Jessica Simpson and “The Price of Beauty.”

I have to say I was touched by this interview that Jessica Simpson did yesterday with Oprah (yes I just typed that line, I too am shocked), until it got to the part where she talks about her new special on VH1, “The Price of Beauty.”

If you can sit through both parts she touches on not forgiving John Mayer, which I think is an awesome statement since he kind of gets d-bag of the year award. She also talks about how the “mom jeans” controversy was the most upsetting spectacle for her since for an entire year all people talked about was her weight, including people coming up to her in public saying, “you are not that fat!” Which, to me, is just so dehumanizing. She also goes on to talk about how much she celebrates women of all shapes and sizes and that she will never be as thin as the media expects her to be. And let’s remember that what is being considered “fat” by the media is her at probably around a size 4. You can see why I kind of liked this interview right?
Well, that said, Simpson has a docu-series coming out with VH1 called, “The Price of Beauty,” and I must say in terms of intention, I actually really like where she is trying to go with it.

The new VH1 docu-series, produced by RDF USA (Wife Swap, Secret Millionaire), takes Jessica all over the world to meet every day women. She may also discover some local pop culture icons on their own quests for beauty along the way. Jessica will study the local fashions, dietary fads and beauty regimes and even participate in some of the extreme practices she discovers.
“When Chris approached me with his idea for a show about true beauty, I was immediately intrigued,” Jessica stated. “I have always believed that beauty comes from within and confidence will always make a woman beautiful, but I know how much pressure some women put on themselves to look perfect. I am really looking forward to discovering how beauty is perceived in different cultures and participating in some of the crazy things people do to feel beautiful. I know we will all learn a lot on this journey and I am so excited that VH1 is coming along on what I’m sure will be a wild ride.”

This sounds good in intention but then I watched the trailer and it kind of smacked of that all too familiar trap of cultural relativism and Western desire to understand the “other,” not as a way to communicate across difference, but as way to understand yourself better, a fundamental problem historically with white women entering other cultures for inquiry and self exploration. And given the limited capacity the media has in dealing with issues of cultural difference, using the example that in India they drink cow urine to look young (something I have NEVER heard of), feeds into the “weird thing those others do,” especially when those others are known for their “cow worship.”
On the other hand, it is all about the framing and framing these moments as not different and weird, but as compared to the harmful things women do themselves in the US, well for Jessica Simpson and for VH1, that could be kind of cool. I don’t have VH1, so hopefully it will be streaming online so I can give it a more thorough look.