The Swan

[SemiCharmedQuark]

Is there a more odious show than this? They took beautiful, different women and made them all look identical--blonde hair (fake of course) and huge breasts (also fake).

[all.of.me]

1. our society strives to be homogenous

let's kill creativity and individuality!!!!!!!!! that is our motto!!!!!

:eyes:

[redqueen]

7. Not just our society...

humanity seems to display innate lemming-like qualities, no matter the country, race, or religion. It's very sad.

[Heddi]

2. I read an interview

with one of The Swans from the first season. She was poor, a single mother, and unemployed.

So they gave her new boobs and hair extentions. She says "What's the use of keeping the extentions if the shampoo I have to use costs $45 a bottle? I can't afford that. No one can."

I think that they do a piss poor job of making women feel 'better' about themselves. Granted, ALOT of the women had terrible dental problems or facial hair problems---not that either of them are bad per-se, but I can see where a woman who has to shave her face daily because she has such thick facial hair can be a little put-down in the self-esteem department. But I don't think fake tits are the way to help her feel better about herself in the long run.

Did the face lift help her get out of debt?
Did the rhinoplasty get rid of childhood traumas?
Did the hair extentions give her free health insurance, or a reliable car?

Too often we're quick to say "Fix the outside, and the inside will fix itself" and just IGNORE the real stressors in a person's life. Sure, there are people who are just completely in the dumps because they don't like their appearance. But I'm sure if one were to delve down below the first layer of skin, they'd find OTHER issues in the person's life that could use fixing a hell of alot more than their weak chin.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

3. Yes, but they feel bad about their appearence because of

what is portrayed and forced down our throats as the perfect woman.

Teeth? That's something different, that's restoring a function. But you're right. Look at the show. Didn't they have about 4 "experts" on fashion, surgery, looks...and 1 token "specialist" to deal with feelings.

[Heddi]

5. Yeah, the teeth are important

One woman really had no useable dentation to speak of. The few teeth that remained in her head were horribly rotten and broken, and they had to pull them all and give her a set of teeth implants.

Facial hair is horrid. I have 5 little whiskers that show up every few weeks, and every few weeks I pluck them out. No big deal. Granted, I don't have to use a razor on my face or get the hairs electro'd out, and I'm sure I'd be really unhappy if that were my issue, but I'd be pleased if that was my ONLY issue in life that I had to deal with.

As it is, it seems to me that the large large majority of these women have more issues OUTSIDE (cheating husbands, shitty kids, no job, poor, bad relationships, etc) than they do facially or body-wise.

But what kind of show would that be? Where you took people and actually tried to make their lives better WITHOUT cosmetic or wardrobe enhancement? No one would tune in for that, unless of course, the people only got a full scholarship if they agreed to eat 10 lbs of horse manure :eyes:

Yep, and the Swan has one "relationship coach", 2 plastic surgeons, one dental surgeon. And the Relationship Coach seems to spend all of her time chiding the women for not wanting to work out in the gym 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. Calls them selfish and unwilling to do what it takes blah blah blah.

I'd like to see a show where they don't do surgery or even go near a surgery suite. Instead, they take 8 disadvantaged women, give them fully paid college educations, proper child care, proper medical attention, a good paying job, a decent self-worth, the knowledge that they need not be reliant upon an abusive asshole, and REALLY change their lives. THAT would be a great show. Give these women REASON to have good self esteem---not temporary measures that only fix the 'outside'

[BlueIris]

4. "The Swan" is right up there with the most vile t.v. ever.

Right next to HBO's "Mind of the Married Man," which takes the cake for misogynist programming. It was horrifying. But "The Swan," with its shameless promotion of disgusting, fasicst beauty standards, is riiiiight underneath "Mind" in terms of terrible.

[redqueen]

8. What's Mind of the Married Man about?

The site doesn't say too much...

[BlueIris]

11. It's basically Mike Binder's vile, disgusting, hopefully reasonably

inaccurate perspective on the way all married men behave in cities in America. It was sick, wrong, badly written and featured many bad performances.

[BlueIris]

12. OK, here's a place you can go to read more about its evil:

http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show.cgi?show=84

The critics at that site quickly stopped reviewing episodes of that series to salvage their own sanity. I couldn't tell if they left this one set of comments up somewhere, but the main writer tasked with discussing that show declared it, unquestionably, the worst series ever aired. And from that critic, who'd seen some real crap television in his day, that's really saying something. I have also seen some real crap in my day, and I'm on board with that label. If you should ever catch an episode somewhere on HBO late at night? Run.

[redqueen]

13. Wow.

Just... wow.

I feel very, very bad for the guy who had to watch those.

[BlueIris]

15. Yeah, for some odd reason,

I felt like torturing myself earlier, and I went back and read his review of the pilot episode. Horrifying. To make matters worse, I had forgotten that the pilot aired the Sunday after September 11. I cannot imagine the hell the reviewer (NYC resident, no less) must have gone through, watching and then writing about that P.O.S. Ugh.

[geniph]

6. Might as well call it "Let's Make a Barbie!"

Why aren't they turning men into Ken dolls, too? Or are they? (I've never seen it, and the chances are about 95% that I never will.)

[Heddi]

10. No...no men...just wimmen

But then again....women should STRIVE to have a fat balding man with bad teeth and a beer gut. That's SEX-AY

But women...oh dear...stretch marks...hmmm...we'll have to do something about that...completely unacceptable. Oh! And hair below the navel and above the pubic line...so...simian. Let's just get those right out. How about toenail implants so your feet look the picture of beauty and perfection? While we're at it, your boobs are too small, nose too big, mouth too ugly, hair too gray, legs too fat, butt too small....

...but remember, women, LOVE YOURSELF FOR WHO YOU ARE :eyes:

[redqueen]

9. Not that I've seen, no.

I've only seen one episode (trapped at MIL's... no choice), and it was very sad.

It reinforces the ridiculous idea that a woman's appearance is the MOST important thing about her life.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. Reminds me of a Twilight Zone where there are maybe half a dozen

acceptable looks for people, and at age 18, everyone gets free plastic surgery to be made into the type of their choice. (Of course, all the adults have to wear name tags.)

The story is about an ordinary-looking 18-year-old who does not want to be transformed into what amounts to a Barbie doll, despite encouragement from her mother and her best friend.