In today’s media I often see all of these things being portrayed. Women cannot be successful without being sexy- overtly feminine- or masculine- toning down their woman-ness. One example of this is in The Ugly Truth, starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler. Heigl undergoes the transformation from successful yet boring, not sexy, and un-dateable to a flirty hybrid stripper/librarian in order to get the guy. In order to do this Heigl gets help from manly man Butler who instructs her on how to correctly be a dim-witted bimbo that cannot even show how smart she is because that is not what will attract a man to her. Throughout the somewhat predictable movie Heigl follows a standard process of emerging from her chrysalis into a sex object. This doesn’t last long, as Heigl eventually comes clean, which means she doesn’t get the sexy doctor, but instead gets Butler. The movie is able to both perpetuate all stereotypes of the sexy or successful career woman and reassure the viewer that men want both substance and looks. In the end we are supposed to have learned that outward beauty isn’t everything and being true to yourself is more important, but really the movie only proved how superficial and shallow people are because despite its attempts to shun perfection, the happy-ending is only after Heigl has found a balance between herself and her prettier, sexy self. In addition, Butler's character is a typical macho man that doesn't believe in love, but it's not even ironic that he falls in love with Heigl's character and proceeds to change her into his dream woman before finally getting her in the end.
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