Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Jessica Simpson Beauty Show

 Jessica Simpson's Beauty Show was a VH1 documentary series, titled "The Price of Beauty", which began airing in March 2010.  




The series followed Jessica Simpson around the world, introducing viewers to the different perceptions of beauty in different cultures. Just to mention that the premiere episode attracted one million viewers, but later Simpson revealed that the series would return in 2011 with a format change.

But what was exactly Jessica Simpson's beauty show?  



First of all , don't misunderstand that the The Price of Beauty is Jessica Simpson judging by the title.

 Jessica Simpson is the kind of celebrity you get in a pop culture that rewards beauty. Jessica didn’t get to be a famous singer/actress/reality star/pinup by being harsh on the eyes. But she also experienced the negative side of publicity in 2009, when a series of photos suggested she may have gained ten pounds or so, raising the urgent national question: Is Jessica Simpson fat?

"It’s a very blessed life that I live," Simpson claims at the opening of "Price of Beauty". "But I live in this fishbowl." The natural response in today’s celeb world, of course, is to put yourself in another fishbowl. In Jessica's case a travel/beauty show about different standards of aesthetics in other countries. But to Simpson’s credit, she makes her show about something more than herself.

The premise of Beauty is that Simpson and two friends, Cacee and Ken, travel the world looking at how different cultures measure female beauty and the sometimes harmful steps women take to meet those standards.


The irony of it was that this show about the tyranny of beauty was made by a bombshell celebrity making up for some bad press in the tabloid media. But that’s TV!  Beauty’s first episode had a certain geeky charm and made some points about beauty pressures on women that you don't often see.

In the premiere episode, Jessica and her crew visited Thailand, for an encounter that was part light documentary, part Amazing Race and part Newlyweds minus Nick Lachey. In one scene, the three visit a food stall selling cooked worms and bugs, which make Simpson gag: "How are you going to do this, Jessica? You can’t even eat salmon!"

Later Simpson visits a Thai singer, whose face was burned and disfigured by a bad skin-lightening cream, ending her career and her marriage in the process. (Along the way we learn that in Thailand, light skin is culturally prized because of class connotations; a tan implies you’ve been working in the sun.) Later, they visit a village of the Karen tribe, where women begin wearing neck rings to elongate their necks from the age of five; it’s both striking and a dramatic example of how beauty traditions can make women literally alter their bodies.

There is speculation though that Jessica Simpon's beauty show was about a celebrity getting more famous by doing a show in which she works out her issues with fame. Is that The Price of Beauty?


What do you think of Jessica Simpson's  beauty show "The Price Of Beauty"?

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