Pretties and Uglies

Beauty in the flesh will continue to rule the world. ~Florenz Ziegfeld

The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, "It's a girl." ~Shirley Chisholm

If you had the chance to be prettier and to live in a special city full of other pretty people, would you do it? There would be no more war, envy, menial labor, crime, poverty, hunger or drama. Your face, body, life and mind would be, quite simply, pretty - with a little bit of help from some surgeons. What do you think? Are you in or out? This is the question posed in Scott Westerfeld's teen books "Uglies" and "Pretties." Considering the current state of American pop culture, these questions are quite relevant. When did the superficial become so important? Perhaps it always has been? Biologically we are programmed to desire soft, unblemished skin, bright eyes, healthy limbs, white teeth and the right waist to hip percentage. MAYBE THIS IS ALL BEYOND OUR CONTROL?


The one thing I know for sure is that I have spent much of my life worrying about my body, face and exterior - and I don't even live in LA! Don't get me wrong 'cause I love fashion and clothes and playing dress-up. But there is something insidious and creepy about this cult of The Perfect Body that one can attain through many surgical procedures (thanks Dr Rey!). Where are we at as a culture these days that girls want to grow up to be Playboy bunnies, strippers and whores? Sure, I flipped through Playboys as a kid too, but I still had dreams of a future career that involved my mind and my imagination - not JUST my naked body. I suppose the naked female form has always been a comodity but, is that all there is??? Where do modern, slightly superficial and vaguely intelligent females stake out a claim - someplace in the middle between 70s, uptight, anti-sexuality feminism and 21st century, vapid-Paris-Hiltonesque, 2D Body Culture?

The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man.

- Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky

"When you are depressed, you invariably believe that you are worthless. The worse the depression, the more you feel this way. You are not alone. A recent survey by Dr Aaron Beck revealed that over 80% of depressed patients expressed self-dislike. Furthermore, Dr Beck found that depressed patients see themselves as deficient in the very qualities they value most highly: intelligence, achievement, popularity, attractiveness, health and strength. He said a depressed self-image can be characterized by the four D's: You feel Defeated, Defective, Deserted, and Deprived."

- David D Burns, "Feeling Good, The New Mood Therapy"


Even beauties can be unattractive. If you catch a beauty in the wrong light at the right time, forget it. I believe in low lights and trick mirrors. I believe in plastic surgery.

- Andy Warhol

Beauty, of whatever kind, invariably excites the human soul to tears.

- Edgar Allan Poe



DBC24, March, 2006 - The Prettification of America, Part 1
Is being pretty the end all goal of all humans? These teen novels ask some good questions about our current state of affairs and where we are headed in the not-so-distant future.


There is no such thing as beauty, especially in the human face. So many women that I'm told are beautiful...hell it's like looking at a soup bowl

- Charles Bukowski

In every man's heart there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibrations of beauty

- Christopher Morley


DBC14, May 2005 - Deadbeat Special Report


Join the deadbeat club gang for a frightening look into the Future. Investigate the disturbing trend of girls aspiring to be Playboy bunnies when they grow up. What does a future of plastic, big-boobed bunnies hold for us? Tune in to see the scary reality of 2055: Paris is President, drive-thru plastic surgery rules, CA falls into the ocean and Elephant Man Bones Barfing!

94 MB, 9:20 RT

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

- Francis Bacon

Beauty is desired in order that it may be befouled; not for its own sake, but for the joy brought by the certainty of profaning it.

- Georges Bataille

The first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason.

- John Cage

Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies, for example.

- John Ruskin

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror,

- Kahlil Gibran

Plain women know more about men than beautiful ones do. But beautiful women don't need to know about men. It's the men who have to know about beautiful women.

- Katharine Hepburn

Mute icons are the only kind of beauty we find acceptable today.

- - Mark Rothko

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.

- William Somerset Maugham

A woman who cannot be ugly is not beautiful. ~Karl Kraus

Beauty deprived of its proper foils and adjuncts ceases to be enjoyed as beauty, just as light deprived of all shadows ceases to be enjoyed as light. ~John Ruskin

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Enough about beauty and time for some athletic achievement!

DBC24, March, 2006 - Ice Capades
Enjoy some winter Olympic ice skating and a jumping montage that will make you dizzy.