Why I Hate Beauty and the Geek

Hello to all you wonderful people out there,

Here's a post I wrote ages ago, when Beauty and the Geek was on, so it's a it out of date, but the messages and my opinions remain the same.

In Australia, it’s that time again. That time where my sisters, and father, huddle around the television on a Thursday night, while I try desperately to get out of earshot. The time where I am subjected to listen to countless recounts of last night’s show over who went home, who kissed who and who is absolutely clueless, all the while casually degrading everyone they bring up. Yes, it is time again for Beauty and the Geek Australia.

I hate it. I really, really do. In fact, I don’t think I have even hated a TV show as much as I hate this one (and I have hated some pretty badly – the Tribe anyone?).

When it first came out, I had mixed feelings about it. Geeks and Beauties, pushed together in the hope they may learn from each other? While I already didn’t like the names (Geeks and Beauties are very black and white, aren’t they?) I thought that maybe, the show might bring a bit of understanding into people’s lives. There was an English show by a similar name, Beauty and the Beast, which I did like (find out more here) and I had hoped that maybe, it might be a little similar.

Well, I was dead wrong. The Geeks, as soon as they arrived, were everything I had dreaded they would be. They were all similar, with lots of facial hair, very old-fashioned fashion sense (I think one was wearing socks and sandals, which I can only ever associate with my granddad) and all seemed completely clueless about social situations. Their jobs all ran in a similar vein – really smart, really obscure and often, things I couldn’t even pronounce. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with looking/acting/being like this. If it is you, then it’s awesome and you are too. It was just the absolute lack of variety between these men, and yes, they definitely were all men, that really got me. Not every single molecular biologist and website security programmer is like this. I don’t doubt that some are, but some aren’t! Please don’t group them all together…

As for the Beauties, they were also as I had hoped they would not be. They were nearly all blonde, tall, thin, fake-tanned, heavy make-up wearing girls with jobs like ‘Shoe Collector’ and ‘Ex-Professional Cheerleader’. Again, if that’s you, then go for it. I don’t doubt your credibility and talent for having a job like ‘Professional Shopper’. That’s awesome if you can earn your living that way. If that is you, then please go for it. It’s just the absolute, black and white view of the show that gets me down. The fact that all the Beauties are the same, just like all the Geeks.

I also hate the fact that the very show seems to encourage us to look down on both of these types of people. The ads often show the Beauties when they are unsure, or in the wrong (‘and here you can see how India is located at the bottom of Africa’) while it shows the Geeks at their very geekiest, yet mockingly (‘I haven’t been this excited since the last Lemony Snicket book came out’). The show seems to encourage us to isolate both these types of people – the Beauties for being too ‘girly’ and air-headed and the Geeks as socially insecure and backwards. Personally, I think neither is true. The Beauties talents obviously lie in fields other than geography (as do mine, I confess to actually believing the above statement about the location of India…) and the Geeks obviously had enough confidence in themselves to apply for the show. And yet, we never get to hear the Beauties talk about their talents, just as we don’t get to see the Geeks interact with their friends back home.

I hate the way that we are positioned to look down on the Geeks and the Beauties, yet at the same time, value the Beauties more – as seen quite obviously in the ‘makeover’ episodes, where the Geeks get transformed into gorgeous hunks, right before our eyes. Of course, everyone agrees they look so much better than they did before – but why? Why do they look better? Why did they have to look better? Maybe the reason that they had a beard was not to hide themselves from society, but because they liked it. It seems to promote the message that the way they looked before was not good enough, that they needed to look different in order to be accepted and considered ‘hot’ or ‘handsome’ or whatever term you wish to substitute in there.

But, what really gets me is the lack of middle ground. There is no grey area. One is either a Geek, or a Beauty. It suddenly cuts out a large proportion of the people I know.

I know a girl that is drop dead gorgeous, wears a lot of make-up, spends a fair amount of time on her appearance and likes partying, and yet, easily tops the year in computer science. She’s is the person you go to for software and programming. Where does she fit?

One of my closest friends is going to do robotics next year in university. She is the only person I know to get actually excited about maths equations. And by excited, I mean that she actually forget to eat lunch because she was so busy helping someone with a particularly difficult maths problem – she finds it soothing. Who knew? But she also spends what seems like hours doing her hair each morning and shares in my love for nail polish. Where does she fit?

Myself, I get really excited about biology. I find it so fascinating. Give me an article about the way various different genetic diseases and conditions are passed on and I will happily sit for hours, reading about it. By the way, did you know that the Asian and African elephants aren’t as closely related as one might think? The African elephant is actually more closely related to the extinct Woolly Mammoth and the Asian elephant is more closely related to the Mastodon (which is an extinct, elephant-like mammal from North America). Who knew? P.S. – None of my family found that fact interesting, so I’m not offended if you aren’t either. I’ve accepted by now that I am the only one I know that gets excited by the fact that turkeys can reproduce asexually and that up to 40% of turkeys are born this way. However, I like my nail polish. I like my make-up. I like my appearance and I want to become a nail technician. So where do I fit in?

Where do any of us ‘grey area’ people fit in? Answer is, we don’t. We don’t fit nicely into those black and white categories of Beauty and Geek and because of that, we aren’t given a place, nor accepted.

And that is what I hate most about Beauty and the Geek. It tries to force people into one category or the other when they don’t belong in either. All my life, because I was smart, I have been delegated into the ‘Geek’ corner and not been allowed to care about my appearance or superficial things like nail painting because that’s what ‘Beauties’ do – I’m meant to be off creating miracle drugs in my track pants and unwashed hair to give to orphans.  Newsflah – pretty people can be smart and care about world problems just as easily as smart people can care about their appearance and like about superficial things.

Phew… And that’s all I want to say. Now I feel like I’ve made generalisations my own in trying to combat generalisations made by other people, so if I’ve said something awful or that sounds awful – let me know, it’s probably a mistake or just came out sounding wrong. :/

But pretty much, I think Beauty and the Geek is stupid because it puts in place boundaries that don’t really exist in real life and feeds into and reinforces the largely untrue values and beliefs that society holds towards this subject.