Why We Can't Fix the Makeover Movie
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- Опубликовано: 6 окт 2024
- The makeover movie just won't die. Can we keep it alive with radical reimaginings like "Uglies" and even "Barbie"? Will "Princess Diaries 3" save us?
This video is part of a much longer video available now over on Patreon! "How to Build a Feminist" / how-to-build-113138906
Video by Ada Černoša and Verity Ritchie
Patreon: / verityritchie
Verity's Twitter: / verilybitchie
Verity's Instagram: / verityritchie
Ada's Twitter: / theliterarybi
Ada's website about bisexual books: theliterarybis...
Makeover movies and TV shows covered:
Pygmalion (1938)
Now, Voyager (1942)
My Fair Lady (1964)
Can’t Buy Me Love (1987)
Matilda (1996)
Pretty Woman (1990)
She’s All That (1999)
Star Trek Voyager (1999)
Love & Basketball (2000)
Miss Congeniality (2000)
The Princess Diaries (2001)
Love Don’t Cost a Thing (2003)
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
What a Girl Wants (2003)
Mean Girls (2004)
The House Bunny (2008)
Descendants (2015)
He’s All That (2021)
Gossip Girl (2021-2023)
Do Revenge (2022)
Barbie (2023)
Uglies (2024)
This video is part of a much longer video available now over on Patreon! "How to Build a Feminist" www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-build-113138906
Please put it on here too. I just got into it and cannot afford Patreon.
I am not a feminist, but interested anyway.
Paywalling anything more than a time delay carries its own self-inflicted detriment.
I'm a feminist but I don't think child abuse is ok
This was about Ms trunchbull by the way
will you publish for free on RUclips another part of the full video?
I don't think I'll be able to afford the Patreon subscription any time soon but this piece was amazing! thank you for making it and showing us
Also hate the connotation that unfeminine and butch characters hate femininity? I love it just not on myself!
“You look like that cause you hate other women!”
“Ohhh… sweetie…”
exactly, I'm feminine presenting and my masc friends and I hype each other's aesthetics up all the time.
i used to dress super duper femme when i was closeted and now that im butch I realize i was dressing as my type!!!
It's like assuming a trans guy who gets top surgery hates tits- no, I love them! Just not on *my* body!
True! Im not super masc in my dressing style but I def do not dress as feminine and most of my mates. And I love that on them!
Mia's glasses being snapped was literally my worst nightmare. That's a goddamned expensive disability aid, and I can't wear contacts, they hurt my eyes.
I winced seeing that clip. Eurgh!
(Also, Ahiru/Duck!!)
I winced as well. Especially as I had bullies at school do that. Being presented as an action by a character “helping” the protagonist is always… yuchk.
Thankfully the glasses shop (Specsavers) grabbed a new frame off the shelf and transferred my lenses into them for free when I brought the two halves into the shop. Dunno what I would’ve done if the bullies (abusers) had kept them. Waited weeks with no vision I suppose.
All that said, glasses are much cheaper than my wheelchair 😅 the ways airlines have destroyed some friends’ chairs has me pretty feart of flying for the sake of my own.
Yeah, I always hated that with a fiery vengeance.
I'm so glad Specsavers did that for you for free, what a nightmare situation @@kaitlyn__L
Those glasses honestly complemented her appearance like she looked memorable
As a butch, whenever I try to talk to people about how bad mainstream representation of butches is, I'll use Ms trenchbol as an example and people will be like "no she's not a butch! She's just an evil strict woman who dresses and acts masculine to seem scarier!" And I'm like yeah,,, that's exactly my point
The play version of Matilda I saw had her played by a man in drag like 😬 the actor was amazing, but the implications made me so uncomfortable. Like okay yeah the villain is this evil, mean, and manly woman who's played by literally a man in a dress, and we're just supposed to act like this is normal and not sexist or transphobic at all.
As a lesbian Ms trenchbol is an icon 😅 I love her and think she is amazing and totally based
this is similar to how i mentioned that 'man in a dress' is transmisogynistic cause its very much making fun of trans women and the idea that any 'man' would want to be feminine is made out to be a joke, and the person i mentioned it to just said 'noooo its not making fun of trans women its making fun of men in dresses!!' people do nottt wanna listen to women lmao
@@user-yd4tm3gl8s She's literally a child abuser. I would try to find another butch icon that doesn't play into homophobic stereotypes about less-femme lesbians.
And a very feminine woman can be scary too- think Miss Umbridge in Harry Potter.
"They're rarely women of color but they do often have racially-coded features like curly hair."
As someone with curly hair (and subsequent self-esteem issues around it), I never really thought about how much my negative feelings about my hair were caused by media.
I'm trying to think of female protagonists with naturally curly hair (who keep it that way by the end,) and I really can't think of many. Merida from Brave, Ms Frizzle from Magic School bus, Nadia in russian Doll, Mirabel in Encanto, Ripley in Alien.... And of those, the only ones who have the characters self expression as part of the story are Russian Doll and Brave.
Sucks since full curly hair looks awesome. Mine just half asses it and goes curly near the ends, like I gave up halfway through curling it.
@@tortoiseoflegends4466 The only I can think of was Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, but as is stated in the video, she was going the other direction towards the "plainer" end of the spectrum, and started out with the straight, blonde wig
curly hair is so pretty 😭 I want it
I'm so tired of curly hair always being portrayed as "racial coded" when it's shown on white women. It's our feature, literally?? People like "orderly" things so they often gravitate more towards straight hair, but we gonna pretend there wasn't entire generation of women curling and perming their hair like crazy? They like curly hair, just that natural curly hair has more tendency to look like it's messy if you're not taking care of it.
@@tortoiseoflegends4466 the main character in Dirty Dancing too. I found that really validating, to see someone with my hair type who didn't have to straighten her hair to be beautiful.
As a child, I hated that they straightened Mia's hair during her makeover, as if they were saying that you can't be pretty AND have curly hair. She looked pretty either way, in my opinion.
As a woman with straight hair who always wanted curly hair: Yep, it was a crime to straighten Mia's hair.
My best friend growing up had hair just like Mia and glasses and I felt so so bad for her about that portrayal. Curly hair in general was considered abhorrent back then as well. I'm so glad we've evolved on that point at least
This always got me too. My hair was just as frizzy and difficult to deal with, and my mom would constantly tell me the only way to make it nice was to straighten it. So glad there’s more curly hair information out there these days!
Hey I just felt the need to say that I see you in basically every comment section ever whenever I watch a video and there is a strange comfort to that agshfi
anne hathaway can't fisically look bad
you're right tho
If only makeovers were just about dressing in your favorite clothes and going all out in a style you like
I'm trying to write a story with a subversion of the makeover trope. Where the "fashionable" friend helps her "unfashionable" friend find her personal style rather than make her dress like a mini version of her.
And the significance of this being that the “unfashionable” friend previously wasn’t able to figure out her style due to financial and social reasons. So naturally her view towards fashion is pretty tainted at first.
I also want to do a Miss Honey spectrum subversion by having the two extremes being
1) her wearing “safe” clothes that she doesn’t love but she feels are her only options (body image issues also come into play)
2) when she was in a toxic relationship with someone who treated her as a dress up doll
And the middle ground being
3) having guidance and support in experimenting with clothes that make her happy without having someone else’s taste imposed on her
If only it was just 1) take off glasses 2) let down ponytail
@@alyssapinon9670that sounds so cool! I feel like I lived this progression just without a fashionable friend to help me figure out what I like. Instead it was lots of money wasted on clothes that ended up being itchy or cute in my mind but not what I would enjoy wearing. Eventually I figured out what things feel bad & good, what I like to look like, and how much energy I need to wear things. (certain clothes are easier than others) And as a funny twist, I recently got glasses and feel like they make me so pretty! I love how I look in them.
as a trans women, THIS. need me a movie where someone like me finds beauty and comfort in hooded cowls, striped shirts, deck shoes, dumb t shirts with loud designs, and any other thing my autisticy brain craves wearing.
>:( my gender envy is Dark Link, and my version of a makeover wouldnt be anything like these movies
@@alyssapinon9670 Write it! We'll read it.
This is making me appreciate how our favorite queer movie about losers, Bottoms, doesn't have a makeover. It does a lot of the tropes and makes a point of the idea that they dress badly (not that I necessarily agree) but they look and dress the same when they're turning the tides and getting things they want.
I appreciate that this does mention the makeover in Do Revenge; I'd be curious about the ways that other queer movies do and don't follow this approach.
(Actually I guess Do Revenge has an onscreen and an offscreen makeover of the same character, if I remember right? There's the makeover scene but also the whole premise is that Maya Hawke has had such a makeover that Camila Mendez doesn't recognize her.)
I saw this movie! It was really good!
ayo edebiri's outfits were eating the entire film
I hate that you brought Matilda and Barbie into this because you are right
puts a whole new spin on Trunchbull finding out it was Matilda who snuck around her house by finding her hair ribbon
Right? SUCH good points but also. NOT MISS HONEY.
To quote the most infamous art critic of the 21st century, "It's both possible and even necessary to simultaneously enjoy media while also being critical of its more problematic or pernicious aspects."
@@jdk2535Wait, how so?
@@bonnieparker1725 I think the "new spin" is about how a hair ribbon - a very feminine object in its origin (or at least its most common usage) - "betrays" Matilda and turns her into Trunchbull's target (not sure if I've worded this correctly, I haven't seen Matilda in years)
it is SO strange when movies tell girls to embrace your “true self” but it’s like Dove Cameron with purple hair 😭
Embrace your true self, as long as your true self is what appeals to men
I've always been a tomboy and although I tried to be feminine when I was little it never really stuck, which is what irks me about the makeover scenes. There's never any resistance to the change others are imposing on the women. It's this feeling of "oh I'm being perceived this is good time to do a little feminine hair tuck" where some of us grow up and start growing beards at 30
100%, Miss Congeniality is the closest to rejecting the makeover at the end, but it's almost an after thought.
@Jellyfish146 That's exactly why I hate movies like Mean Girls.
That's a really good point! As someone who lies on the weird geek side of the spectrum, attempts at makeovers and wardrobe changes always come with a sense of betrayal. Like, not only are you telling me my worth is linked to my attempts to enhance my appearance, but you're also making me jumpscared every time I see the nail polish on my hands. The bad feeling of not being myself is only amplified by the insistence that it is the best option. We'll see the makeoverees tug at their collars or fiddle with hair, but never cry in the bathroom about how wrong the aesthetic makes them feel, or run their hand compulsively over a part of themself that was painted, shaved or straightened.
@@featherflight3493 thisss omg I remember when some girls a sumer camp when I was a teen tried to do a makover on me one time and put me in makeup, I hated it so much it felt like I was in costume. And after every time someone complimented me like "oh you put on makeup, it looks nice on you" it made me feel worse lmao
Ikr. If refuse a makeover!
oh my god finally someone else puts together exactly why i hated the barbie movie. i remember watching it and just going... huh? this is the movie people have been celebrating as peak queer feminism? that conservatives have been complaining about as too woke and feminist? i had expected that there would be a few places where it would fall short but i didn't expect the whole entire premise of the movie to be... like this!
As someone that was obsessed with the Barbie movie when it first came out, but now don't really care for it. I was fully blinded by the nostalgia and the callbacks to my childhood. Watching it now, it's very VERY middle ground. It says more about existentialism than it does about feminism. I wonder how many people who either really hated or really liked it feel now that the Barbie craze is over.
it's definitely feminism 101... if that. I went into it prepared for its half baked corporate condoned pinkified exploration of feminism so I allowed myself to be pleasantly surprised by the existential aspects of the plot and the production design and constructive elements of the film, but after so much had been made out of it yeah it was like "THIS? this is what you're all excited about?"
ikr, I went in knowing nothing about the plot and was pretty disappointed at how shallow its attempt at a message felt, I was super shocked to see what a positive reception it had especially online!
As someone who still loves the Barbie Movie, I would never consider it peak queer feminism. It's fairly milquetoast in its politics, but I didn't go for politics. I went for a campy femme film about Barbie.
As someone who did actually like the movie, i haven't seen anybody actually call it or consider it "peak queer feminism". Like i've only ever seen people call it "feminism 101" and saying it was at least good in that regard - it's a good movie, just not a good politics movie, u know?
Frankly it says alot about (american) reactionnary conservatives that *this* was enough to incorporate it into their narratives; even the bare, most basic, most "middle ground" feminism pisses them off.
I always, ALWAYS, hated the Makeover trope, but especially the "omg she's beautiful WITHOUT THE GLASSES!" trope. I love my glasses. I love glasses in general. Glasses are pretty.
@@Rutanachan I only have reading glasses but I feel hot with and without them.
That's why it's funny on Arrested Development, Judy Greer plays someone who looks worse without her glasses.
Nah, there's a difference. People wearing glasses in movies are wearing non prescription glasses, which always looks cute. There's nothing cute about my glasses that make my eyes look tiny - or those that transform eyes to teacups. 🤣😂😂
I love glasses and think people generally look more attractive with them - I think I look *worse* without my glasses. Was always confused by that trope, though I will say some kinds of glasses are more flattering on people’s faces than others.
and they can be styled like anything else too. Obviously if you have glasses that just dont fit your faceshape you look worse, like i look really bad with bold frames because my features are already really strong and dark
Shaw is definitely turning over in his grave.
Its amazing how the play from the 1900s is probably the most progressive version (and about class not femininity)
It even has Eliza be the one who pushers for her transformation rather than it being fully forced on her.
The way I’ve genuinely in my own life always imagined Ms. Honey as my “ideal” concept of femininity and never unpacked that… this video grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me LOL. Really enjoyed this and I’m always excited to see a new video from you!
As someone who's still figuring out their style and has been on all parts of this spectrum, I love that this video is making me think about my relationship to gender and self expression. I've given up my femininity to be seen as a respectable adult, it didn't work. I ramped up the sexiness to get attention, I felt super uncomfortable. Now I walk around in discount Barbie merch and Nirvana T shirts and still feel dissatisfied. None of it is entirely authentic. I'm starting to wonder if authenticity even exists in fashion. We're always influenced by others' opinions, physical environment, income bracket, jobs, physical abilities, size, the fashion industry itself, etc. Who would I be if I had all the clothes and hairstyles options in the world?
Are you me? Oh my god. I’ve never really felt “pretty” even at my most feminine in presentation so I cut off my hair and wore baggy clothes when going out just to see how it felt. Although white women could do the same and still possibly be seen as feminine, since i’m black i’m sure I was seen as masculine by some people cause I even perceived myself as such. I think my Ms.Honey era was in HS where I tried to walk the line between feminine but not sexed up. But since I have never seen myself as sexy now I have this urge to show more skin and really lean into it (kinda like video vixens). Anyway, like in your case none of it feels authentic. I’m mostly just chasing trying to feel beautiful or justified in my body. I don’t think i’ll ever feel that no matter what I look like though.
It'll come in time. You can't dress as authentically yourself if you don't know who you are inside. Experiment and enjoy the journey 💜
@@aieliannanah i’m white, tall and a tomboy and i’m seen as masculine, clocked as queer or mistaken for a trans woman a lot of the time, not that that’s a problem. People assume stuff about women all the time but that’s ramped up if you’re not petite and hyper feminine
@feltfrog Even though I am queer, I don’t want people just assuming i’m masc automatically cause i’m not 😭. Even other queer people might assume that which I don’t want as well. Like you said if you’re not petite or hyper feminine people just stereotype you.
@@aielianna yeah fr, I'm a queer woman but still don't like people making assumptions when they don't know me :')
The Dutch film adaptation of Pygmalion from 1937 literally ends like this, at Elisa's father's wedding:
Higgins: shall we do the same?
Elisa: what?
Higgins: as your father?
Elisa: get married? No, that would be stupid.
Cut to Higgins' housekeeper smirking.
End credits lmao
You can watch the whole movie on RUclips, it's available with English subtitles and it's really very good!
what should one search to find this?
@@esobelisk3110 "Pygmalion 1937" works for me, it's on the Eye Filmmuseum channel
@@esobelisk3110The full Dutch version with subtitles is on a channel called Eye Filmmuseum.
@@esobelisk3110 try "pygmalion 1937 dutch film"
I've seen people defend Uglies and say that it doesn't matter the actors are super hot because the point of the film is that they're meant to be average (not ugly) and that beauty ideals make everyone feel ugly... But they're not average either! I'm tired of the sanitised instagram faces, I want to see some normal people! And I want Hollywood to start casting based on talent not looks
This was the point the author was trying to make in the books - there's literally one part where the main character is looking at magazines from The Before Times and marveling at how "ugly" she perceives the hottest celebrities of those days to be, and how there's only a few "natural pretties." Her internal monologue at this point is her wrestling with the preconceived notion she was raised with that there is one way to be pretty and that way is through the dystopian surgeries that make everyone look more or less the same. If those people were considered beautiful, then could she also be beautiful as she is? The issue with bringing this book series to the screen is that the visual medium doesn't really allow for this point to come across, for the same reason Verity brings up about the ending of My Fair Lady being changed - what audience wants to see a "won't-they" ending to a will-they-won't-they dynamic? What audience wants to see "average" people on the screen? Certainly not any audience that studio execs are interested in courting.
i think with uglies the pretties are supposed to have a rlly extreme form of beauty and look sort of inhumanly ‘beautiful’ so that even if ur attractive by our standards it doesn’t matter bc no one looks insane as them
@@ememem2952 it would be so much better animated. you just can't do enough with makeup. i laughed so hard when they showed the last shot of (lol already forgot her name) and it's the most assymetrical face i've ever seen. why did they do that?! they could've just show her from angle or something. (there is nothing wrong with assymetrical we all are you are beautifulllll) "it's the same person but with makeup, bleached hair and contacts" just doesn't do it
@@lkmcd98 I remember when I was still dealing with body dysmorphia, my prettiest friend was gushing about them being her favourite book series and how I should totally read them. Just the names were enough to tell me I wasn’t ready. Honestly I’m still not sure if I am, this video alone was kind of a lot. But if I ever am, it’d certainly be through the books and not some Netflix adaptation.
As someone not from the US I've always seen the "we only put pretty people on TV" problem as being a very US thing, wheras in the UK, y'know, the we really don't have an obsession with hiring someone stunningly beautiful to play a slob or a loser. Hell, a lot of our stars just look like "some bird/bloke from the pub".
I find it varies by country though.
Sorry this is kind of unrelated, but the actress who played miss trunchbull (Pam Ferris), said in an interview that she imagined a closeted lesbian backstory for her, so I'd say it's 100% more than just vibes (maybe you knew this info already). I found this info from a video by 'The Back Focus' on YT (it is a rlly interesting video), but since I found this out I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Like all these things suddenly clicked into place of how lesbian coded Miss Trunchbull always was as a character in the film and I'm kind of obsessed! And like even more reinforces how the character represents one of the ends of the dichotomy of like unacceptable femininity . Such an insightful video and I am only like 4 minutes in! x
also the 'why are all these women married' line is actually so funny and cracks me up every time I hear it
Related to another essay but I really don’t like how it’s considered not being a “girls girl” to dislike makeup or think some feminine pursuits are frivolous. Like beauty pageants are frivolous, most only do them for the chance for scholarship money
@@ladygrey4113 welcome to "choice" feminism. Well some women choose to do those things therefore we can't critically examine why that might be, and any greater societal influence and impact.
Obviously it's important not to just go "well girls who like makeup are just shallow and dumb." But, just because some women embrace makeup doesn't suddenly mean the societal pressure on women to adhere to beauty standards that include the correct amount of makeup are not still fucking garbage.
Same thing about pink! I felt a lot of pressure from peers as I got into my early 20s to start liking pink, or at least to be okay with wearing a little bit of it. Because to *them*, hating pink represented hating femininity, something they were trained to hate in themselves by society, and this is something they grew out of. I remember how annoyed my friend seemed when I said I didn't have anything pink to wear to the Barbie Movie.
I absolutely respect everyone's right to wear whatever they want but I'm not doing it. For me, pink isn't about femininity, it's about choice. When I was a kid, my mother bought exclusively pink clothing for me and I *hated* it. When I was old enough to pick my own clothes, pink was out.
being Gen Z and a tomboy is a struggle lol no other girls want to be my friend because they either think I’m a lesbian or I’m insecure and make them uncomfortable because I “don’t seem confident in my appearance” and they’re worried about having a friend that will say stuff like “Oh you’re so pretty, I don’t like makeup myself but you look great”. I blame tiktok for making young people think that you can just sort people into different boxes/types/“aesthetics” or label everyone, making female friends nowadays is a minefield
@@feltfrog why would you even want to be friends with some dumbass homophobes?
I echo the other comments, growing up with big poofy curly hair and glasses, it was heartbreaking to see Mia get all of that taken away and only THEN be seen as beautiful. I wish there wasn't so much focus on drastic makeovers and just love for who we are. We can dress up and wear make-up without fundamentally changing so much about ourselves to be accepted and beautiful.
As a fellow glasses wearer, I share your frustration that merely wearing glasses is sufficient for female characters to be deemed worthless. But beyond that, we shouldn't need to be "beautiful" to be accepted regardless of what that word means. I hate the "you're beautiful on the inside" of 2000s "feminism" - No I'm not "beautiful", I'm smart, talented, and hardworking, and should be respected because of that.
I love the fact you created the Miss Honey spectrum of femininity - perfectly encapsulates "acceptable femininity" . Meanwhile I'll happily stay over here in the bimbo zone when it comes to how I present, it's more amusing when people find out how left leaning and feminist I am when I talk 😂
"Probably showers in her underwear" I have to start using this regularly
@@sarahwatts7152 made me think of the never nudes from arrested development 🤣
Just a note Uglies is originally book series from 2005! I remember enjoying it but it’s been a minute. Helps that in a book you can picture the people as ugly as you want (though IIRC they just mostly looked normal. The beauty standards from the surgery were just so high that in comparison regular people looked ugly in comparison)
I always got the impression that plastic surgery gave you anime sized eyes. Which is why models in our magazines couldn't keep up with it.
Yeah, in the book "Ugly" was just normal. Acne, crooked teeth, a funky nose, etc. It was ugly in comparison to the surgically perfected "pretties". Would've been nice for the movie to cast some normal looking people as their uglies
“And now, his heart has opened…to a super hot girlfriend” 😂😂😂 lol hit the nail on the head as to why I constantly broke the fourth wall when seeing this trope. Not to be all “pick-me,” but young girls idolizing over Miss Honey growing up sat strange with me and I’ve never really related to the movie - this video essay helped me finally word WHY (I grew up AFAB but now identify as GNC). I thought everyone just automatically had to love Matilda. VERY IMPORTANT DISCOURSE! ❤❤❤
When I was little I was an abused kid who always dreamed that the perfect angel would come along and save me from my home life, whether that be a boyfriend like the prince from Cinderella or a mother figure like Miss Honey. I think that's Miss Honey's main appeal. Your own mom might deeply regret ever having kids but Miss Honey's so perfect and motherly she's even willing to adopt you, unlike most people
@@kjarakravik4837 This was her appeal to me too. As a kid you want the perfect mother figure and she genuinely is that but not because of her physical appearance but her patience, kindness, and understanding. Moms who are butch or bimbo can also be those things just not in movies written by men lol.
Also the demonization of women/afab people who don’t like or want kids.
As a disclaimer: There are plenty of awful parents who should never had children and childcare workers who shouldn’t be around kids. And people who hate kids just for existing and wish harm on them are weird.
But it rubs me the wrong way that a “good woman” has to be motherly. There are plenty of kind women and afab people who don’t want kids or don’t particularly enjoy being around them.
@@lenan5913exactly! I don’t know if I want to be a mom, but I’ve done a lot of childcare jobs and eventually want to be a teacher. In my field I’ve met masculine and feminine individuals (some who are queer) who love kids. And the more we work in the field, the more kids we meet who have unhappy homes and see us as parental stand-ins.
@@lenan5913 I think you put it perfectly ❤️
I found this femininity meter that accompanied us at the top of the video very funny and clever, the terms "freak" "plastic" and "Human bean" exemplified these tropes very well lol. And Miss Honey must be one of the most boring characters of all time!
As someone who’s read Matilda many times, the adult characters are somewhat written as forces rather than deep characters. Miss Honey is the presence of nurturing in the story, through the perspective of young Matilda-she’s completely perfect to Matilda. Her as a standalone character doesn’t have much foundation or depth
So a normal woman who doesn't go to either extreme and is modest is boring.
Spoken like a true 4th wave feminist.
I found the points made about the Barbie movie really interesting! I never thought about Barbie and Sasha's transformations in that way before
@@oliviadsouza3471 kind of feeds into the “pick me girl” trope that thinks all gender non conforming women and nbs hate feminine people.
If someone broke my glasses during a “makeover” I’d lose my sht.
watching barbie as a more masc lesbian with my very straight very traditionally feminine sister was... something. i instantly noticed what they were doing with sasha and felt uncomfortable with it by the end... i also think its insane how the barbieworld seemed to still rotate around heterosexuality despite being matriarchal in nature. its also aesthetically colonialist with the barbie mt rushmore in the background and the barbie version of us congress which is... a choice. was there a barbie manifest destiny? was there a barbie cold war? is there a barbie un where they vote on barbie political embargos? barbie banana republics? thinking about it in hindsight, it becomes more clear to me that despite the barbie movie marketing itself as a broad catch-all diverse feminist utopia-concept, it really only seeks to cater to a very narrow demographic of woman. im still not sure if barbie isnt ironic or not tbh because it just seems like such a mid 10's buzzfeed white feminist movie and its insane to see something that feels so outdated produced in 2023
I mean I think insofar as the answer to that last statement (which I absolutely 100% agree with btw), it's pretty simply that Matel and every corporation recognizes that feminism is a gateway into socialism and anti consumerism/anti capitalism, which they can't make money on of course. if they would have allowed Gerwig to delve too far into feminist theory, they would eventually have arrived at feminism's conflation with the economy and capitalism, which is a HUGE no no for both Hollywood and a corporation like Matel. given that Matel had to green light the movie fundamentally, you can see they probably muzzled the feminist angle pretty aggressively to make people feel comfy with performing their feminism by wearing pink and buying more products. the last ten years have been a trip watching feminism become more popular in the mainstream and thus be subsumed by corporate whims like literally everything else.
I have similar thoughts about choice feminism and the idea that choosing to be hyper feminine (which seems to involve buying a LOT of products and a LOT of clothes and potentially plastic surgery etc. etc.) is an infallible choice that women can make while still being feminist. it's like at least acknowledge that hyper femininity was developed in a patriarchal society to ostensibly suit the male gaze and keep women buying shit.
I agree with you 100%. I also hated the weird joke about not letting the kens have government representation, I felt like it undermined itself.
i’m not sure, i feel like the whole bit that points out Mattel creates this idealized feminine form and product sort of lends itself to the idea that Barbieland reflects our world in these ways because Mattel *is* a fucked up org that reaffirms heteropatriarchal standards; the kind that glorifies whiteness and Modern America while ignoring the bloody history about why there’s actually a Mt. Barbiemore. Like, of course there would be a Mt. Barbiemore in the Barbieland created by the room of rich suited white men.
all that said yeah, this was all approved by Mattel, who probably did not see it as a criticism and maybe the white audience would take it as genuine endorsement of our colonialist pictures and like… maybe it’s contrived, maybe it’s the same as it just being that. it couldn’t go much further without being approved by Mattel, but it’s hard to say “the director wanted to say this and it’s actually hinting at it” because it assumes someone with the power and authority this benefits has the interests of those it doesn’t in mind, and uhhh, they don’t lol.
@@digestivecookie7026 @KC-2049 big agree with both of these takes, it makes me wonder if an actual critique/exploration of mattel and barbie is even possible working in the current entertainment industry that exists rn. you can definitely see the seeds of something deeper in the barbie movie but the material conditions of its existence just cant let it explore itself fully. its a shame
@@SeasDund I think it's not possible in a world where Mattel needs to give permission to make a movie featuring them. Because of course they won't permit a movie that provides a genuine critique. To properly critique it, I guess you'd have to create a movie with a doll-making company that is Definitely Not Mattel™.
Similarly it's hard to find movies that properly critique the film industry (although we get some, because those stories are currently relatively popular, but it's usually in a "this is what the film industry _used_ to be like but we fixed it by convicting Weinstein, and now Hollywood has no more problems, hashtag me too!" kind of way).
I think way too regularly about Chris Evans in Not Another Teen Movie's: "not Janey Briggs! she wears GLASSES and a PONYTAIL! look she has paint on her overalls, WHAT IS THAT?!"
I love that line
I'm always very grateful for the captions that verilybitchie puts on all her videos!
Absolutely spot on! And just letting those segments play and entirely tell on themselves is *chef's kiss*
PLEAse NOT THE DOCTOR. I totally forgot about the seven of nine makeover episode where she breaks someone's arm and destroys a crustacean.
Same, and I'm still mad she ends up with Chacotay, when Harry was the only one who respected her as she was when she first joined the crew. Harry Kim == best man in Star Trek.
part of the problem is that the outside is often written as a reflection of the inside, and while it may hurt to be seen as or called ugly, it typically hurts much more when your personality is being called into question. making something completely normal a flaw of that characters personality that needs to get fixed is demeaning. for example, if you give a shy introverted nerdy girl some confidence, she will still be introverted and nerdy, just with more assurance in who she is. not only that, even the underlying idea that there is some way you can be fixed to be picture perfect is problematic at best. Sure, there are areas where you need to learn, and there are things you can't stop doing even though they are unhealthy, but a makeover is unlikely to help unless it is the catalyser for some other change. the only reason it works so well is the fantasy many people have of someone coming into their life, snipping their fingers and changing that persons life for the better, fixing all the things they have a problem with or are insecure about. and i get that that idea is really attractive, but instead of indulging those peoples unhealthy fantasies, these stories should help them heal and learn to live with who they are instead of trying to change that, show them how to stay themself while also learning to work with that aspect of themself instead of against it
I agree! I feel that these stories only bother to tack on a “ur beautiful in and out” at the very end to dodge criticism, rather then meaningfully engage with the implications of the makeover narrative that drives the plot 😫 Its entirely possible to write a good story that indulges in that fantasy of someone giving you a glow up and fixing your life without the sexism, but few of these stories seem to really want to try
@@Nicole-pc2hc it doesn't even need to engage with the sexism too much, it would be a start if they even tried to grapple that just because the makeover fixes things, who you are is not one of these things to be fixed. om the other hand, that seems to be interlocked with the sexism for the most part, since the "you as a person need to be fixed" trope is all about how to be a women (or, as rarely happens, a man, not to even mention enbys) the correct way. also the way basically all of them don't even consider to question that the characters are cis and straight, and probably for that matter white too. it feels like they're taking all kind of different crystals, and then cut all of them into what basically ampunts to the same shape without using the natural shape of the gem, except that instead of thereby insulting the gems uniqueness, they insult everyone remotely similar to that character for not putting into the one box they have fof that demographic
I would argue that there are better ways to show growth in character through appearance. Violet in the Incredibles gains confidence and stops hiding behind her hair, but otherwise I don't remember her having a particularly dramatic makeover
I once curled up my hair just to try how it would feel. A flatmate told me I looked like "the girl in the The Princess Diaries before they made her pretty". I enthusiastically thanked him for the compliment because I loved her hair before the makeover and it took me a couple minutes to realise that he didn't mean it as a compliment, lol
Somehow I had never clocked that the un-bimbofication end of the spectrum existed, despite seeing it in multiple movies. Maybe because it feels like the personality shift is centered more? But it totally makes sense.
Side note, I always hated the “take away glasses” part of the makeover in particular because I like how my face looks with my glasses.
I really appreciate you mentioning Sasha because it's one of the most glaring things to me in the Barbie movie and hardly anyone addresses this. It truly had a very specific (cis, straight, white, normative feminine, neurotypical) target audience.
The only thing that I got, thanks to the last second of the video is that Maryl Streep's character was head over heels in love with her assistant. ❤❤❤
I will say that Matilda specifically never bothered me because it's pretty clearly told from Matilda's perspective. Like most Dahl stories, it's a thinly-veiled childhood revenge fantasy, so her parents are unfeeling brutes who care about her brother more than her, her principal's a violent domineering force, and her teacher (AKA the one adult who pays attention to her) is an endlessly-kind, patient, beautiful young woman. (It's like when five-year-olds insist their mother or teacher is the "prettiest," because they care about/like them and know that "pretty" is a compliment.)
@@KyleRayner12 I work in childcare and it’s kind of sad how kids learn to conflate beauty and goodness at such a young age. They definitely will trust an adult more if the adult is Miss Honey pretty.
And I love kids but the endlessly kind, patient teacher trope is so unrealistic. Even the most even tempered teacher has their limits. And it’s not fair to expect them to be perfectly soft and sweet all the time. You don’t have to yell at the kids but eventually you have to set some boundaries that will make you appear like the “bad guy”.
@@alyssapinon9670 Oh, absolutely. I've both taught in schools and worked in pediatrics, so I'm used to the idea that kids will only like me about 70% of the time at best.
I think it also relates to the perfect dead mom character in popular media. She doesn't have to be flawed or complex because she's dead, so the orphan main character can just project this fantasy onto her.
@@KyleRayner12 that’s why I love Abbott Elementary. The teachers love the kids and their job, but we still get to see them getting flustered or annoyed with students.
And even though I still have to set boundaries with the kids, I am able to have the patience I do because I know I can send them home at the end of the day. And kids are generally better behaved in public so I’m only experiencing a fraction of what parents do.
@@alyssapinon9670 That one's been on my list for forever.
True. I like to compare my job to being a grandparent because you can often just hand them back.
Whether or not you you're okay with this interpretation and feel that it makes the film less-than-problematic I feel is a parallel to whether or not you feel that the racism/ableism/homophobia in 300 is less-than-problematic because "it's shown from the perspective of the Spartans", as a lot of the film's fans more "measured" fans argue.
(Others, of course, either deny these aspects of the film or are openly okay with them.)
As a big fan of the books, Uglies is so interesting. They translated the story pretty well, closer than many book adaptations do, but they failed at the most crucial part. Iirc, that's also why it took so long to make this book series into a movie - because the movie doesn't work with Hollywood. In the books, the pretties don't look like todwy's models, they look like children with really big eyes and pouty mouths etc. Tally even finds a magazin with today's models and is shocked how people could live like that or even find beauty in those asymmetrical faces with small eyes and thin lips that all look different. That's another big thing here that the movie misses: The pretties look way too individual when the surgery is supposed to make everyone look the same.
But the uglies looking like today's models very much is the point (showing that beauty ideals strongly change our perspectivecand make us unablevto see real beauty), that point just doesn't come across at all when the pretties also look like today's models.
I can't remember the holographic doctor in a makeover scenario, by the way
yeah and unfortunately i dont think its something that could easily be conveyed with live action to begin with since they'd otherwise probably need to alter and edit the post-surge actors to a degree that would be uncomfortable and also probably unfeasible with a direct to netflix budget lmao >.< even though Tally says the pretties still look like themselves they still look majorly same-y. at one point while playing with morphos tally slightly lightens shay's skin to be "closer to the baseline" and we know the surge also makes their noses thinner and shaves down jaws etc. the pretties already look a bit uncanny valley because of all the filters added in but to be 100% accurate they'd have to entirely strip almost all their individuality and effectively white wash people. and it might not be the best idea, i could see people taking it entirely the wrong way, and tbh I just don't think i really want to see real peoples features stripped away like that anyways
@@PyonkotcchiI could imagine it'd be amazing with a big budget and prosthetic makeup. Reminds me of the classic Twilight Zone episode.
As a forty-something with ADHD, depression and a bunch of other stuff including sensory hypersensitivities, it really pisses me off how much effort (and/or money) it takes to maintain your appearance according to the cultural norms for femininity. I hate how makeup feels on my face and eyes, and just the thought of having to remove it in the evening makes me feel tired. The products are expensive and I'm not able to work at the moment, so I'm poor. So I've given up on makeup, and I've learned to like how I look without makeup. I've learned to wear clothes that feel comfortable and don't bother me during the day. Most of them are black or grey because those colours feel comfortable to me. I used to wear big earrings but these days I don't like the way they weigh on my earlobes or touch my neck or get stuck in my hair. I have long hair that tends to get a bit curly, and I like it. I just brush my hair, because I hate the feel and smell of hair products. I can't stand the sound and heat of hair dryers. I can't afford to go to hair salons, so I just cut my own hair when it gets too long. I've stopped shaving my body hair because it was just too much effort for a thing that I realised I didn't really need to do to feel good about myself. I enjoy the feeling the wind on my leg hair. I realise I've returned to the state I was as a kid - pragmatic, comfortable, low-effort. I conserve my energy so I can do things that bring me joy, like art or taking care of my plants, or playing video games.
I love seeing people who have found their aesthetic and take the time and effort to display it with pride. I love to look at people with cool makeup and hair and fashion. But it's just not for me.
Finally, the thing that really pisses me off is that I know that appearance has an impact on how potential employers might see me, regardless of my other qualities.
The effort, time and cost *is the point*
It not being accessible to everyone *is the point*
So many people argue the opposite and it amazes me that people don’t see that it’s the point.
@@ultravioletpisces3666 people see that its the point, but it doesnt change that it shouldnt. If you cant wear makeup because it makes you want to peel your skin off, your employer shouldnt assume you are unprofessional. For someone with sensory issues, it is very much work to find clothing that doesnt drive them nuts, but that isnt seen as professional, only what is within this rigid standard of feminity is.
@@deusex9731 I don’t disagree at all
Great video! The point about why these movies INSIST on removing glasses is so well made and something I never considered.
The Patreon video is amazing, I do recommend checking it out.
This is the kinda of video that i click on while saying "oh i think i already know this" and then i really expand my knowledge through your examples! You do such a good job of not only introducing topics but deepening and solidifying learning!
to start this off i'm american (and white) but a few years ago i watched this film from thailand called a little thing called love. it's pretty similar in concept to the movies discussed in this video, the main character is nerdy and has glasses and bad teeth etc (her skin is also pretty tan as well i wouldn't mention this if it doesn't come back later) but she gets the whole makeover etc and by the end she discovers the guy who she had a crush on the whole movie liked her the entire time... *shocked face* also by the end when she has her "glow up" i guess you could call it (even though i'm not sure if that was even a term yet when the movie came out) she completely loses her tan and her skin is much lighter than before. this movie always stuck with me, especially when watching videos like this. i don't know exactly what the purpose of this comment is to be honest but i was hoping someone else is familiar with the movie and feels a similar way. i'm also curious to how this trope looks outside of western media and would like to hear more about that.
Broadly speaking, in Asian countries, colorism is tied with classism. The people who worked the fields had darker skin from getting tanned, while the nobles and royalty of centuries past were able to pay people to shade them or stay inside all day. The impact of “lighter people are prettier/more refined” has stayed. In various countries there are skin lightening treatments that are sold to the public. But I am East Asian specifically, so this isn’t a definite answer for every East Asian/Southeast Asian country, and there are more nuances to this that I can’t cover in a single RUclips comment.
@@ElrichWangjongle thank you for your response it was really insightful. i know a little bit about colorism within asian countries but it's still really interesting to hear another perspective on it. it's honestly sad how this makeover trope has been so persistent in media and even media across the world. what type of message does that send? that glasses curly hair and darker skin is ugly and everyone should just confirm to the (mostly white) beauty standard? not all media with this trope but still alot. and also do they ever talk about how *expensive* it would be to get a complete makeover if you don't have a rich best friend or a grandmother who is a queen a another country? i don't think they do. sorry if this comment is super long but this trope both interests me and infuriates me a little bit too lol. again thank you for your response
Ok but the way Dove Cameron says "inside and out" with that condescending face.......
for realllllll
I cannot describe the dread I felt as I realized that I lokey turned myself into a Miss Honey as I grew up.
I remember watching a review for my favorite movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". The makeover happens after the akward first meeting; its an inciding incident, but more like the straw that broke the camel's back. She does the makeover for herself, and the man goes after her and initially doesn't recognize her. But he didn't even think she was ugly the first time.
Either way she makes over herself FOR herself.
Love the film
Love the term Miss Honey Spectrum!
This video is literally dripping with sarcasm and I am here for it
Just the other day I was thinking about Miss Trunchbull. Such an icon. She's kind of a concentration of the Marvel villain who makes good points then turns around and shoots a baby. I hope one day I can experience a story with a character who's like her but without all the child abuse.
Oh do I despise the “normal beauty standards” I recently cut my hair short. I really like it, ir suits my face and I feel a lot more comfortable now. I’ve always worn “boyish” clothes since I was a kid. However, I am very comfortable and happy in my own femininity.
It’s something that frequently comes up when I get into arguments with my mom. She’ll ask: “Did anyone compliment you on tour hair yet?” “No man is going to date you if you look like this?” My sister asked me the other day if I want to be a boy.
And I become frustrated. Because no. I am a girl. I don’t want to date anyone. And I like how I look. I feel pretty.
Edit: The little girl living next door came to hang out with me today because all her friends had playdates already. The first thing she said to me was “Wow, I love your new hair” I think I just ascended from happiness. 😭
Your mother is emotionally abusive. I hope you manage to get away from her someday - you don't deserve that in your life, and you don't owe her anything.
Welcome back once again, we missed you
I got a 20-minute-long ad on this video at 7:18 titled "What if Harley Quinn never loved the Joker" and I thought it was just a snippet of another video being made to substantiate the contents of this video. It actually kind of fitted in for a brief moment, but the length of the ad became a bit too noticeable, so I looked back at the screen.
Great video! That really is a weird trope, even the newer versions
I've always quite enjoyed the Hunger Games makeovers - the grotesque spectacle of doomed children trying desperately to trade their 'look' into survival.
10:09 Ironically, all I know about The Descendants is the beauty dolls they sell
Have you heard Nana Visitor’s commentary on the “Someone to Watch Over Me” episode of Voyager on the Mission Log podcast??? It’s SO good, her thoughts on the pygmalion plot are so thought provoking. So glad she was their guest for that ep.
I would like to add a correction, the Uglies are not exactly ugly, nor are they described as such in the book (at least the main cast of characters) They are more or less conventionally attractive, the standards of attractiveness are tied to the surgery. It makes people look, the same. The beauty is in our differences, is the point that the books try to push forward.
I'd like to present a deviation from the trope presented: Legally Blonde.
Elle Woods starts on the Barbie side of the spectrum -- very feminized and pink -- and while at Harvard she learns to dress more subdued. She even considers going brunette, but that would be too far the other direction. She ends up being in the middle, perfectly following what you have presented.
However, just before the climax of the movie, she realizes that she does not have to sacrifice her style and her femininity to be a good lawyer, and she shows up to defend Brooke in an all-pink suit. In fact, she is able to use some of her hyper-feminine expertise to win the case!
That's one of my all-time favourite movies. I love that Elle doesn't really change throughout the movie (she has a bit of an arc but ultimately ends up still as herself at the end) but in the process she lifts up everyone around her, and they help lift her up in turn.
2:16 in the first year of law school a (woman) professor told us that we would soon find out the power of the tie or the high heels
I connected with androgynous or tomboy characters as a gender queer kid so seeing them feminized and it also being treated like an “improvement” always upset me. It’s just compulsory heterosexuality.
11:30 “Award winning toy commercial”, thank you! People get upset when I point this out.
The only good makeover was Michelle Pfeiffer giving herself one to become Catwoman
Supervillain is the true gender ideal for every gender.
How about The Legend of Billie Jean ❤
THE MOST frustrating thing about the uglies movie adaptation is that i feel like its the perfect story to have a main cast of normal looking actors playing the role of "ugly people" without the uncomfortable undertones of body shaming the people playing them. Its the best possible concept for a movie to explore disturbing beauty standards if they had stayed true to the book and had the uglies look like regular people and the pretties look like people with an extremely carefully maintained level of conventional attractiveness.
UGH I HATE BLAZERS unless they're being worn in a dusty, world-weary librarian/professor way
I love when the entire message of a story is undercut by the entertainment industry’s need to only cast attractive actors.
I was watching this movie Hit Man with my family, which is about a nerdy unattractive teacher who starts going undercover as a fake hit man for the cops, and learns how to be confident and sexy through his hit man alter ego. Sounds cool! Who plays him? Glen Powell. They cast a man who is handsome to the point of being unnerving as an “ugly” character. You can’t have your cake and eat it too! The movie would have honestly been 10 times better if they actually cast a mid-looking dude who becomes attractive through self-confidence. But nah.
Oh wow I’ve never watched a premiere before. And it’s verilybitchie? Let’s go >:O ✨
SAME!
Waaaa this was great
The sarcasm in this video was so on point. You are hilarious in this video. So funny. Great job!
A few examples that feel different to me - Strictly Ballroom, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and Gypsy. At some point those characters realize they were participating in the system by thinking of themselves as ugly and worthless. They change internally as well as externally as they find self-respect and a new vocation. In the first two they do fall into the Miss Honey category and get a nice boyfriend by the end. But in Gypsy, Louise is single and a very successful stripper.
This also reminds me of the difference between the first and second version of Queer Eye. In the first, the contestants would sign themselves up because they had reached a point where they wanted to change and improve their lives. They felt trapped by their clothing and hairstyle and life choices, but didn't know where to start and were asking for help. In the section version, the contestants are nominated by friends and family and are basically being told "you need help, your clothes are embarrassing me, your life is a mess." It's a different feeling.
Such a great breakdown of this formula, and I appreciate the critique of Barbie! What a frustrating film. But also I have to say: I always love how emotive your delivery is and I burst out laughing at the pout on "they're not even wearing glasses..." Thanks for another great video!
Love this video essay, thank you! So true!
I have Mia's hair and straightened the shit out of it for 20 years because of all this. Literally every piece of media says curly/frizzy hair = ugly. Also I hated how everyone seemed to say Barbie was such a good feminist movie but anyone who's done the slightest bit of thinking can see its absolutely not. It's skin deep at best. It feels like taking a tour round Mattels PR team meetings
i can't believe legally blonde, for all its problems, actually didn't fall into the bimbo trope and had Elle go back to bright pink clothes
Has there ever been a makeover that did NOT involve the cliche "lose the glasses"?
Breakfast club?
Maya Hawke's character didn't have glasses in Do Revenge. And I don't think Cady Heron ever had glasses either? But yeah, I think She's All That really defined the trope - Jesse even references it to Beca in Pitch Perfect (I'm surprised that wasn't brought up in this video tbh!).
@@EmonEconomist In regards to She's All That I don't like at all when a girl gets a drastic haircut :( I adore very long and/or BIG feminine and/or glamorous hair! So in those kind of cases it's more like a makeUNDER in my book.
I would love a makeover scene where the point is the stylist helping the makeoveree to find the clothes they love but maybe weren’t confident enough to wear before or didn’t have access to. Like, it’s still making them look better… but it’s better to them and only them. It’s *for* them. I don’t think makeover scenes can’t be fixed. I think a makeover is just a point of physical and usually mental shift. It doesn’t have to be learning to use eyelash curlers or finding more modest blouses, it could be dyeing their hair blue or helping them find clothes that fit their body type well or teaching them how to care for and enhance their curls or helping them get into a subculture they’ve always wanted to try, it could be so many things. A character physically changing doesn’t have to be a bad thing, it’s just about what the motivation is. Is the makeover to help them win over a love interest or gain popularity, does it erase or hide parts of them, are they doing that thing where they pull at their collar and frown at the mirror when it’s done, do the people around them comment on how they’re finally beautiful? If yes then yeah that’s a bad change. But what about a makeover that’s to help the makeoveree feel at home in their own skin, feel more confident in themself, doesn’t flatten aspects of their personhood, they’re actually happy and untense afterwards, the people around them just comment on how much more comfortable and them they look?
That’s what I would like to see. :)
Dawn O’Porter had a show like this about introducing people to vintage clothes
This!! I love this!!
Better question is where can i get makeover that'll turn me into the lady on the left bc god knows she's my platonic ideal
Mrs Trunchbull??
@@dylanc5835 Legit I'm so confused because she was so evil
@@caitlingill I'm talking abt appearance idk who she is
@@caitlingill maybe because evil is so HOT! Not even necessarily "evil", but - dare I say? Transgressive
But seriously, folks . . . As a bisexual man I've noticed how the female villain is allowed to be rude, aggressive, slovenly; basically, she's granted archetypically masculine traits (while remaining a woman). And conversely, a male villain's "evil-ness" is often presented as his embracing of traits commonly associated with femininity; slow languid body language, crisp attire, an appreciation of decorum, breathy voice - often with an inexplicable Dixieland accent (yet still presenting as a man).
They're the villain, so we're not supposed to find them aspirational. But their obvious - performative, even - adaptation of tropes coded for the opposite gender gives them (ideally) a compelling, seductive aspect. Heroes can be bland and still be heroic, but a villain is allowed (required?) to indulge in unapologetic flamboyance. Otherwise, how would you know they're the villain? And how else could they convince so many henchmen to die for them?
I admit, I'm attracted to women that are womanly and mean, and also men that are manly and sensitive. And I think attraction to that dichotomy is not uncommon.
Wow, I thought this would just be a couple of sentences. A paragraph, max. Just couldn't stop once I got started
@@JamesJoy-yc8vsThe points you make are why I prefer to make my heroes the outcasts and my villains the ones who want to preserve toxic expectations! I don't want to end up with readers saying "the villain is cooler!" 😅
Imagine making a Barbie movie and stripping away the Barbie look from her. And that's why Elle Woods is more of a Barbie than Greta's Barbie ended up as.
I was literally just thinking about Matilda’s representations of femininity earlier today. So neat to hear it come up in the video
The point of Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw though is that they really fucked Eliza over and now she's stuck in a form that has no place in society unless it's as Higgins' wife-slave which she REFUSES to be (looking at you, My Fair Lady). Luckily she finds whatshisface an acceptable option and is able to make a live for herself where she still has agency but that was pure blind luck really and not really much of a choice as such. In this essay I will--
@@Ireallywouldrathernot Just post the essay Shaw wrote and then added to later prints of the play.
The best bit is definitely where he goes "would Eliza prefer a man she'll have to fetch slippers for, or the hot guy who's 20 years younger and will fetch her slippers? The choice is obvious*if you're not a fucking moron.*"
(He didn't phrase it quite like that but pretty close)
I'll be forever seeing these types of movies with different eyes. Thank you for this epic video.
As a neurodivergent person raised as a girl, the absolute chokehold the concept of “fitting in” and makeovers had on me. Thank you for bringing so much awareness to the genre, origins and fallacies baked into it.
Damnnn, I’m so surprised I hadn’t noticed the “makeovers” Barbie and Sasha go through. What a fantastic and eye opening video, thank you. Your videos are always so well done!
So glad you actually brought up Sasha in Barbie because (particularly as a teenager) I absolutely loathed her character, they did her so extremely dirty. They could've actually done something and made her genuinely interesting and entertaining but no, just get her to call Barbie a fascist and then get pink-ified, as you say, becoming a background character with little more development than that.
I recognise that it's a bit strange I'm so passionate about such a minor thing but it was a huge pet peeve of mine coming out of the film. Anyway, great video, thanks for the watch!
All i’m hearing is legally blonde is better than all these movies because elle shoots right back to the pink end of the spectrum at the triumph
My glass broke this week, and people are talking to me more, my leave me alone aura has been removed 😢
i've been thinking these thoughts but haven't had a way to express them. you took the words right out of my mouth.
The deeply sad part of this is we have yet to witness a film where all three women types are allowed to coexist and be respected by there peers, and even be friends with one another without changing. Instead, they all have to change or not be accepted by sociality to get a romantic partners.
oh jeez i had no idea someone adapted Uglies to film, i read that as a kid and remember it being like scary- even just from the clips shown it doesn't seem like they did a good job :I. Granted I was a child and I do remember the 2nd book being a lot worse lol.
And man this really finally communicates my issues with the Barbie film, my opinion was that is was just okay- like babies first intro to feminism. But didn't stick the landing in the slightest or follow through on many of its set ups. This video really explains what it specifically it fumbled and you're totally right, it only framed feminism in a light that was good for the brand.Which is frustrating as the movement has been consistently bastardized basically forever??? We like entirely lost the groundwork that was kind starting in early 2010s, it super sucks :I
I think the whole idea of the 'you just have to get a makeover to be happy' is why I went through a phase in my teens desperately trying to present in a way that would conform to this ideal. It surely didn't help. Pretty sure a lot of people in my age had that. But yeah it definitely doesn't help that I'm a trans guy and I was deeply unhappy and searched the blame in myself and my noncomformity to ideas around gender for such a long time, because that was what I was thought from such a young age - I just had to try harder, go through more makeovers, change how I present my body, my mannerisms, even my personality, and then I would finally be like these heroines I saw on screen and read about in teenage novels - be happy. I am so glad I finally got to the point where I learned that it was not my fault. Actually discovering who I am without this huge pressure of how I have to be, getting agency over myself, experimenting in ways that I actually wanted to experiment and it's so nice. I think that makeover media played a significant role in telling me what I had to do and not showing me what I could do instead (I mean growing up in the 2000s it was huge) - obviously it's too much of a speculation to know how my teenage years would have been different also because of the general lack of representation of trans (esp transmasc) people in media, but I definitely wasted some years trying to fit in so bad. And yeah, that's what teenage years are for, finding yourself, but still, I feel like this idea of the perfect makeover is something that hunts me until this day, even in transitioning. It's actually horrifying how deeply it's engrained in our culture, haunting us while being impossible to achieve
“Hollywood has stayed skibidi with the times” I laughed *and* cried, this line is burned on my brain now.
I love this. You so often manage to put into words, concisely. What I think but struggle to communicate. Thank you for the upload ☺️☺️
I love your barbie section! Youre putting words to something I felt and had no words for
Hollywood has stayed skibbidi with times is one of the funniest things I've heard in a long time, thank you!!!
I was obsessedddd with Barbie but I really appreciate this take and I'm gonna think about it/my role in the consumerism a lot
100% agree on the Barbie movie! I was so disappointed in it. It was talked about as a movie that portrays how girls actually play with Barbies, so I was expecting a subversive take on the doll. But yeah, it was just a long Barbie ad for adults.
Also thanks for verifying my doubts about The Uglies.
haven't watched the video yet but just wanted to comment and say how much I love y'all and love these videos! just started it and hearing your voice has become such a comforting sometimes-soundtrack for my life. I recently moved to a new place by myself, and media from people who are like, actually good people has been such a comfort.
Best video essay I've watched in a long time!
amazing video! need to jump on the patreon soon. also im glad we've reached a time where it's more acceptable to criticse the barbie movie because now i can finally live my truth and admit i thought the costuming was great but then i fell asleep in a movie theatre for the first and only time ever. i think i made it 30 minutes. when i went back and finished it i didnt feel so bad.
Godddddd this is so good. Miss Honey gender spectrum is gonna rewire my brain forever