Dove recently contacted EAC about a mini-documentary which goes behind the scenes of “The Women,” a major motion picture opening in theaters today. The goal of this documentary was to discuss the manufactured beauty images that we see in movies and get to the bottom of what “real” beauty really is.
The film follows Cami, a young journalist in her pursuit of the definition of real beauty. Cami interviews various cast and crew members about the film and what she finds in the interview process is quite interesting.
The cast members, which include Jada Pinkett-Smith, Annette Bening, Meg Ryan and Debra Messing, tell Cami that real beauty comes not from what one looks like but from a sense of confidence, a sense of humor and a strong sense of self. Meg Ryan says “real beauty is real authenticity and its pretty much as simple as that.”
Jada had the most insightful reflections in my opinion as she states, “that is the beautiful thing about being a woman is that we are so many things. As we mature, we learn how to balance all the things that we are but to have acceptance of who we are at an early age is the most important.” Jada says that one of the wonderful things about getting older is that you have more of an acceptance of who you are and what you look like; a “this is what I got” type attitude.
The director of the film, Diane English, who also narrated the mini-documentary thought it important to point out that as Cami interviewed these movie stars she realized that none of them defined real beauty as being thin, or having long eye lashes, or the perfect nose, etc. and as Cami discovered this, she felt more at ease.
From the short clips I’ve seen from the movie so far, it seems as though it does in fact seek to tackle body image issues and the fashion industries influence on beauty images.
In one scene, a young girl is talking to Annette Bening’s character and confesses that she hates her body and wants to look like the models in Annette Bening’s magazine (I assume that Bening’s character runs some type of fashion magazine). Bening tells her that nobody looks like those models and that they are actually all airbrushed.
In another really fantastic scene, Annette Bening’s character is standing around a table with her magazine staff pointing out the hypocrisy of what they do, “We tell women to feel good about themselves and then we print 15 pieces on crazy diets. We run ads for wrinkle cream and the models are 20 years old!”
It seems important for the director to get across this idea that as beautiful as these actors are on screen, nobody actually looks like that when they come on set in the morning. It takes “special lighting and a whole army of hair, make-up and wardrobe people to turn them into movie stars.”
I find this a very interesting thing to say for a movie that seeks to tackle issues of “real beauty.” I guess I’m just wondering: if real beauty has to do with a good sense of humor and a strong sense of self rather than the way one looks, why is it necessary to use an army of people to turn these women into something that they actually are not in real life? Why can’t Meg Ryan just look like Meg Ryan or Debra Messing just look like Debra Messing? (The airbrushed image of Meg Ryan on the movies website is so ridiculous! She looks 25 years old!)
One of the make up artists on the set comments on how she thought it really brave that in one scene, Annette Bening opted to not wear any make up. Why should it be considered brave that a woman chooses to look like herself in a scene?
All in all, I liked the mini-documentary and am looking forward to what else the film offers in terms of body image commentary. But I think the documentary also sheds light on what I call the dichotomy within: we like the idea of positive body image, and believe that beauty should come from within, but when it comes to putting it into practice, there seems to be something slightly conflicting about practicing positive body image. I think thats because, at the end of the day, it’s a lot easier said than done. Saying that real beauty means authenticity is a lot easier than actually being authentic.
This film is also a loose remake of the Clair Booth Luce classic, The Women, which was recently wonderfully revived on Broadway, and is also a prior film from 1939 starring Rosalind Russell, Joan Crawford, and a whole slew of other women (http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=509).
As “Porgy & Bess” provides rare quality roles for blacks, “The Women” in part was designed to give women access to leading roles and greater stage/on-screen time, i.e. a small attempt at getting past the classic Smurphette dramatic structure, where one or, at most, two women (ingenue + middle-aged bitch/comic relief) appear alongside a cast full of a couple dozen men. Traditionally, the entire cast of “The Women” is female (although the 1939 film, unfortunately, in my opinion, departed from this in the final minutes of the film).
Judging from the teasers, this remake has been entirely rewritten with contemporary dialog. The original was not so much about beauty issues in isolation, but more about catty competition and obsessions with superficialities common to upper class women of privilege. (Working women are also featured in the play/movie, but do not share the main characters’ flaws or foibles.) Luce (http://www.historycentral.com/Bio/people/Luce.html), a U.S. congressman and ambassador, in addition to author, is rumored to have remarked that every one of the main characters in The Women should be “taken out and horsewhipped.”
The original is absolutely hilarious (check YouTube for clips) and deserves its classification as a classic film. This remake probably will not fare as well (reviews are pretty negative), but might still be fun. It might be more worthwhile, though, to rent the original and spend some time learning more about Luce herself than making time to see this revision.
Why oh why did they feel the need to remake this movie? And it’s not really a remake since they now all have jobs, and one is a lesbian, and babies are born and teenaged girls are given the time of day they simply share a title, character names and vaguely similar plot line.
“We tell women to feel good about themselves and then we print 15 pieces on crazy diets. We run ads for wrinkle cream and the models are 20 years old!”
These are lines coming out of Sylvia Fowler! I’m sorry, take your PSA elsewhere, because the Sylvia Fowler I know and love would find a back handed way of telling the 20 year olds they needed the wrinkle cream.
And let’s not get into the fact that one of the more famous lines from the 1939 version is:
“I hate to tell you, dear, but your skin makes the Rocky Mountains look like chiffon velvet! “
Being 18, I’m just tired of seeing girls my age, and all ages, strive to be what is fed to them on TV. I just wish that girls my age can learn how to love themselves at whatever height or weight. I’m a skinny shorty with a big booty…and that is perfectly fine….Hell 5′11 is also overrated…Who said that shorties aren’t beautiful too….hehehehe
I love this website.
Here’s a rose @>——-
Beauty is confidence: not height, weight or skin color.