It's a familiar scene: awkward girl meets boy. Awkward girl is super awkward and/or not conventionally hot enough. Girl gets makeover from other girls and -- voila! -- she's suddenly confident, conforms to traditional beauty standards... and gets the guy. This week's episode of "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" just nailed how faux empowering these setups are.
During Monday's episode, co-creator Rachel Bloom included what initially seems like a typical makeover scene. Bloom's character, Rebecca Bunch, heads to a summer camp in pursuit of her crush, Josh, who volunteers there. She's supposed to teach the young women at camp about female empowerment, but ends up getting a lesson from them. Well, sort of.
After Rebecca fails (again) to win Josh's love by reading him a love letter from back in the day, the girls at camp decide to do what many women on television and in movies do when their friend is down in the dumps: give her a makeover. What separates the scene from similar ones in "Clueless" and "She's All That" is that "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" turns it into a music video -- with whip-smart lyrics that thoroughly (and hilariously) emphasize the problem with women changing themselves under the guise of female empowerment.
"So when dudes see you, put yourself first," the girls sing to Rebecca. "Pierce your ears, just for yourself. Put a hole in your earlobe, just for yourself."
These movie makeovers may ostensibly be "just for yourself," but who they're really for is pretty clear. We won't spoil what happens with Josh after the makeover, but it's probably a good idea to do what you want to do just for yourself -- and no one else.
H/T The Muse
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