Glamour Models, Mum & Me

[slouchingtowardswaitrose]

I cannot contain this. Watching this and feeling sick.

Mother actively discouraging her daughter from working hard at school, encouraging her to go to stage school and become a glamour model, telling her she WILL get a boob job at 16, etc.

FUCKED UP. Please watch and discuss.

We should just do a webchat with her to answer the questions about why women collude.

Is the child academically inclined?

I watched this, and I let DD(9) and DS(12) watch it. I think it is really useful in showing people the madness of celebrity culture. I hope that the daughter's teachers see the programme and realise the battles that daughter is fighting in order to suceed in education.

that grin was at Proleworth, I'm trying to think of the biggest, brick-looking book. "Backlash"?

Yes, the daughter is academically inclined. She had not at the time of the programme sat her GCSEs, so even if she was mediocre in academic terms she still needs to pass some basic GCSE exams.

I felt very sorry for Alicia Douvall.

I am really impressed that the daughter is able to stand up to the mother to the extent that she does!

Alicia does know she's fucked up though, hence the therapy. And obviously her Dd has lots of other influences which have helped her become the bright and confident girl that she is. Life with a parent like that can make you very strong.

I can relate to the daughter a great deal. I'm avoiding thinking about my relationship to beauty because it's so complicated because of my upbringing.

I don't mean to come across as uncompassionate to the mum, by the way. I just...am sad. It's that feeling of despair again. Like the tidal wave is too strong.

There was a very heartwrenching moment when Alicia was upset. They were telling each other they looked nice, very tenderly. It was as if saying they looked nice was their way of saying 'I love you.'

God this was so sad. Alicia is a very damaged woman, extremely vulnerable and needy and it seems has made her daughter responsible for her emotional wellbeing by providing instant lifelong companionship in the form of a mini-me. I thought her daughter, Georgia, was absolutely lovely. Thank god she goes to boarding school where she can find and develop her own identity and ambitions away from the suffocating atmosphere of home.

In the prog it said that the Paul bloke had rescued Alicia from a hostel when pregnant with Georgia. I've googled Alicia Douvall but not found anything about her background, where she grew up etc. I don't think someone is that vulnerable and needy without context, so while her treatment of her daughter is not to be excused I suspect it comes from somewhere in her past. As does her addiction to cosmetic surgery and the underlying body dysmorphia (sp?)

I thought Paul seemed v sensible, encouraging Georgia to get qualifications even if she wanted to go into acting etc. But what motivated him to 'rescue' Alicia? I couldn't shake a feeling of sleaze even though I didn't think that was how he came across.

What you said.

He also 'takes a keen interest in her (Georgia's) education. Does he pay for it? Not that it matters, just interesting.

At the end of the programme, I was proud of them both.

I do hope Alicia can find some peace, and I have a feeling Georgia is going to do very well.