Critisizing Plain Jane part 4: Episode 1 part II

Part 1: Introduction on why I hate these kind of reality makeover shows
Part 2: Opening credits
Part 3: Episode 1 part I

Part 5: Episode 1 part III
Part 6: Episode 1 part IV
Final part: Episode 1 part V

Continuing with my review-commentary of the first episode of this horrific makeover show...

Part II:

-Summary: Cristen’s sexist training begins. The first step is as invading and insensitive as it is illogical: It involves making her face 'her biggest fear' (in this case, snails) in order to put her date with Tye into perspective. Because that makes so much sense.

-So the first step of this stylist's genious plan to make Cristen desirable and 'girlfriend material' is the phobia strategy ('This is the real beginning of your transformation'). Yeah, because tackling your biggest fear is comparable to asking someone out (I'm not saying that it can't be difficult, but yeah. And don't forget about all that emphasis on dates, and especially, your first date: ‘one of your biggest moments of your life’!).

  I really don't like this 'strategy' because it's massively out of context and because it's downright mean  - Why force her to be in such an uncomfortable situation? Exactly how is that going to help her to give her ‘courage to go on a date’? This is abusive. This is emotional manipulation. As everything in this show, really.

Tackling your biggest fear in a right context or brainwashing a girl into thinking she must go through this ordeal because of sexist and out-of-context reasons?  My money's on the latter.

-In a flash-forward, Cristen thinks about the experience and says: "It was one of the most horrifying, terrifying experiences of my life...I don't think anything could be worse than that, even getting rejected by Tye" - Notice how he's the one who gets to decide about the relationship status. She’s afraid of being rejected by him, if he doesn’t find her desirable and flirtatious enough, apparently.

Also, it's also worth mentioning that Cristen's relatives make sure to laugh at Cristen becuse of her oh-so-stupid phobia. Sure, let's talk about how awesome and smart and wonderful Tye is every single tme, but let's tell the world about Cristen's irrational phobia, and, as a necessary bonus, about how messy and 'masculine' she is. Hello again, double standards. Hello again, casual misogyny.

 It's all right to encourage someone who's shy about asking someone out if they ask for help, but that's extreme. And like I said, illogical and out of context. And not only that - It's insensitive and pretty sadistic, to tell the truth. It seems that we enjoy watching scared and passive girls here. Also, the scene includes serving live snails in a French restaurant (they serve a bucketful of live snails and make her touch them, just so you get the idea). So very civilized and nice. I will never understand how people can go and eat live things and think themselves sophisticated, I just can't. But that's a different topic.

-So yeah, let's force this girl to have a terrifying time because we're doing it for a great cause (making her succeed on a date), and because they’re gifting her loads of money as a bonus incentive, namely a thousand dollar cheque that will pay for her new clothes (it’s not for her studies or anything, don’t be misguided – Hey, we don’t even know what she’s studying, if she’s studying!).

-Upon informing Cristen that there’s a thousand dollar cheque in the live snail jar, the stylist claims 'I would do anything for a thousand dollars'. Well, I definitely applaud you for your moral high ground, stylist.

 I find so many wrong things with this scene. Oh, and she's supposed to "feel empowered, because you can kick ass". Well, we have different ideas of what it means to be empowered, if that's the best you can think of. Try about learning to love yourself, maybe? Even with all that 'overcoming your fears' talk...let's talk about the fact that she's basically doing it so that the date seems innocuous to her in comparison, additionally manipulating her with the materialistic motivation of a money cheque, and because forcing someone to overcome a traumatic and TOTALLY UNNECESSARY experience is necessary to feel ‘empowered’, apparently. You know what? When in danger or need, people are ready to try to overcome their fears. Doing this for such shallow (and sexist) reasons is what makes it unnecessary and outright sadistic. Like I said in the introduction, people with fear of heights don’t go jumping off planes in a parachute because they are nervous about an exam, for heaven's sake!

Makeover shows tip: This is the right way to feel empowered

And it's also interesting that in all these episodes the girl's (probably scripted) deepest fear goes along the lines of bugs, heights or darkness - All these fears and phobias are completely legit, but it's also easy enough to create a frightening experience or scenario around them in order to terrorize these girls into feeling that going to a date with some guy is so challenging they must go through that rubbish before (allow me to rant again because this 'tactic' is pure idiocy and very creepy emotional manipulation as well). But if one of these girls went and said something like 'death', 'illness', 'natural disasters' or 'something happening to my loved ones' (or, in my case, an example could be 'extreme theocratic misognystic regimes à la Handmaid's Tale'), then what? Would they be expected, I don't know, to die or walk through a house in fire in order to face a date? I guessed not. That's how logical this 'phobia strategy' is. 

  And all that twisted 'conquer your fears' talk is about the best morals this episode gives us, by the way. Yaaaay! *sarcastic slow clapping*

Ten also thinks that all this is plain disgusting

 -Summary: The stylist bashes Cristen’s room and clothes style using infuriating rudeness and sexist stereotypes as her arsenal.

-As they are making their way to Cristen's room, Louise very knowingly starts: "Now, when a Plain Jane doesn't have love in her life [and we all know how essential that is for women] a good first step is to check out her house and her bedroom [Yay privacy! This woman really does like invasive actions and situations, doesn't she?]. Her surroundings say a lot about her [Probably about how messy, sloppy, unfeminine and depressed she is, right?]"

-"This is like house of horrors". It's fascinating how utterly rude she is and how incredibly charming she thinks she is. 

So, boys can have messy rooms, and it's more or less OK, doesn't challenge their masculinity either (and anyway, we don’t even care about Tye’s room, he’s already awesome in every way and he keeps an aura of mystery, or, at least, he gets to have his privacy and personal likes respected, which must be so nice). But if a girl has a messy room...She isn't 'girly' or 'feminine', and she hasn't got love in her life. The thought didn't enter into her narrow mind that depending on each one's personality, you have a different take on order.

Also, is it me or is it glaringly obvious that they made this girl’s room so messy in order to emphasize just how ‘tomboyish’ and ‘in need of a man’ she is? This show likes to link casual wear and lack of make-up and heels with messiness, lack of hygiene, ‘tomboyish’ behaviour, self-consciousness, shyness and the like - just because the girl in question isn’t the tube-skirted, high-heeled, made-up flirty sexy woman she’s supposed to be just because she's a woman. These people are making us think that this girl has a messy room because she's not dressing sexy and because she's depressed and forlorn for not having a man in her life. Clichéd and utterly sexist.

-Oh look, having plush toys in her bed is bad and shameful as well, especially if you want to start a relationship.  For shame! You can't get a boyfriend if you have children's toys on your bed, you're not sexy or seductive or grown-up enough! "There is no sexy time going on in here" Seriously? So many girls, myself included, have plush toys in their bed, disregardless of our freaking relationships! Hell, many boys have a lot of toys and stuff in their bedrooms. Guess it's OK to have toys and/or be geeky if you are a guy, but not OK if you're a girl. I think the guitars are going to pay soon, too, seeing as playing the guitar is so utterly 'tomboyish'.

I guess the only aim of a girl's room is to furnish it for  'sexy times'. You know, because her life revolves around men and that's the only aim her room should have as well. How dares she have plush toys, guitars and other out-of-context, off-putting objects!

-Now they’re going on about a prom pic she’s got on her wall (of course, she liked the guy for eight years, and he had to ask her. And then proceeded to cheat on her. But somehow, it's all her fault for being messy and shy. Victim blaming.). First of all, even if for once the stylist does have a point (why on earth do you keep a picture of one who dumped and cheated on you on your wall, for heaven’s sake??), you don't take a pic from someone's wall without permission, jeesh. Also, you go and remark 'that's not good for ego'. That's rich coming from a stylist whose only  job is to alter young girls' looks, personality and lifestyles. Hypocrisy much?

-Another scene of Cristen’s parents and friends, who just keep insulting Cristen. Now she's 'shy' and 'walks hunched down'...'because of guys like this'. Guess she needs to learn to flirt, without even considering that crappy guys who cheat on people are the bad element of the equation, NOT HER!

-"Can you imagine Tye in this room?" The one and only reason why you should redecorate your room, Cristen!

-So yay, now she's going to criticize the hell out of her clothes. What the stylist doesn't like, she throws to the floor, and her commentary takes being rude and obnoxious to a whole new level. In the meantime, Cristen has to justify herself and laugh apologetically for liking those clothes and having the nerve to have her own choices. The conclusion is that Cristen needs to be sexier, of course. It's basically compulsory.

-The rude, sexist commentary included: Oh look, she does wear dresses, maybe she's not as 'tomboyish' as we thought, but oh, they're ‘old-fashioned’, ‘childish’ and ‘oh-so-not-sexy’. The cheerful coloured plaid shirts are allegedly so ugly as well (you can only wear them if you own an ice-cream van and are not female, apparently).  And yes, it gets worse: 'Tell me this was your granny's, and you're looking after it for her'.  "I got it from a thrift store" - "Is that supposed to make me feel better?". This person is so rude it's disgusting.

Let me tell you how everything you wear is ugly and rubbish and how you must wear exactly what I tell you in order to succeed in life - or that is to say, in order to succeed in your date, because that's basically what your life is, right?

"Okay, what's the last thing Tye saw you in...(ugh) Oh my god! Don't do this to me! Good news is, my love, I'm going to take you shopping" Yes, thank you for reminding us that we must dress for men's eyes.  And thank you from the bottom of my heart for being utterly rude and dogmatic and  for imposing your personal style and preferences to everyone else.

What the hell, I now applaud Molly Hooper from Sherlock BBC more than ever. She has this cute, unconventional, whimsical kind of style (a bit like Luna Lovegood, actually, another great model in this respect) and she rocks it without really caring about what people think (She did dress conventionally 'sexier' during the Christmas party in order to try to impress Sherlock, but that was the one time, and even then she was pretty much 70%+ Molly with the plastic bow in her hair). What's also important, Sherlock doesn't give a damn about her needing to change her style in order to 'impress him'. By season 3, he's already pretty impressed with her and her wonderful personality (think friendship or Sherlolly ship, or both, your choice) WHILE wearing her whimsical clothes. Take that, stylist!  

Now, this is a great example of people who don't give a damn about changing their own clothes style *while* having troubles with a crush at the same time. Molly gains Sherlock's respect and friendship (at the least) because of her intelligence and her kind and trustworthy character, not as a result of her having to change her clothes or appearance. Which makes it an infinitely healthier relationship.