Every on screen friend group usually has the ‘hot one’, which often means that someone ends up being designated as the ‘ugly’ one (though, of course, since this is Hollywood, she’s almost always still conventionally attractive.) The so-called ‘ugly friend’ often exists on the sidelines as a way for the story to highlight how special and cool the ‘hot’ friend is, but when she is put in the center of the narrative, she can provide a great exploration of the real problems caused by society’s ridiculous beauty standards. So let’s take a deeper look at this detrimental trope and where it sprang from, the way that it makes it clear how arbitrary (and nonsensical) media and our society’s ideas around beauty are, and why thankfully movies and shows are finally leaving it in the past.
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CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:47 How Hollywood decides who is "ugly"
02:43 Who gets to be desired
03:43 How the trope affects how people see themselves irl
04:42 The 'ugly duckling' narrative
05:11 Friends' Monica
06:03 Don't need to be a 'swan' to be happy
09:50 Leaving the concept of "ugly" behind
The Take was created by Debra Minoff & Susannah McCullough
This video was produced/written/narrated/edited by Jessica Babineaux
Movies & shows mentioned/shown in this video:
Mean Girls
Friends
Jennifer's Body
Bridgerton
My Mad Fat Diary
The DUFF
Freaks and Geeks
Clueless
New Girl
Mad Men
Dumplin'
Gossip Girl
Pitch Perfect
Bridesmaids
Vampire Diaries
She's All That
The Princess Diaries
The Craft
Shrill
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Jawbreaker
