You’ve just got that look!

Perfect teeth, hair always freshly cut, clear skin. Celebrities seem to have a certain aesthetic, the ‘IT’ look. In this case, I will not be talking about being an IT girl, because I believe the weird balance of having the right amount of charisma, sex appeal, and personality it takes to be an IT girl is society is a ridiculous pressure cooker – so we will just be discussing looks today (if you want to read about it though, this article touches on the topic a little bit). But the article says that the IT girl aesthetic is typically blonde, white and thin. Growing up as a Black-British girl, it took a long time for me to see myself on screen as someone who was not the bully, the help or the sassy best friend (something that I will talk about in a later entry…). That is because it was only women with a certain look that were given roles of the IT girl, or the main desirable protagonist and it would make me feel as if I am not pretty (absolutely crazy, I know).  Movies are not the sole root of aesthetic, but still, they propel certain looks into the centre of conversation.  Therefore, pretty privilege is definitely something that still exists today, especially in the entertainment industry.

If we go back to the Roaring 20s, Clara Bow, a famous actress from that era, popularised the term ‘It Girl’ as she starred in a silent film called ‘It’. Bow has been declared as the original, and she delivered a ‘warmth, vivacity and…effortless charm’ in her looks alone. I think this gave women a certain expectation to look a particular way in order to be desirable. Even for men, Rudolph Valentino was coined ‘The Latin Lover’ and started the notion that good looking men are all ‘tall, dark and handsome’. As the years progressed, the movie industry was focused on blonde bombshells, and there was least one of them in each major studio for each era (Jean Harlow, Vera Ellen, Alice Faye, Marilyn Monroe, etc), because this is what the audience wanted to see. The aesthetic went further than blondes, with women like Ava Gardner and Elizabeth Taylor; and men like Clark Gable and Marlon Brando gaining the title of sex symbols. They helped to form the typical look for stock characters like ‘The Girl Next Door’, the ‘Bad Boy’, the ‘femme fatale’, nowadays we have the ’soft boy’ and ‘gamer girl’ for example. I am not necessarily against these tropes, but they are limiting, and impressionable people watching may feel boxed in to what pretty really is. 

In the 90s, when Jennifer Aniston rocked her ‘Rachel’ hairstyle from ‘Friends’, it sent people into a frenzy and became so popular that it even has its own Wikipedia page. A Wikipedia for one hairstyle from one character that she wore for 2 seasons?! It’s clear that aesthetics shown on screen is influential in the outer world. Remember the movie ‘She’s All That’ when Laney Boggs took off her glasses and suddenly everybody thought that she was gorgeous? She was gorgeous before but now she’s gorgeous but she can’t see!!  But according to film and TV, only the unpopular people wear glasses; the pretty girl never wears glasses, unless it is to read in her room because it’s ‘so embarrassing’. Even though we would laugh at this, these aesthetics of old still linger in real life. For instance, quickly try and think of an actress under the age of 50 that wears glasses. Sisters, put them on, it’s okay I promise!! You can’t tell me that out of all of those actresses, none of them have a glasses prescription.

Despite film and television becoming more diverse, it still seems that the ‘actors aesthetic’ is present and is somewhat unattainable. Obviously for some, factors like money come into play for how the Hollywood aesthetic is attained and/or maintained and I empathise with those actors because I am sure that some feel a pressure to have a certain aesthetic to get roles. People that are not seen as conventionally attractive are either marginalised in the industry or are usually seen as the ‘funny one’ or the butt of the joke. The industry is designed that we look at people’s outward appearance rather than their substance. That goes for older women also, as they were not getting as much opportunity in protagonist roles. A study showed that women’s careers peaked at 30, whereas for men, it was around 45. Women are only being seen as desirable in their youth, however men are seen as silver foxes and get better with age. With actresses like Frances McDormand, Meryl Streep and Viola Davis getting protagonist roles and their chance in the spotlight, things are changing, but it is a work in progress.

But how has this happened in the first place? Maybe it’s because we don’t want to see a reflection of everyday people, maybe it’s Hollywood aesthetic people only! Maybe we want a 29 year old with a six-pack to be playing a high school student. Maybe we want something to envy and emulate.

 But surely, we can’t hinge our looks to film and TV. In ‘Mean Girls’, people were insulting one another saying that their butts were big. Now, if someone says that a woman’s butt is big, she will even say thank you. Times change! There is no problem with liking the aesthetic you see on screen, but if we obsess over them and try to constantly copy, we will be behind the wave very quickly. 

Because of the large platform, the Hollywood aesthetic makes it seem like that is what it takes to be attractive – and it even does so deliberately. Do you feel pressured to look a certain way because the people on your screen do? I definitely have – and it’s natural. But I am learning to come into my own, and you should too! Enjoy Hollywood but don’t look into the light – follow my voice!!