On Middle-Aged Bald Men

[oselle]

For no explicable reason, I found myself watching an execrable movie called Another Cinderella Story on the frequently execrable ABC Family channel last night.

The movie was remarkable in its awfulness but was also remarkable because the cast included three SPN guest stars, among them Emily Perkins who played superfan "Becky," whom you might remember from such episodes as "The Real Ghostbusters" (if you haven't wiped that from your memory the way I only wish I could).

Ms. Perkins played Britt, one of the evil (i.e. ugly) stepsisters to Selena Gomez's squishably cute Mary Santiago, in the Cinderella role. The Prince, in this case, was a Justin Timberlake-ish popstar named Joey Parker, aka JP. Britt has a huge crush on the handsome prince, so while he's out searching for his "Cinderella" she throws herself at him with a great over-the-top pantomime of foaming-at-the-mouth, lust-fueled "number one fan" behavior that is always so unwelcome especially when the number one fan in question is so unattractive.

What got me was that SPN's Becky was more or less a toned-down version of Britt, and I can easily imagine that Britt helped Emily Perkins land the role of Becky. In all fairness, she is a Vancouver native (according to IMDB) and she may very well have been networked with SPN by co-star Katharine Isabelle (who played Ava in Season 2 of SPN and the other evil stepsister in the movie), but I'm sure her performance as loony, ugly Britt helped to seal the deal. She probably didn't even have to audition, everything they needed was right there. This is not a slam on Emily Perkins, who I'm sure is neither evil nor loony nor genuinely ugly in real life. I was just reminded, every time she was on screen, that when it came time for SPN to cast a "fan," they chose an actress who had already proven her chops at playing an ugly, laughable nutcase, not someone more in league with the usual caliber of women on the show. Of course, no one would ever believe that an attractive woman would sit around writing fanfiction or going to cons.

I'd like to take this moment to remind everyone that Eric Kripke is a middle-aged bald man who looks nothing like Jensen Ackles and even with his money and connections he can only dream of nailing the kinds of Maxim girls that Jensen has landed (and married). And if I had the money to burn, I would take my own ad out in The Hollywood Reporter to say so.

On a more serious note, I really wish that there would be an end to the equation of looks with character. I realize that a movie like Another Cinderella Story is hardly targeted to someone my age but the fact that it's targeted to kids is even worse. The Harry Potter books were especially flagrant perpetrators of this bias -- was there any bad character in that book who wasn't described as ugly? I know that this is something deeply ingrained not just in human culture but in human biology -- I've read so many scientific studies about how we're hard-wired to equate beauty with goodness and its opposite with evil. But come on, people. We all know it isn't true so why does it still find its way into so much fiction, especially fiction for children?

Comments

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

My brain is fried from work, and I wish I had something insightful and well-thought-out to say, but alas I don't. I'm sure it's buried somewhere in my brain.

The only thing I can think of, though, is that I never found Becky ugly at all. She's quite pretty, if done up in a way that suggests she's a bit of a frumpy shut-in.

I have a love/hate relationship with "The Real Ghostbusters." The convention parts of the episode made me split my sides laughing, but the portrayal of Damien and Barnes made my skin crawl. They were so very obviously there to be the target of ridicule for most of the show, that the moralistic turnaround at the end (complete with the whole "partners" schtick that was so obviously there for the LULZ that I found it insulting) that I couldn't bring myself to like it.

Poor Becky. She really got the short end of the stick last season. I really like her, possibly because I identify a little too strongly there. I may not be a diehard wincester/Sam girl, but I can certainly empathize with her level of fanaticism, and I'm sad that she got dumped by Chuck/God/Kripke because he was too much of an egotistical chicken-livered skunk to be in a meaningful relationship with her.

...

Huh. That sort of turned into a rant. Sorry.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I can empathize with her fanaticism, but not with the caricaturish way in which it was portrayed, nor in the way that Becky looked like someone so socially maladapted that she hardly knew how to dress herself.

Did we ever know for sure that Chuck dumped her or are we just safe in assuming that since he seemed to be alone in the series season finale? As for Kripke dumping her, I'm glad he did -- she was a one-note joke that was never funny to begin with.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

I choose to believe that Becky quickly got over the fact that she was dating the creator of her favourite series and dumped Chuck's sorry, neurotic, unkempt and ungrateful ass. That being said, Chuck's version of events is that he didn't want to sully her or whatever and broke it off (hence Dean's "virgin-whore" comment). *eyeroll*

Like I said, Becky got the short end of the stick last season. I would have loved, instead of one of the "filler" episodes, to get a less one-sided view of her. Oh well.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

hence Dean's "virgin-whore" comment

I don't remember this at all! Then again I don't remember a lot of last season.

I would have loved, instead of one of the "filler" episodes, to get a less one-sided view of her.

In order to get that, you'd have to have writers who have a less one-sided view of the fans. Fat chance.

[corbyinoz.livejournal.com]

I think the prejudice against looks is one of the great last bastions of ignorance. Bella Abzug never got the traction of a Gloria Steinem or Naomi Wolf precisely because of her looks. If you watch an American soap, the equation of beauty and virtue is everywhere; father to daughter on her wedding day - "I'm so proud of you. You're so beautiful." I have seen a scene like that ad nauseum, as if the girl's freakin' bone structure is all down to the purity of her thoughts or hitting the books so hard. It's something she's *achieved*. What the?

It's insidious, and as hard as I try to socially engineer my own little girl away from that kind of thinking, it's almost impossible when all the kids' books and movies feature The Pretty. (One reason why I enjoyed Up, I think). 'The Saddle Club' here in Oz, was an exception, with an ordinary-looking child in the lead role, much to my joy. Nanny McPhee is an interesting case in point; she begins as a rather sinister, very ugly person who transforms into the beautiful Emma Thompson. I suspect the message is meant to be that as the children get to know her they see her inner beauty, but certainly my six year old thought that Nanny McPhee began as mean and was thus ugly, but got nicer as it went on and so became beautiful. The equation between sinister/threatening and ugly, and sweet and beautiful, remained.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I think it's actually much worse here in the States. Actresses who get leading roles on foreign television would here be relegated to "wisecracking sidekick of the beautiful lead character." I'm thinking of someone like Catharine Tate on Doctor Who or Erin Karpluk on Canada's Being Erica...both of whom would also probably be considered too "heavy" to play a lead in American film or television, and certainly not a romantic one. The only exception I can think of is Sarah Jessica Parker, whom I've always found incredibly plain -- I think she gets away with it because she's bone-skinny and has good hair.

Funny you should mention Nanny McPhee because the posters are up here for the sequel and while I was writing this post I was thinking, "Well, there IS Nanny McPhee" but I forgot about the part where she transforms into Emma Thompson...and I agree that a child won't make the connection to "inner beauty" but rather that her beauty went hand-in-hand with her kindness.

There is of course the flipside of the "beautiful bitch" stereotype, but her rival is never someone who's NOT beautiful but usually someone equally beautiful who's just styled to look more "natural" or down-to-earth.

[ghyste.livejournal.com]

Like others who have commented here, I didn’t think Becky was ugly and I think I commented at the time of her first appearance that the actress reminded me of Sarah Michelle Geller – had SMG ever appeared in anything where she wasn’t dressed up to the nines. However the way Becky was styled was clearly done for the comedic impact of an “unworthy” female throwing herself at our heroes (much like the more offensive Gert from “Red Sky at Morning”) and it is interesting that when the casting people were looking for someone to play a Superfan they immediately went for someone who had “ugly loser” on their résumé.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

There is a great episode of The Simpsons in which the aesthetically-challenged Moe the Bartender auditions for a role as a "regular guy" on a soap opera. When he comes in to audition the producers freak out because he's so ugly -- the casting guy protests that he was told to find someone "ugly" to play the part, and one of the producers yells, "I meant TV UGLY not UGLY UGLY...Mary-Ann on Gilligan's Island ugly!!"

The Simpsons nailed it (as usual). Emily Perkins is NOT ugly...she's "TV ugly," which is why she was cast as Becky...and then as you said, styled to be even more unattractive than she actually is (just as she was in Cinderella Story, where she had the full-metal jacket of ugly right down to the braces on her teeth.) And in CS she also had the added benefit of proving that she could act like an idiotic obsessive fangirl (who was equally "unworthy" of the hero's attention), so I'm sure she was a shoe-in for Becky.

it is interesting that when the casting people were looking for someone to play a Superfan they immediately went for someone who had “ugly loser” on their résumé.

My point exactly.

[oxer12.livejournal.com]

What I find interesting is that the whole "beauty is good, ugly is evil" thing doesn't apply as much to men. Certainly, all the old fairy tales have a handsome Prince Charming (turned on its ear by "Shrek"), but the villain of those stories is always an ugly crone, not a man. Possible exception of Rumpelstiltskin?

You're so right about leading ladies, too. Can you imagine female versions of Jack Black or Will Farrell getting the same type of parts? Nope, you can't. I see this over and over. On one of the news channels here there is a male reporter who is at least 300 lbs. and not attractive. Can you imagine them EVER letting a similar-looking woman be on camera? Nope, you can't!

It's a hideous (ha ha) double standard.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Can you imagine female versions of Jack Black or Will Farrell getting the same type of parts?

Of course not. Add guys like Shia LeBoeuf, Seth Rogen, Ben Stiller and Adam Sandler to that list while you're at it. Hell, go old-school and add Dustin Hoffman, Billy Crystal and Woody Allen to the list too. All of these actors are charismatic and (with the exception of the trollish Woody Allen) kinda cute in their own way, but I'm sure there are many charismatic, kinda cute actresses who will never, ever play romantic leads because they don't fit the mold of Young, Beautiful & Skinny. Not only do these men play romantic leads, but they're always paired up with women who in real life would be way, way out of "their league" -- in what parallel universe does a dweeb like Shia LeBoeuf wind up with someone who looks like Megan Fox (unless he's loaded, which is a whole different story)?

This doesn't just apply to what's happening onscreen. I remember seeing a picture of the writing staff for Mad Men, which is unique in that it's almost wholly made up of women...and yet almost all of those women were above-average attractive. I'm not negating their talent -- but I'm sure there are a great many talented women writers who will never get the same breaks because they're working in a man's world, and men don't want to listen to unattractive women, no matter what they have to say.

I've even seen this in my own professional life. I remember working someplace where the CFO had a reputation for being an asshole, and I said that he'd never been anything but courteous and helpful to me. One of my co-workers laughed and responded that it was because "Mark doesn't like fat girls." When I thought about it, I realized that all the employees who'd been treated rudely or unfairly by Mark were indeed overweight, and he had indeed been an asshole to all of them, no matter how legitimate their complaints or requests had been.