Fashioning femininity in the makeover flick- Ferriss The essay written by Suzanne Ferriss, Fashioning feminity in the makeover

flick exposes a type of chick flick in which the main character passes through an aesthetical\fashion transformation. Many movies show the main character passing through such a transformation, without it being necessarily the main theme of the movie. As Ferriss addresses it, those movies present a relatively unattractive main character that passes through a both internal and external change. However, the transformation Ferriss is referring to, isnt just any change. Since most characters are not simple linear ones, we can almost always see a change on their personality throughout a movie. Ferriss explores a specific one: the fashioning of the character, and how this factor can generate an internal change, modifying the characters identity. To exemplify and characterize the different kinds of makeover flick, Ferris chose three movies that present the womens fashion makeover as its main theme: Funny Face, Party Girl and The devil wears prada. Despite the fact that the three main characters pass through a body and soul transformation related to the world of fashion, they differ a lot when it comes to the way those changes affected their lives. The outcome that was made out of the characters transformations varied a lot for several reasons. Firstly, the values that are shown in each one of these movies reflect the values from the time they were set. Still, even movies that were from a same period of time may present enormous differences on the values and massage they are trying to pass, depending on who they are trying to reach, how and why. The first movie to be explored by Ferriss is Funny Face, in which Audrey Hepburn plays Jo, an intellectual lady who has no interest on the fashion world. Much like the opposite, she despises it as she finds it shallow and futile. However though, Jos beauty attracts a photographer who thinks she would be really successful in the fashion world. With the possibility of going to Paris, Jo ends up accepting the job offer which she sees as a mean of meeting a French philosopher who she looks up to. Jo develops feelings for Avery, the photographer, and decides to continue to model for the sake of being with him. However, she ends up meeting the philosopher too, finding him to be an attractive young man. Both the photographer and the philosopher find themselves romantically interested on Jo, who struggles with her two separated worlds: the fashion and intellectual. Her final choice is to be with the photographer, giving up on her intellectuality to have a major romantic achievement getting married. This movie shows a woman who was interested on developing herself intellectually rather than aesthetically, but when a man comes and introduces her to the fashion world she ends up giving up on her first aspirations. The movie Funny Face presents us with the message that women should invest on being pretty rather than intellectual. Being a model got her a husband, and as we thought being intellectual would at least drive some good impressions on the philosopher, his interest on Jo is purely physical-related. Therefore, the audience can conclude that women will achieve more with her looks than with her intellectuality. The transformation Jo passes through helps her fitting into womens main social role during the 50s: being a wife. Presenting a critic to Funny Face, is Party Girl, a movie which Mary, the main character, is a shallow girl who loves to party and owns innumerous designed clothes. Her transformation is practically the opposite to what happens to Jo in Funny Face. The transformation Mary passes through is also caused (or at least started) by a man. Mustafa, a falafel vender, is an intellectual teacher, and she must stop being shallow and superficial in order to make a good impression on him. For that matter, Mary starts working at a library where her Grandmother is one of the librarians. There is a lot of disbelief and prejudice directed to Mary from the librarians, since they dont think she is intelligent enough to have such a job. Meanwhile, Mary falls in love with the profession and decides that she wants a librarian career for herself. Her transition is made completely evident when she shows up to her 24th birthday party dressed as a librarian. The movie concludes with Mary having a supportive intelligent boyfriend, and a career to pursuit. The movie shows a message that very much opposes to the one sent by Funny Face: a supportive boyfriend\husband will help you grow, instead of limiting you. Although Mary got motivation to start her transformation from Mustafa, she was only able to go through with it because she grew fond for the profession, which shows that a man should not be the only agent of change in your life. The last movie Ferriss uses to show a fashion makeover is The Devil Wears Prada, in which Anne Hathway plays Andy, a journalist who aspires to have a solid career and thinks that writing for a fashion magazine will grant her the experience she needs. Miranda Priestly is her intimidating and highly demanding boss, who makes Andy constantly feel as if she was not good enough. Trying to avoid failure, Andy becomes a workaholic, while she digs deep into the fashion world, changing the way she dresses very radically, as well as the way she acts. All those changes end up pushing away her boyfriend, and, when at some point Andy realizes she doesnt quite

like the person she has become, she quits the job. The movie ends with Andy searching for a new job. Her transformation, unlike Funny Face and Party Girl, does not grant her a husband or a job. Instead, it gives her self-knowledge, experience and a brighter view of what kind of job she wants to have. Ferriss argues that in all those movies, the internal changes the women faced are more important than the external ones. In fact, the external ones were a mean of gaining recognition from whomever they aspired to earn it from. A fashion make over may be what women need in order to develop more self-confidence once they are facing or are seeking for a change on their identity. The outcome of the characters transformation varies greatly, and as Ferriss points out, their achievements reflect the social expectations of women during different periods of time. In Funny Face, a movie from the 50s, the protagonist got married, which was considered a high achievement for a woman at that time. In Party Girl, Marys transformation grants her not only romantic but also professional achievements, which shows that the women in the 90s were not simply romantic beings, they aspired for a career and the movie shows them that they can have both. In The Devil Wears Prada, what the protagonist got with her transformation was less substantial than in the other two movies, she earns life experience. Thats a more realistic scenario, since a transformation as such may or may not bring something concrete into your life, but it will definitely change some aspects of your identity. Ferriss, in her essay, explores and exposes the fashion makeover world, more than she criticizes it. The author focus on showing how the fashion makeover can influence someones identity, and how women associate an aesthetical change with an internal change thats the reason why not only makeover flicks are successful, but as well are makeover shows, that change someones look hoping that this change will increase their lifes quality. I do believe the makeover flick might give inspiration to women, and it shows that a lot about our personality relies on how we look, and changing it might give us another perspective of ourselves. However, it is necessary to point out unrealistic or negative aspects in the makeover flick, and how that can affect womens lives. Firstly, in makeover flicks we have a hyper valorization of the image, and we see how certain social groups will only accept people with certain looks, and women might have to change themselves even if unwilling, when they feel the urge of being part of a social sector as an example we have Andy, from Devil Wears Prada, who didnt put a lot of thought about all the changes she was passing through, until it got to an extreme point where she had already lost things that were of major importance for her. In the makeover flicks and in many other teen movies, we see many girls passing through an aesthetical\fashion change even though they didnt really want to. Normally, we see the protagonist being forced into it, and later on she realizes the changes brought her goods. However, we must recognize that in real life we have no guarantee that a fashion change will really bring us benefits. Funny Faces plot is a very common one when it comes to makeover flicks: a girl who has potential to become very pretty but decides not to invest in her beauty, for her own personal reason. Someone then spots the girl and all her potential, and decides that it is not acceptable for a girl, that could be very pretty, stay as an average looking one. Jo, in Funny Face, is a perfect example of how society thinks that a pretty girl is destined to become a trophy wife, and not more than that. The audience usually likes movies where a girls hidden beauty is found, through the help of a mediator, and it becomes part of her identity. We think of how lucky she was to be discovered, as it would be a shame to waste such a pretty face. But we dont realize that the beauty becoming a major aspect of her identity, may stop her from developing other aspects of her identity that she previously considered to be more important than being pretty. Ferriss states that the message the makeover flicks pass is that external changes are unnecessary, but they are a way of gaining recognition. I disagree, as the way makeover flicks are made, the transformation seems to be the cause and the goods the protagonists earned to be the consequence. It would be interesting if women would watch such movies and reach the same conclusion Ferriss did, but it seems unrealistic for me that women would have this interpretation. The three movies Ferriss chose to illustrate the makeover flick were very interesting choices; however, only one of them really represents this group. There are two simple reasons that stop The Devil Wears Prada and Party Girl to be a good representation of a makeover flick or any typical chick flick, for that matter. When it comes about The Devil Wears Prada, we will rarely see a female protagonist starting the movie with a nice supportive boyfriend and ending up with none. We have romance illustrated in the movie but the lack of a romantic happy ending makes it an exception. Party Girl does have a very satisfactory ending, but it is one of the few movies which the girl, instead of getting closer to the current beauty standards of a society, she distances from it.

Funny Face is the genuine representation of the makeover flick, in which a girl meets a boy before her transformation, and he is already growing fondness for the girl. After the transformation the girl becomes very appealing to everyone else who may have not acknowledged her so far. She is, however, going to end up with the boy who saw something on her before everybody else. Although chick flicks have changed a lot with time, and their characters and plots have become more complex, the traditional makeover flicks will always be about a modern ugly duck story with a happy romantic ending, and as much as exceptions to this model are interesting they are little representative and the message they send their audience will reach far less girls than the traditional makeover flick.