LJaumePicIt’s hard to name a show on television that doesn’t have a beautiful woman in it. No seriously, you probably couldn’t name one widely popular TV series whose cast doesn’t consist of at least one token “pretty person.” That’s because the hard truth is on most all platforms of media, pretty sells. But sometimes I wonder where that line gets crossed?  When does it go from being aesthetically pleasing to wildly implausible (and slightly insulting)?

Kate Beckett the Bombshell

One of my favorite TV shows to watch is Castle on ABC, which is about a female NYPD detective named Kate Beckett who solves crimes with the help of the dreamy murder mystery writer, Richard Castle. Detective Beckett is fearless, and intelligent as all get out, and when the show first started that’s exactly what she was about. This was evident through her rather plain appearance, with short hair and minimal makeup. Don’t get me wrong, Stana Katic who plays Beckett is unbelievably gorgeous, but the show didn’t revolve around her looks.

Much to my disappointment, as the series continued, her clothes went from normal to designer, her hair and makeup went from subtlety done to professionally done and don’t even get me started on the fact that she’s always wearing heels. Somewhere along the way the show stopped representing what was real, and began to indulge in sheer fantasy. They began to feed the stereotypical notion that a woman’s competence is validated by her beauty.

Makeup accessoriesEven in the News

There is no other place on television where this idea is more transparent than on the national news channels. Haven’t you ever noticed that most female news anchors or hosts are generally attractive? Ever notice how most male news hosts and anchors aren’t? Or maybe you didn’t even notice their appearance at all. It seems to be evident in our culture that when a man is on TV no one is even thinking about appearance, but when a woman is on screen, all we can talk about is her outfit, her makeup, or her hair in lieu of her ideas. Intellectual women don’t graduate college on the basis of their beauty and they shouldn’t earn jobs that way either.

So how do we find our way out of this one? Well, we can either tell everyone who is attractive to stop being good at things OR we can just do our best to encourage people to find less significance in the makeup on the person and more significance in the make up of the person. TV may not be changing anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean we can’t.

Get Smart, Get Inspired

Whether you are 14, 19, 23 or a parent/mentor Join our mailing list (we only email 1x a week with something inspiring!) here!

What will they find when they Google you?

Would you like to create a positive online presence? Consider writing for us! Apply here!