Sonya's Blog

The Message in House Bunny

February 3, 2010

Repeat after me BEAUTY WILL CAUSE MIRACLES TO HAPPEN. I watched The House Bunny the other night. It was not a very good movie, but since I read the introduction to Geek Chic, I decided to give it a chance. It is about a group of young women on a college campus who are social misfits. Two women in particular stand out in my mind, because of the glasses and intelligence of one, and the physical disability of another. In both cases beauty is portrayed as the way to overcome any obstacle including a physical impairment. All the women lack the social skills and the sex appeal to attract men and also some are too intelligent. Their lack of what society considers beautiful and their low self esteem ostracize them from campus. They can not attract pledges, so they are on the verge of losing their sorority house.

The woman who becomes the house-mother is an ex-playboy bunny who is blond, not very bright, and just what all the men notice and want. She teaches the girls to dumb down and be sexually attractive.

Not until the new house-mother comes and teaches the women her beauty secrets and how to attract men do things begin to go well for the sorority. Inness writes the following statement: “According the common cultural stereotype, women are not supposed to be too smart and, in particular, are not supposed to be as intelligent as their husbands or boyfriends. To meet the current standards of feminine beauty women diet, exercise, and undertake dangerous and costly surgical procedures. Those who deviate from the latest “norm” meet up with both overt and covert discrimination.” (William E. Coleman). Even though the Sony official sight of the movie contains the following statement, “A Playboy Bunny who teaches an awkward sorority about the opposite sex – only to learn that what boys really like is what’s on the inside,” the opposite sex does not see what is inside until the women become beautiful on the outside.

The message in this movie seems to be that beauty will cause all our dreams to come true. The only way for women to get what they want is to be beautiful, and not too smart. This is a dangerous message to teach our young people! Does anyone hear me?

Coleman, William E. “The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are used Against Women.” ETC: A Review

of General Semantics, Summer92, Vol. 49 Issue 2, p251-252, 2p. http://library.esc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.library.esc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9301070270&site=ehost-live