Tuesday 3 August 2010

BBC3: Glamour models, mum and me

What do you do when your mum is Alicia Douvall and she's pushing you to be a glamour model? Run away screaming.
Alicia Douvall is tapped in the head. Her thinking that 'the body is powerful and can make her easy money' about her own daughter Georgia is so screwed up, it's enough to make a feminist weep. What mother wants her daughter to have an unnecessary operation? She probably just wants her to be as disfigured as she is. I think the kid sees right through it; well it's not exactly a good advert, is it?
You are SEXUALISING A CHILD. Fucked up! It's actually child abuse.
Of course, if your mum wants you to be a glamour model, you become a scientist. If your mum wants you to be a scientist you become a glamour model. That's why I'm not having kids.
Alicia is an absolute idiot. Telling your child they don't need a back up plan when your plan seemed to be selling 25,000 kiss and tells and getting your face mashed up is pathetic. She looks like a burns victim.
Bloc Party are the background music for every BBC3 documentary I ever see! Kele, what you playing at?!
God, then Alicia is insisting she's her daughter's best friend. Just be a MOTHER. And I don't normally judge people's parenting, because I don't exactly have any experience in that area, but come on. Even an idiot guest on Jeremy Kyle could work this one out.
Next Georgia had to miss a load of school because Alicia had to have her breast operation fixed in LA. Jesus. She is actually jeopardising her kid's chance at an education to have work done on her mangled body.
The imbalance in their relationship is seriously disturbing. Georgia seems about 30 and Alicia seems about 12.
Even in agony at the millionth breast reconstruction, Alica was STILL trying to persuade her small child to get a boob job. That is mental illness.
Alicia: 'she speaks in another language to me, about atoms, not bikinis'. Yes, she's got a brain. She's seen who you are, and doesn't want to be it.
At the end there was some unconvincing epiphany when Alicia said to her daughter, 'you're perfect as you are.'
Yeah, see you in Nuts. Unless you RUN. Run, kiddo.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would like to just say, having literally just finished watching the documentary in question about an hour ago, that I think what you are saying is a bit of a quickfire reaction to the content of the programme.
I would like to defend Alicia's parenting. As a teenage daughter of 17 at the stage where I am considering where to go with my life and how to make my own way in this world and I do not find Alicia's dreams/ambitions/plans for her daughter in any way child abuse, just what she knows. As for them being in a close friendship, my Mum and I have a mother/daughter relationship that I would describe as a definite friendship. By the end of the programme I find Alicia's words very much sincere and believable, not because I am taking the words she says literally, but I do think that Alicia's overall vision of her daughter has become a more honest representation of the daughter she has.
Alicia's not wrong when she says 'the body is powerful' but she's not in dilluding herself into believing the money is easy. She says the opposite: that it's a hard thing to do, that you need to have the confidence in yourself and I think that is instilling the right values into her daughter. She's not sexualising her child, either. She's trying to support her child and tell her child she is beautiful and worthy enough of the surgery, which in a roundabout way is a loving thing to do, if it is misdirected.
The fact that Alicia doesn't think her daughter needs a back up plan is far from idiotic, and it's wrong to call her an idiot because she's made a lot of good come from what the bad life she had, and I don't think brought up a bad kid considering. You can't say Alicia's an idiot when you look at her daughter.
Georgia had the option of returning to school. She felt obligated to her mother, as would I if my mother having more surgery.
She wasn't 'jeapordising' her daughters future either. She insisted on the personal tutor to teach her daughter, was pro active in providing as much support for her daughters homework as she could. All kids at one stage miss work. Unless they, by some miracle, never have a single illness or a single holiday or anything. But life goes on around school. The balance has to be set and Alicia did this well.
I admit, at the end where Alicia spoke to the camera's about Georgia and her hunger for education, it was frustrating to hear her views because they were negative towards what is deemed as the right thing for a 14 year old, but even by kids standards, many would see Georgia in a similar light. A lot of girls do become naturally attracted to the things Alicia was talking about, and actually she wasn't expressing much more than a very common feelign amongst mothers of teen daughters that they do not know, or understand a lot about their daughter. I myself have had this issue with my mum, and my sister is now going through it with my mum too. My sister is Georgia's age. It's not wrong what Alicia said, it was her feelings and her opinions about her daughter who is growing as an individual into someone who her mother is scared of not recognising or scared of losing sight of the daughter she's known.
So don't be so 2D about the things seen in this documentary. There's more to it than Alicia's thirst for surgery and her attempts to persuade her daughter. There's actually a rather touching story of a tough woman bringing up a girl full of potential and a mother trying to hold onto a little girl who is growing and moulding.
It's realistic and has interesting ideas about identity. A credible piece of TV.

Anonymous said...

I would like to just say, having literally just finished watching the documentary in question about an hour ago, that I think what you are saying is a bit of a quickfire reaction to the content of the programme.
I would like to defend Alicia's parenting. As a teenage daughter of 17 at the stage where I am considering where to go with my life and how to make my own way in this world and I do not find Alicia's dreams/ambitions/plans for her daughter in any way child abuse, just what she knows. As for them being in a close friendship, my Mum and I have a mother/daughter relationship that I would describe as a definite friendship. By the end of the programme I find Alicia's words very much sincere and believable, not because I am taking the words she says literally, but I do think that Alicia's overall vision of her daughter has become a more honest representation of the daughter she has.
Alicia's not wrong when she says 'the body is powerful' but she's not in dilluding herself into believing the money is easy. She says the opposite: that it's a hard thing to do, that you need to have the confidence in yourself and I think that is instilling the right values into her daughter. She's not sexualising her child, either. She's trying to support her child and tell her child she is beautiful and worthy enough of the surgery, which in a roundabout way is a loving thing to do, if it is misdirected.
The fact that Alicia doesn't think her daughter needs a back up plan is far from idiotic, and it's wrong to call her an idiot because she's made a lot of good come from what the bad life she had, and I don't think brought up a bad kid considering. You can't say Alicia's an idiot when you look at her daughter.
Georgia had the option of returning to school. She felt obligated to her mother, as would I if my mother having more surgery.
She wasn't 'jeapordising' her daughters future either. She insisted on the personal tutor to teach her daughter, was pro active in providing as much support for her daughters homework as she could. All kids at one stage miss work. Unless they, by some miracle, never have a single illness or a single holiday or anything. But life goes on around school. The balance has to be set and Alicia did this well.
I admit, at the end where Alicia spoke to the camera's about Georgia and her hunger for education, it was frustrating to hear her views because they were negative towards what is deemed as the right thing for a 14 year old, but even by kids standards, many would see Georgia in a similar light. A lot of girls do become naturally attracted to the things Alicia was talking about, and actually she wasn't expressing much more than a very common feelign amongst mothers of teen daughters that they do not know, or understand a lot about their daughter. I myself have had this issue with my mum, and my sister is now going through it with my mum too. My sister is Georgia's age. It's not wrong what Alicia said, it was her feelings and her opinions about her daughter who is growing as an individual into someone who her mother is scared of not recognising or scared of losing sight of the daughter she's known.
So don't be so 2D about the things seen in this documentary. There's more to it than Alicia's thirst for surgery and her attempts to persuade her daughter. There's actually a rather touching story of a tough woman bringing up a girl full of potential and a mother trying to hold onto a little girl who is growing and moulding.
It's realistic and has interesting ideas about identity. A credible piece of TV.

lightupvirginmary said...

Blogs about TV shows generally are quickfire reactions!
You are 17. Alicia's daughter is 14. Shouldn't she be able to decide for herself her career path? I am friends with my mum too, but she has always let me make my own mind up about what courses to do, what career path to follow etc.
Your third paragraph makes no sense.
Look on twitter and see what the masses thought of this; you are very much in the minority. I was kind, if anything.
The real test fo course will be where gerogia is in a few years time; I suspect not speaking to her mother.