The idea of beauty before brains has never been more prevalent in the news than it is today. According to People, when news show host Greta Van Susteren moved from CNN to Fox News in early 2002, she underwent surgery to alter her face and appear younger and more beautiful to viewers. When her new show, “On the Record,” premiered, her hair was perfectly in place and she sat behind a table so viewers could see her short skirt and legs.
Author Robin Gerber said, “Before her surgery, Van Susteren had been an increasingly visible beacon projecting the hope that women had made progress. You believed that she made it in television because she was so darn smart, clearly the best legal analyst on the air.”
Photo source: thumpandwhip.comHowever, her surgery represents the many ways that women are using their appearances to become important, remembered figures but for the wrong reasons. This proves that beauty is becoming more imperative than what a woman has to say. Gerber concludes that Van Susteren “has become a painful reminder of women’s inequality… Being smart, smarter, and smartest is not enough. By trying to become just another pretty face, Van Susteren instead became another cultural casualty.”
Source: Smolowe, Jill. “Nipped, Tucked, and Talking.” People Magazine, Vol. 57, No. 6, February 18, 2002. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20136440,00.html
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