Orange County Register

See ‘JESSICA SIMPSON’S BEAUTY’ slide show

Photo: Jessica Simpson in 2005 in Miami. (AP photo)

MEMO TO JESSICA SIMPSON

Next month, you’ve announced that you will start shooting a reality TV series that you call a search for “true beauty.” Possibly that will turn out to be true, but early signs are that your “Price of Beauty” shows will gawk at various cultures’ ideals of physical beauty without challenging our own.

In the press release announcing the show, you say, “I have always believed that beauty comes from within and confidence will always make a woman beautiful,” but your show on VH1 seems to be heading in other directions.

There’s no mention of problems related to women’s and men’s body images. These range from eating disorders to some people’s  inclination to undergo repeated plastic surgeries that make them less attractive. As a prominent singer/actress, you yourself have had Restylane injected into your lips, but hated the results. You have been the subject of rumors that you had breast implants and other plastic surgery, although you deny it.

A show called “The Price of Beauty” would be a good place to explore issues raised by the YWCA in its “Beauty at Any Cost” report last year:

• Low self-esteem and unhealthy competition between girls over their looks.
• Appearance-based job discrimination.
• Risks posed by smoking as a way to remain slim.

Many of those problems result from people acting on beliefs that are totally opposed to your statement that “beauty comes from within and confidence will always make a woman beautiful.”

When the series launches on VH1 next year, I hope you will show us people’s inner beauty and the beauty that comes from a woman’s self-confidence, but so far that’s not how it’s described. Instead, you say you plan to:

• Study local fashions, dietary fads and beauty regimes.
• Participate in some of the extreme practices you discover.
• Interview other countries’ pop-culture icons on their own quests for beauty.

Please don’t do only those things.  Since you know what real beauty is, please show it to us.

Related links:

• YWCA hits cosmetic medicine, American ‘obsession’ with beauty
• Many ‘best breasts’ in Top 10 list are fake, but not all
• “Do people discriminate because of how you look?”
• Documentary blasts Americans’ fascination with beauty
• Jamie Lee Curtis says plastic surgery “stimulated” drug abuse
• Viewing plastic surgery creates unrealistic demand

Slide shows:

• WHO’S THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL? readers choose among Angelina, Halle, Ava — plus Jennifer Connelly, Kate Winslet, Renee Zellweger, Penelope Cruz, Beyonce Knowles and Jessica Simpson.
• MOST POPULAR: Top celebrity slide shows of all time
• BOTOXED BEAUTIES? — Brooke Shields, Jenny McCarthy, many more celebrities
• CELEBRITIES HEAD TO TOE – Survey picks best breasts, lips, abs, etc.
• RIHANNA — Styles of Rihanna
• NICOLLETTE SHERIDAN — Photos from age 32 to 44
• HALLE BERRY — Angelina vs. Halle vs. Ava
• SOPHIA LOREN — Her glamour, age 22 to 74
• MADONNA — Her changing looks, 1990 to 2009

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