Anderson 1
Capital University
The Ugly Swan:
Why “Magical” Movie Makeovers are Harmful to Female Agency
Lexi Anderson
IS 393: Embodiment of a Woman
Dr. Dina Lentsner, Dr. Stephanie Saunders
5 March 2022
Anderson 2
The Ugly Swan: Why “Magical” Movie Makeovers are Harmful to Female Agency
The recurrence of the “magical makeover” or “Beautiful All Along” trope throughout
popular cinematic works has perpetuated the norm of women altering their appearances in order
to be deemed desirable and acceptable. According to this premise, mundane objects such as a
pair of glasses and a ponytail can retract the innate beauty of a woman. This paper argues that the
“Beautiful All Along” trope, commonly embodied by mainstream cinema, is harmful to the
modern woman’s self-image, confidence, and agency, as it perpetuates the false notion that
women must change in order to be valued. In her book, Fantasies of Femininity: Reframing the
Boundaries of Sex (1997), Ussher addresses the societal pressures on women’s appearances and
behaviors. Through the application of Ussher’s theoretical framework, I examine popular films
such as The Princess Diaries (2001), She’s All That (1999), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), and
The DUFF (2015) to explore the purpose and subsequent damage of transformation scenes to
female agency. This analysis confirms that the “Beautiful All Along” trope creates a significant
detriment to female autonomy by a harmful indoctrination of the idealized body narrative.