Mummy, what's wrong with that man's face?

Over the past year, Channel 4 has bought to our screens some of the most shocking series and documentaries that cover the topic of body image. The latest, and in my opinion the most shocking, being Beauty and the Beast: The Ugly Face of Prejudice.

This series investigates the extremes of discrimination. Each episode brings together two people often defined by the way they look: one has a facial disfigurement, the other an intense preoccupation with their appearance.

We live in a society obsessed with physical perfection, surrounded by images of unattainable beauty. Nine out of ten women in Britain are unhappy with their appearance, over half would resort to surgery to change it, and nearly three quarters of Brits think that being better looking would make them more successful.


Last weeks opening episode paired 59-year-old Leo Gormley, who underwent 120 operations in 15 years after he was burned in an explosion at the age of 14, with Yasmin Disney – a frankly gorgeous 20-year-old who will not contemplate leaving the house before completing her daily two-hour beauty regime and has a long list of cosmetic surgeries she would like to undergo.

What I find so grpping about this series in particular is the way the stereotypical 'beautiful' women who appear on the show are so insecure and unhappy with the way they look. At the end of each episode the woman is challeneged to remove all make-up and hair accessories to which the general reaction is disgust to their own reflection. The women feel weak and insecure without this mask which they appear to hide behind. The extreme irony in this series which I find so interesting is the way in which the person with the facial disfigurement has come to terms with how they look, and is now trying to convince the self-confessed beauty addict that true beauty comes from within.