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.
