Beauty and the Beast

Last night, I watched episode of the Channel 4 documentary Beauty and the Beast: the Ugly Face of Prejudice. In this episode, Sarah, a 50-year old cosmetic surgery aficionado met Susan, who had undergone 60 facial reconstruction procedures after developing cancer at four months of age.

The format of the program involved the two women spending a few days to explore their attitudes to appearance and more specifically changing appearance using cosmetic surgery and other techniques.

So, Sarah persuaded Susan to try facial exfoliation and take part in a photo shoot and Susan tried to show Sarah how she doesn't let facial disfigurement stand in the way of enjoying life. Susan also tried to give Sarah an insight into what it was like to walk around with a face that differs from accepted norms.

Let me start by saying when it comes to people's bodies, I'm a libertarian. People own their bodies and it's up to them to decide what to do with them, including extreme sports, tatooing, cosmetic surgery, BDSM or whatever else people want to do. I'm happy to admit that a number of years ago I did consider cosmetic surgery myself. Unfortunately, despite claiming to be an enthusiastic advocate for cosmetic surgery, Sarah didn't do a very good job.

She made the mistake of thinking that because having other people approve of her appearance is very important to her, everyone else must feel the same way. This led to a very uncomfortable discussion between the two women where Sarah expressed disbelief that Susan was happy with her appearance and basically didn't believe Susan, when Susan said she didn't want to have any more surgery.

While Sarah and Susan were walking along a busy shopping street, Sarah noticed that sometimes people would look at Susan and point and nudge their companions, but then stamped on this green shoot of insight by saying that she'd was glad she looked as she did, and not like Susan. There was no acknowledgement of how hurtful intrusive comments and staring must be. To be fair to Sarah, she did compliment Susan on her intelligence in this part of the show, but it seemed that in Sarah's mind, intelligence is a consolation prize for not being pretty.

Also, Sarah came across as particularly shallow and insecure. At the photo shoot, a comment from Susan that Sarah use a different persona when she was doing a photo shoot was interpreted as being called "a bad person" and led to a near meltdown.

Later, Sarah had to work with a make-up artist to make her look her age. She was very freaked out about this, and even more so once the results of the make-up artist's handiwork were revealed.

What was very illuminating about Sarah's attitude to looks was a trip to a pub singing contest. Partly as a result of all the speech therapy she had following reconstructive surgery, Susan had an excellent singing voice which she demonstrated with a fine rendition of Ain't Misbehavin'. It seemed to me that the look of amazement on Sarah's face when Susan sang was because she genuinely believed that someone who in her terms didn't look good couldn't be good at anything.

In fact, the main lesson of the show was Susan was content with the way she looked and spent her time and energy pursuing activities she enjoyed while Sarah, who much more closely fitted society's norms of what a woman should look like, was totally consumed and obsessed by her looks to the point that really, she wasn't having any fun at all.

I was really hoping that there would be some input from Cindy Jackson. Ever since she's been in the public eye for her own extreme makeover, Ms Jackson has been the go-to woman whenever the topic of cosmetic surgery comes up. She took part in number of years ago in a discussion programme chaired by Joan Bakewell in which she very successfully challenged the prejudices and preconceptions of the panel members about her surgery. It appeared the panel made the mistake of thinking she was pretty, blonde and stupid. She wiped the floor with them. I think a discussion between her and the equally intelligent Susan would have made for very interesting TV.