Cosmopolitan Part 3

Throughout reading the Beauty Myth and watching the movie Killing us Softly 4, I have found another connection between both of these and magazines. In the Beauty Myth it says "woman are allowed a mind or a body but just not both" and with stereotypes in our society there is "beauty-without-intelligence or intelligence-without-beauty" (pg. 59). Kean Kilbourne then goes on to say in her video that in many magazines when intelligence is being displayed it is portrayed in the magazine as ugly. The picture of the woman withholding the intelligence is usually wearing glasses, has no make-up on, and is wearing plain and boring clothing. It is made to look like she has no substance and beauty just because she is smart. Along with a lot of other things in magazines I notice these things but don't really take a second look, but after watching Killing us Softly it has given me a new perspective on things. I also came to realize that it is exactly the same in movies. There are movies where there is a smart girl who again like in the magazines wears no make-up, dresses poorly, and usually has her hair all messy and tied up and she gets a make-over. They put her in more feminine clothes, make her hair look nice, and put on a lot of make-up and then all of a sudden she is the most popular girl and all the guys are looking at her. Then when she starts meeting guys and talking to them if she ever says anything smart the guys give her a weird look and seem turned off, so she says something stupid and they're happy again. I can name numerous movies where this happens and it's crazy that society and the media has started to make intelligence seem unattractive and boring and stupidity as sexy and beautiful. When in reality a lot of men actually look for a girl who has a brain and that they can have a real conversation with. Many girls actually dress up and take on the intelligent role, for example as the sexy librarian or the classic school girl, and men love it. I asked a few guys I know why they find the dressing up so appealing and they all said pretty much the same thing. One reason they like it is because she adds an edgy and more seductive side to the intelligence aspect of women. Another reason is because they have a woman they find attractive beforehand, and when she puts on the role of a intelligent woman they have the ultimate package, a beautiful and attractive intelligent woman. I find it interesting that they want the smarts and the good looks however, in movies and magazines and books men are made out to not like both. They either want an intelligent woman or a "beautiful" woman, yet most guys (not all) want a little bit of both not either or. It's sad that the movies and the media make everything out to be different than it really is, it slowly starts to get women to believe it and starts to get a lot of men to believe that's the way they should view girls. It's a lose-lose for everyone really.