Beauty (not too deep. thoughts)

 so i watched a video on YT, about the music in Les Miserables - the movie adaptation, and my mind went off on a tangent. At one point, Sideways mentions how awful it must have been for the actors' voices and singing that (some) lost a lot of weight, dangerously dehydrated themselves for... basically no good reason, and other practices, that are so everyday in filmmaking, and so harmful in vocal performances.

i of course got stuck on the body transformations. they had Anne Hathaway for this film, undoubtedly a gorgeous actress, and she had to lose a lot of weight - for what? and this is always the thing! for star wars, for the avengers, for every single movie, women have to lose weight! unless their role is That Fat Girl*.

and men don't have it better, either! all* the superheroes and action stars that train like hell and have these very shapely muscles, whenever they're shooting a shirtless scene, they're at their weakest. starving, dehydrated, hours away from literal organ failure, because we need the skin to stick to the muscle, like a wet cloth, to see each millimeter and curvature. and then, if an actor goes off season, just chilling on the beach, he's photographed and rumored that he's let himself go, because he doesn't have a literal six pack 24/7.

what is this? both are shown as strong, desirable - and are unattainable. why do we have gorgeous, handsome, terrific people torture themselves, to look a few pixels smaller on our screens? what if the camera adds a few pounds? we're there for the action.

i get that it's a cultural norm, but why is it so? it has literally no importance. it just makes their lives harder, and gives some interview material to lazy reporters.

and it's the same but smaller in our personal lives. all year round, we're supposed to grind and suffer, eat bland oatmeal and chicken with rice to have abs in the summer. and god forbid we marry! brides are expected to lose weight for their wedding day - why exactly? she'll be under tons of stress, surely months of dieting and restriction won't help?! her husband knows her and loves her, and that dress can be made in any size.

why can we never be satisfied with our bodies?

Let's get back to That Fat Girl's asterisk, though. i have to admit that there have been roles that didn't require their actors to get into a conventionally attractive shape, such as Monster, or The Mechanic, or qhichever Jared Leto film was that where he's John Lennon's murderer. Theron and Leto gained tons of weight for these roles, in unhealthy ways (since they were supposed to be gainig fat, fast). if i recall correctly, Theron drank a lot, while Leto had a very special breakfast with melted ice cream and olive oil? eww. i hope i don't remember well. as for the mechanic, or whichever role it was that required Bale to look like a skeleton wrapped tightly in paper - that is a horryfiying thing to do to one's body. all in all, i am aware that not *literally all* movie roles require their actors to lose weight or show off muscle, and even going the opposite direction can be harmful.

sure, celebrities have all the money and access to the world's best doctors, nutririonists, whatever you want. but what if Jackman had lost his voice during the filming of les mis? and more importantly, what about all the people in the audience? kids growing up in an environment that glamorizes unattainable goals...my heart breaks for them. and what if you grow up with your parent(s) suffering of body image issues?

why do we have to be thin and muscular to be happy? 

and what drives me up the actual walls is that if i tried to talk about this with people in my life - it is so ingrained in our society that i cannot attempt the discussion, not even as reductio ad absurdum, because even for a hypothetical, it is inconceivable to regard these as not-norms.

how am i supposed to bring a child into this world?