I find Hollywood’s ugly girl turned pretty transformations especially annoying. Give her a pair of glasses, baggy clothes or those that don’t quite fit, messy hair, no makeup, and a host of other stuff that goes to make up a plain Jane a plain Jane and you’ve got the Ugly Girl Syndrome according to Hollywood.
Now, take off the glasses, give her a good haircut, add a wash to that, clothes that show off the figure which you didn’t know she had because it was hiding under all that fabric, add make up and you’ve got a femme fatale in the making. This is an annoying trope that has been used in movies and we lap it up, hook, line, and sinker.
Let’s look at Miss Congeniality. This is an ultimate example of this trope where “an attractive actress wears glasses and baggy clothes to look ugly before removing then to become instantly gorgeous.”
After the magical makeover, her snort is gone, her glasses are gone, and the little trick of brushing her hair puts forth a beauty queen. Hmm…if only it was as simple as that in real life!
This “transformation” tactic has been used many times over. In the Princess Diaries, Anne Hathaway transforms from a frizzy-haired nobody into a royal princess by changing a few things. In My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the same happens to Nia Vardalos when she ditches her glasses and with a little makeup is ready to fly. Just kidding.
I find these transformations more than annoying. Not only that, it is more than predictable as well. However, we are all romantics at heart, most of us are, and we want that moment when the main character, a nobody, meets her charming prince sans all the other stuff, the ugly parts. Fairy tales are alive and kicking through modern storytelling!
That’s Hollywood for you and I’m sure there will be more of the same in some future movie AND we’ll fall for it again!
