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From DallasVoice.com Screen Insightful doc explores the unhealthy obsession for physical perfection
Running through the film is the story of Gerren Taylor, who at 12 is on her way to becoming the world’s youngest supermodel. The last update gives her age as 18, but we don’t have to wait that long to see her career and self-esteem, both promoted by her mother, Michele, fall apart. In his sidebars, Roberts comes up with countless interesting stories and statistics, some familiar (ads and fashion magazines teach girls that thin is in) and some less so (phthaltes used in many cosmetics and fragrances may cause breast cancer in women and fertility problems in their offspring). Looking like he hasn’t missed any meals, Roberts advocates looking beyond the standards of physical perfection we’ve been brainwashed with for specific features, physical and otherwise, that make people beautiful. He finds a great spokesperson in Chris Elder, the principal of the middle school Gerren is attending when her career takes off. Strongly opposed to the images foisted on teenage (and younger) girls, she’s glad to have a forum and sounds off eloquently. We hear from the parents of a girl who died of bulimia about coroners who won’t list it as the cause of death, which could help free money for research and prevention. And we hear about insurance companies refusing to pay for treatment for anorexia. We meet the woman who was fired by Harrah’s in Reno because she wouldn’t wear makeup, and photographers who reveal that after retouching, the photos people try to emulate aren’t even real: “We’re selling dreams, man,” one says. Gerren is successful at the first L.A. Fashion Week, so Michele takes her to New York, where she’s hot one year and cold the next. In the meantime, tired of the principal’s interference, Michele transfers her daughter to another school (where boobs are in so Gerren wants to wear a padded bra) and finally opts for home schooling. Cosmetic surgery takes its share of heat, including exposure of how little training some so-called plastic surgeons actually have, and what can happen to their patients when the procedures go south. There are also clips of surgery that aren’t for the squeamish, though no worse than you see on “Nip/Tuck.” In response to the concept of “designer vaginas,” the woman who wrote the book — er, play (“The Vagina Monologues”) — on vaginas, Eve Ensler says, “If you think you’re not tight enough, get a bigger dick.” A few other celebrities, including Paris Hilton (“Any woman can be beautiful if she’s confident”), Jessica Simpson, Ted Casablanca and Anthony Kiedis, are captured in quick bites of less value, other than commercial, than what the nonentities have to say. There’s a quick but relevant clip from Margaret Cho’s act. It’s no coincidence that anorexia came to Fiji along with television, when it was introduced in the ’90s. You may feel better about America when Gerren, looking like a stick figure, learns she’s too fat for France as she tries to find modeling work in Paris. The easiest part of Roberts’‚ job must have been finding men who would sound like assholes when they give their views on female beauty. But it’s amazing to hear one guy go on at — ahem — length about his own underendowment. It seems men don’t all have great self-images either. They just don’t think their appearance should matter to women. Illuminating and entertaining but saddled with a R rating (for language), “America the Beautiful” won’t reach many of the young people who need to see it. But their parents — some of whom need to see it, too — can buy them the DVD when it comes out. It should lead to many a constructive family discussion.
REGENT KING RIPS UP OBAMA CHECK
The diehard Democrat had already written a check to the Obama campaign. But at last month’s Saddleback Civil Forum, when Colichman heard Obama define marriage as “as a union between a man and a woman,” Colichman ripped up his check. “If we always vote for the lesser of two evils, if we accept their crumbs and platitudes, if we write checks to candidates who don’t stand up for us, aren’t we being self-destructive?” Colichman told The New York Post. These articles appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition September 5, 2008. © Copyright by DallasVoice.com |
