Crossroads (A Collection of Short Stories)

Why I hate...

This is one of my homeworks for my English class. We were asked to write a paper about one thing we hate. I chose to write this and decided to share it with you guys. :)
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To me, hate is such a strong word. Hate means intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger or sense of injury. In simple terms, hate means the strong feeling of dislike. Everyone usually has something or someone that he hates and this feeling varies in degree. A person can hate raisins a little while another person can hate the color black so much that he'll close his eyes shut whenever he sees it. Everyone has felt hate before and I am no exception.

There are several t.v. shows and even movies that are about an unattractive female lead who has a huge crush on the hot and charismatic male lead. These shows and movies usually end with the male lead finally noticing or falling for the unattractive girl after she undergoes a makeover or intense plastic surgery which was the case for the South Korean film, 200 Pound Beauty. It's great that the female lead finally gets the love and attention of the guy she likes but why does it have to happen only after she changes her physical aspects? So right now, I am going to tell you the reasons why I hate shows that make the male lead fall in love with the unattractive female lead only after she undergoes a makeover.

The first reason why I hate it is because it shows people that looks are significantly more important than attitude. This type of plot being shown in different kinds of media only disproves the age old statement, "Don't judge a book by it's cover.". I also thought that, "If the unattractive female lead didn't turn or transform into a much more attractive woman would the male lead still fall in love with them?". Some people would probably say yes but if that's the case then why didn't the male lead fall in love with her when she still looked like her previous self? It's like these shows or movies are saying, "What are you going to do with a good heart if you don't have the looks?". This is truly not acceptable especially nowadays wherein media is one of the most influential factors in a person's life.

The second reason why I hate it is because this usually causes girls to have low self esteem because of the thought that no kind of makeover will make them as pretty as the girls they see on the screens. This kind of plot that tv shows and movies use puts an idea in people's  mind. For girls, the idea is that the guy they love will fall for them only if they're pretty while for boys, the idea that the physical aspects of a girl can still improve, even though it cannot, is now engraved in their minds. These ideas are incorrect and this kind of plot is the reason why such ideas enter a person's mind.

It's true that I hate the plot of tv shows and movies wherein the male lead only falls in love with the unattractive female lead only after she has a makeover and a transformation that makes her prettier than before. In spite of all this, I can't deny that some aspects of the shows and movies that have this kind of plot, like the cinematography and acting of the actors and actresses have really great quality. The scriptwriters or directors should just make sure to avoid making films and tv shows with this kind of plot since it might have a negative impact on some of the viewers. Maybe this is why I like the British tv series, My Mad Fat Diary and the Filipino film, Ang Diary ng Panget (The Diary of an Ugly Girl). These two both feature unattractive female leads and in the end, the male leads fall in love with them. Regardless of their physical aspects.