Get More: True Life, Full Episodes
We're all about women being confident and appreciating their bodies just as they are -- rock on. But do women who claim they are too pretty deserve sympathy? One young woman says yes.
A recent episode of MTV's "True Life" series featured Dana Adiva, a 21-year-old from Illinois who claims that her beauty causes her endless problems. "People will stare at me no matter what," Dana tells her sister in the video clip above. "It's the most irritating thing in the world." The episode follows Adiva and another girl, Brooke Torres, as they explore the "resentments and jealousies that are making them miserable every day." These resentments and jealousies, according to the show, are all about their looks.
Adiva claims: “I literally get treated like a princess and I don’t really have to be that smart, I guess, because I am my looks. It’s true. But at the same time, it sucks being pretty because it’d be nice if people took me seriously once in awhile.”
While research shows that beautiful women can be harmfully objectified and thus seen as less competent, Adiva's "predicament" is objectively an overall good deal. Attractive people are assumed to have better personalities and superior sex lives. They are offered more employment opportunities, and are also less likely to be convicted by a jury.
Adiva's claims are reminiscent of those Daily Mail columnist Samantha Brick made in April 2012 when she suggested that women were so threatened by her looks that they refused her friendship and denied her professional opportunities. In March this year, Brick wrote that being overweight signified "failure."
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.