Dirty Secret

I'm a bad feminist.

I love makeover shows.

No, seriously, I love them. They're fun to watch. Even when the people aren't into it to begin with it's usually pretty fun to see them undergo a psychological transformation along with their physical one--I don't know where it really started but I remember first seeing the American version of the show 'What Not to Wear' featuring a video diary by the people being made over and I like watching their thoughts on the process.

To clarify, I don't think everyone needs to look a certain way or conform to conventional standards of beauty. And not every person I've ever seen going through a makeover looks better after the fact. Sometimes they looked way better (or at least more like they were comfortable in their own skin) before it. Sometimes they go halfway back between their old look and the new one and look better for it. I am in no way insisting everyone has to be a size two, blonde, tan, and wear makeup. Boys can wear dresses. Girls can wear waistcoats. Anyone can wear makeup, or not, as they see fit. Get a bob, a buzz, a ponytail, a mohawk. Do what makes you happy. But not everyone can do this and present a good image. Like it or not, that's what people see first.

"I don't care how I look" seems to be a common mantra but honestly, the ones who say it are the ones putting a great deal of time and effort and money into the 'look' they don't care about.

There isn't any one type of beauty. Lillian Gish, Marilyn Monroe, Liz Taylor, and Drew Barrymore are all astoundingly beautiful women from different times who were all 'beauties' by the standards of the day and remain so today, in the case of the first two many decades after their lives ended. I honestly think they are all equally stunning. But they are not comparable. They are beautiful for different reasons, in different ways, and comparing them to one another isn't fair on anybody to compare any of them because their beauty is so wildly different--different, but not mutually exclusive. Curviness is sexy. Muscle is sexy. Slim figures as sexy. Tattoos and piercings are hot. Long dresses are lovely.

What it comes down to for me, at least, is that everyone is capable of their own kind of beauty. Just, not everyone knows they can do it. Some people think they have to slap on the makeup with a paint roller, or wear outrageous colours and sparkles to stand out and be attractive. You certainly can if you want to, but you and me and the girl dancing in the cage last night at the bar are all capable of being lovely without it. The appeal of these kinds of shows isn't that they tell people to conform or how to present themselves. It's that it shows them they have their own unique beauty.

No matter what.