Make-Over Madness

I can't believe all the make-over shows that have sprung up. First of all I was completely horrified by the show"The Swan". They took "ugly" girls and made them into beauties, thus the transformation of ugly duckling into swans. They then took these new swans and had them compete against each other, thus eradicating the new self-esteem by making some of them losers again.

There is so new show in which over-weight people compete to see who can lose the most weight. What? I have no comment yet, as I've only seen the commercials. But the mere fact that these people have agreed to make public their private agony with weight issues is something which blows my mind. And to take this agonizing nightmare and make it scrutiny for public viewing is something that makes no sense to me. Is it for the 15 minutes of fame that each person is guaranteed to have in their lifetime?

One thing that also gets me is before and after pictures. Why are the before pictures so unbelieveably hideous. They don't allow these persons to make themselves up, just snap a polaroid type driver's license picture. Do these people really look like this on a day to day basis, much less when they know that their picture is being taken? I don't think so. Plus from some of the make-overs that I've seen, all the magic boils down to a really expensive haircut, lots of make-up and good facials.

I think it's this type of media that in fact starts the cycle of needing to have a make-over. Do we really need to have an outer make-over? What really need is an inner one.