How are tits, lips and high heels aspirational for young women?

[Bouncealot]

Just watched The Apprentice on BBC and am following Rise and Fall on C4. Why are all the women styled like this? What does it say to younger women? Is it to signal feminine power? None of the successful young women I know dress this way. The equivalent dress code for men doesn’t bear thinking about, and guess what? We don’t see young men’s chests on display in the office, or even on TV.

It’s almost as if you’re missing the point 😂

Op is saying Why are these programmes based on “aspiring business women” all show casing women styled as Barbie dolls? It’s not realistic or aspirational.

Shame on you for beating women down, they are successful business women, that’s a great example to any younger woman.

I'm guessing you didn't watch this season then. "Successful businesswomen" who fail to account for stock or staff in their business plans...

I thought by now it was quite clear that these people are picked for their marketability to sell the show, not their business skills.

@NunNunNun completely agree with you. So much bitchiness on these threads. Women tearing women down. Daffy Duck lips.. big greasy lips..etc etc. There's one somewhere else about 'claw nails' and how revolting they are. One of the posters actually said she 'takes comfort' from the fact that when women with talons wipe their bum they must get their nails filled with shit. I found the Apprentice thread title ( not this one) absolutely gross ( something to do with lip fillers). So what if women want to do or wear x y and z to their appearance?

@JMSA me too.

Because some women enjoy it

Maybe think about Why young women “enjoy” it? Why they feel the need to style themselves in an overly sexualised way on a business show? What factors are conditioning them?
Why are the producers deliberately selected this narrow demographic?

A lot of the women on the apprentice actually looked very uncomfortable and insecure about how they were styled- continually fiddling with their hair, adjusting their clothes, touching their faces etc. They all looked far more relaxed and themselves on the challenge abroad where they were given a practical polo shirt, trousers and trainers to wear. They all just got stuck in with the task.

It’s a shame so many women are so appearance focused and insecure about how they look. We’re an increasingly image obsessed society, most of these age group take “selfies” several times a day and pore over how they look. It’s in detriment to young women’s mental health.

Because it's a reality TV show. If they hadn't got on this they'd have auditioned for Love Island

Similar here- I'm in a technical/scientific environment and most of us barely wear makeup.

Interestingly, the lower down the higher up the hierarchy the less formal the outfit.

The only people in suits are generally trainees. I mostly remember to brush my hair 😁

I used to (pre-children) sometimes get myself dolled up of an evening, when I was alone and then not go anywhere. No one saw me but me. I just enjoyed it. Bit sad? Probably. But it wasn’t for anyone else but myself.
So many people of MN judge everyone by their own personal experiences. But thankfully we aren’t all the same. Some of us dress up for ourselves.

Nothing wrong with looking good but it's all fake, the rubber lips are awful

I have huge respect for many of the women who go on The Apprentice - for their drive and determination, their self-belief, their business acumen, etc.

It doesn't mean I can't also criticise (on an anonymous forum) the way they choose to present themselves. Almost all of them are very attractive young women whose natural beauty seems masked by the extreme 'Barbie style' (sorry, I just can't think of a better way to describe it).

It's like a uniform. But hey, I'm old. And I do believe everyone has a right to wear whatever they want, and modify their bodies however they want. I'm just a bit sad that looking natural , and aging naturally, is so abhorrent to so many women.

People will comment when the women are presenting such an extreme look- where they’ve radically altered their appearance.

One contestant had lips so injected she couldn’t shut her mouth properly and it caused her top lip to be misshapen. So yes, like a duck’s beak. It looks fairly comical in a depressing way. Are we all supposed to applaud that? It could well be as a result of some sort of body dysmorphia; they’ve become incapable of viewing their face objectively?

Im certainly not taking comfort in the fact that 4 inch nails means everyday tasks must be very difficult for the wearer.

Some of the contestants were fantastic women- they’d successfully launched their own businesses and were turning over good profit. No mean feat in the current economic climate.
Yet I’d put money on all of them feeling unhappy with how they look.

“Because they want to look nice” is a hugely ill thought out argument.

No one is asking you to applaud it, but you don’t have to bitch about it either. You could - radical idea I know - not comment on other women’s looks full stop. Because if we stopped discussing, dissecting and destroying other women’s looks, maybe women would have more confidence in themselves and their looks.

Commenting on other peoples looks in a derogatory way screams of insecurity to me.

Cripes what a bunch of bitches some of you are. It's not even the case that they all had filler and whatever else, I presume most of you are referring to the 25 year old with her own business who made a point in her intro of wanting to let women know business isn't all about fancy words and suits; that people like her can pursue this too. I think that's good, plenty of women in their 20s (ie probably not the age range most miserable people on here judging her are) do look like her- it's for sure a bigger social issue but I think someone like this succeeding in a show like this is good.

The winner doesn't have fillers, often wore trousers suits and their business is based in a typically male industry- what's the issue? I suspect many of those who are proud that they just about remember to brush their hair (🤭) would make more effort if they were going on telly.

This is why it’s impossible to look beyond “because they want to look nice”
All conversation is shut down on the basis that it’s bitchy, judgemental or jealous.
We all have to ignore this worrying idea that a sex doll look is the ideal.

Do you want your 15 year old daughter aspiring to look this way and feeling utterly lacking because she can’t achieve the look which is alll over instagram and reality tv and only achievable with surgical interventions.

But don't you love it when they've dressed in a skinny suit, super high heels and full face and the task involves running or wearing a hairnet hat and a pony to flog street food. They never learn ion the Apprentice

Pinny not pony

Most of them don't look like sex dolls though:

www.buzzfeed.com/sam_cleal/the-apprentice-2023-contestants

I'm not sure what programme everyone was watching.

Or, you know, mind your own business. Other peoples looks are nothing to do with you. Stop trying to justify being so judgmental.

I repeat my earlier sentiment - maybe if people like you stopped judging other people for how they look they wouldn’t feel so damn insecure. You are part of the problem. Your actions are not the solution.

Come on, there’s vast middle ground between barely brushing your hair and the style being presented here.

I don’t class having botulism injected into my face and regular lip injections as “making an effort “

And I’d rather teach my teenage daughter that her looks are her own business and how she styles herself is for her and her alone, rather than teach her to judge others and be nasty.

I haven’t once called any of these women names, neither have I sneered at women who look “dowdy” or have barely brushed their hair.

Think beyond what’s in front of you and consider the social conditioning and pressures on young women in our image obsessed society.. the psychology behind it and the negative impact this has on women.

But the female contestants didn't all have filler I'm not sure why some are suggesting they did. It's also not ridiculous to assume a reality show would reflect the age group of people on it- should people be excluded based on their looks? Nah sorry love you've had lip filler we don't want your sort on here. Ew.

I give up 😂

I enjoyed high heels, shoulder pads, big hair (think Dynasty 😁) and lipstick when I was young.
Fast forward several decades, wobble in a trainer higher than an inch and lucky if I brush my hair more than once most days.
Time and place, each to their own.

Good, take your judgement elsewhere. No one is denying there are pressure on girls and women to look a certain way and obtain unrealistic aesthetics, I was a teenager when 00 was the aspirational dress size- I get it. But similarly to suggest excluding women who have chosen to get filler (even though yes their choices are likely heavily influenced by societal pressure and insecurity) doesn't seem overly fair. These women mostly in their 20s certainly don't deserve your judgement.