In which Sam rants about makeovers in her favorite YA
fiction, raves about The Girl of Fire
and Thorns by
Rae Carson and The Darkangel by
Meredith Ann Pierce, and accuses Meg of reading Fifty Shades of Grey.
No one told me that when I
officially became an adult (and no longer able to wander the YA Fiction section
at Barnes & Noble without the judgmental stares of thirteen-year-olds) that
the only fantasy anyone would try to sell me would be the fantasy of looking
“Fantastic in Fifty Shades of Lipstick” – or, more mortifying, the fantasies in Fifty Shades of Grey.[1]
Where were the fantasies I grew
up with? The fantasy of an epic adventure across snowcapped mountain peaks! The
fantasy of becoming a despotic queen and reigning over a kingdom![2]
The fantasy of fighting monumental battles and winning![3]
I began to despair that the only fantasy available to adult women was the
fantasy of returning to youth somehow: makeovers, makeup, or the magic of
plastic surgery. And maybe I bought into that in a small way, because I turned
back to youth, too: the young heroines of my favorite YA books. There, I told
myself, the knights and spies and mages didn’t care about injecting botulism[4]
into their foreheads to freeze them in perpetual, youthful surprise. Instead,
the young women I looked up to longed to age, grasped for the power and wisdom
that came with every passing year.
Still, upon closer inspection, I realized once again I had placed myself on the lofty shelf of Better-Than-Thou Book Selection, and when I took a hard look at some of my favorites, I discovered lots of them contain the same fantasy Cosmopolitan slaps on its covers every month: the fantasy makeover.[5]
Two makeovers in particular stand out in my mind: Aeriel, from The Darkangel, and Elisa, from The Girl of Fire and Thorns. In case you haven’t read either, these plot points won’t shatter too many surprises.
Still, upon closer inspection, I realized once again I had placed myself on the lofty shelf of Better-Than-Thou Book Selection, and when I took a hard look at some of my favorites, I discovered lots of them contain the same fantasy Cosmopolitan slaps on its covers every month: the fantasy makeover.[5]
Two makeovers in particular stand out in my mind: Aeriel, from The Darkangel, and Elisa, from The Girl of Fire and Thorns. In case you haven’t read either, these plot points won’t shatter too many surprises.
 |
| I know this isn't the most recent cover, but it is the one I remember from discovering the book in one of the back shelves of my middle school library. |
The Darkangel, which came out in 1982,[6]
features gorgeous sights, several adaptations of classic fantasy creatures, including
a dark and perilous vampyre, and one of my favorite magical objects. The story
opens on Eoduin, a beautiful young woman, and her slave, Aeriel, wandering
through an idyllic moonscape when suddenly, a vampyre swoops down and snatches Eoduin away to make
her his bride. Aeriel, being awesome, goes after Eoduin, and when she finally
encounters the vampyre, they have this ego-shattering exchange:
Aeriel turned back to him. “I am to be your
bride,” she said, not questioning. The certainty of it overwhelmed her.
The darkangel looked at her then and laughed,
a long, mocking laugh that sent the gargoyles into a screaming, chattering
frenzy. “You?” he cried, and Aeriel’s heart shrank, tightened like a knot
beneath the bone of her breast. “You be my bride? By the Fair Witch, no. You’re
much too ugly.”
Though the plot meanders and
slows, especially just after the story’s startling early events, and the
language can grow cloudy in places, Pierce plays cleverly with the power of
emotion and the presence of several types of transformation.
 |
| I'm a big cover art girl (always judging books by their cover) and this one didn't grab me - it was the Tamora Pierce rave that got me to open the book jacket. |
Almost twenty years later, Rae
Carson’s A Girl of Fire and Thorns
debuted, featuring Elisa, the first female protagonist that in all my years I
can remember being described as fat.[7]
Elisa is of course many other things: a strategic genius, a kidnapping victim,
and a princess. Still, the story opens with her discomfort at squeezing her
body into a wedding gown, and her subsequent reaction to the dress shows
readers her deep insecurity:
“I am a sausage,” I gasp. “A big, bloated
sausage in a white silk casing.”
The religious element to the
storyline was new to me, but Carson blends it seamlessly into the magic of
Elisa’s world. There are a multitude of characters as close to flesh-and-blood
real as I’ve ever read: multidimensional and flawed and believable. The plot
accelerates quickly, and the creativity with which Elisa uses her innate strengths
to exploits her enemies’ weaknesses made this one of my favorite YA books in
quite a while.
So both heroines begin their stories
outside the beauty norm, but Aeriel and Elisa each undergo long journeys
(incidentally, both through the desert) and both women become more beautiful as
other characters in their world define beauty. Elisa loses weight from the
arduous walk across shifting sands. Aeriel’s hair bleaches blonder and her skin
becomes darker under the desert sun. These changes should have deflated me,
because just like Cosmo instructs,
plain girls in YA World simply could not – should not – stay plain.
Yet neither girl set out to
change her physical appearance. Instead, Aeriel undertakes a daring quest, and
her newfound courage and determination are the most important changes wrought
by her journey.[8] Elisa,
thrust into a dangerous and uncertain situation, rises to the challenges she
must face, and her new physical stamina reflects this inner strength.
The external makeovers themselves
generate mixed results – Aeriel’s sudden resemblance to the Beach Boys’
inspiration for “California Girls”[9]
draws her even closer to danger, while Elisa’s weight loss seems to earn her
respect from those who doubted her ability to withstand physical (and
emotional) toil – and 50/50 odds are not exactly the “Guaranteed Gorgeous” that
Glamour and Vogue always promise.
After reading both books, I see
my mistake in evaluating the success or importance of a makeover by its results.
Aeriel and Elisa underwent physical transformations, but not for the sake of
the transformation itself. The blonde hair and the leg muscles happened because
Elisa and Aeriel went out and took action,
and it showed on their bodies and in their faces. Fantasy makeovers in
magazines promise action[10]
but can’t produce it, because painting a layer of makeup on is not taking
initiative. It’s the very opposite. It inhibits action.[11]
This is not to say every makeover has no value,[12]
but that the fantasy makeovers of YA heroines don’t have much in common with Cosmo, if only because the changes in
Aeriel and Elisa began inside first.
I plan to stick with YA-style makeovers,
where the heroines happen to be young and transforming oneself on the outside
is a side effect of internal transformation, but I plan to steer clear of
makeovers that only want me to look
young. I hope you reframe how you view the fantasy makeover, too, and stop
seeing its occurrence in books as a guilty pleasure. Because the real guilty
pleasure is reading Fifty Shades of Grey.
Or at least, that’s what Meg tells me.
The Darkangel
Badges: Guilty Pleasure Badge, Fantasy Makeover
Badge
A Girl of Fire and Thorns
Badges: Fantasy Makeover Badge, Feminism Forever
Badge, Trumps Tropes Badge, I Think I Found My New Best
Friend Badge
[1]
There is actually a knockoff title now called Dominated by the Billionaire. I am not making that up. But I wish I
were.
[2]
The only kinds of fantasies I have about becoming royalty involve wild and
outrageous abuses of the taxing power.
[3]
Let the record reflect that in real life, I have been known to lose even at
arm-wrestling.
[4]
Which is one of the most toxic substances
known to man.
[5]
See, as an example, every issue ever.
[6]
I know!
[7]
I take that back. I just
remembered that Margaret from R-T,
Margaret, and the Rats of NIMH had to start wearing a belt after she lost
weight during the course of her adventures. I think I’d classify it more as a
kid’s book, though, and hopefully you’ve stopped reading the footnotes by now,
so you’ll never know anyway.
[8] The blonde highlights are more
of a bonus.
[9]
Notably, not Katy Perry’s inspiration.
[10]
Let your imagination wander on that one, because you’re probably right.
[11]
At minimum, it inhibits me
from constantly scratching my nose.
[12]
What if a spy needed a makeover to go undercover in a beauty pageant? If you
are thinking of Miss Congeniality, I am too.
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