The Ideal body shape and weight also varies enormously. And it appears that the standards are becoming harder to achieve. In 1954, Miss America was 58 and weighed

Thompson 3 132 pounds. Today, the average Miss America contestant still stands 58, but now she weighs just 117 pounds. (Kimmel and Aronson) Singer Ashlee Simpson, sister of singer and actress Jessica Simpson who has been featured on Maxims Magazine Hot 100 list numerous times (Staff), has publicly admitted that she battled with an eating disorder during her pre-teen years. "I was around a lot of girls with eating disorders." she was quoted saying. Having a sister that was held such titles pressured her to take extremes to be put in the same category. From this, Jessica Simpson developed the television show The Price of Beauty in which she traveled the world to examine how cultures identify what beauty is. In an interview with VH1 she stated, Beauty is an easy thing to become obsessed with, people put so much pressure on women to be beautiful. Theres always a new diet to follow, a new beauty product to use, but is that really what defines beauty? (Real Style Network) Thus, I believe that its time that people pay attention to the self-mutilation that is occurring all for the unimportant label of being famous. Its time to become our own beholders and reexamine the value of beauty and fame.

Word count: 799

Thompson 4 Works Cited Kimmel, Michael and Amy Aronson. "Sociology Now:The Essentials, Second Edition." Allyn & Bacon, 2011. 286-87. Monson, Kristi Monson and Arthur Schoenstadt. Emedtv. 12 December 2009. 16 October 2010. Real Style Network. 21 June 2010. 16 October 2010. Rowe, Robin. Hollywood Today. 15 March 2010. 15 October 2010. Staff, Maxim. Maxim. 1 May 2008. 16 October 2010.