The Price of Pretty Privilege | Analyzing Malena ft. Angelina & Marilyn

Duality exists in all things everything has a dark side pretty privilege is no exception it has a price beautiful women are destined for oftentimes fatal ends the idea here is that Society views women as either a being of light or a creature of darkness in other words a Madonna or a [ __ ] [Music] much of this story has to do with the relationship of boys to women and how a boy becomes a man through the literal Act of viewing female sexuality and his budding relationship to women boys become men through the spectatorship of women they desire and this doesn't stop at the age of maturity to many men that have not experienced spiritual Ascension a beautiful woman is only for viewing pleasure this asserts the idea that the experience of being a beautiful woman is a haunting reminder of how Beauty can be tragically cemented as the experience of only being perceived but rarely understood Malena only speaks very sparsely throughout the films much of the dialogue is between other characters perceptions of her beauty and as a result her faded burden since the story of Malena is told Through The Eyes of others instead of her own choosing we perceive her through venado's literal and metaphoric voyeuristic Behavior as you noticed malena's scenes with the cross are very much emphasized as the cross rests in the middle of her chest which is a powerful reminder of her reality which is the ability to enchant us with her beauty and bear the cost the effect that Beauty has on others can either be intoxicating or toxic proximity to beauty is something that men desire yet women despise the entire town watches her and she enchants the men into all while the women complained beneath their breath in the whispered language of jealousy the proximity to beauty is the value that men place on her simply through Association he would hope that his self-esteem and status is raised in the eyes of the Town while the women distance themselves from her ostracizing her further in order to preserve what little self-esteem they have left the metaphoric worship of Molina is made manifest in this one scene while she is not considered a Pious symbol throughout the film she is indeed worshiped by the men she was elected to Adorn this religious Garb and paraded in the Town Square she didn't make the choice being a Madonna was thrusted upon her Elena's wearing black is not an unconscious directorial Choice she wears black during her times of grief and not just grieving the loss of her husband but also loss of herself when she finally accepts her fate this is the first time that we see Molina in all black but it won't be the last her father receives an anonymous letter that reads you're Dishonored your daughter Melina is sleeping with the whole town subsequently her father quit the school in disgrace and disowned his daughter since the death of her husband the town's women feel comfortable gossiping more freely about Molina's activities which led to false allegations and a charge brought against her by one of the town's women as an adulteress and homewrecker the lawyer speaks out on behalf of Molina saying that she committed no other crime than that of being ill-fated alone and beautiful here is her crime her beauty and from here the Envy the lies the disgrace that have deprived her of even her father's trust although it's a legal battle won it's Molina's war that is lost to the vicious lawyer who declares that she can pay him with access to her body instead of money and everyone begins to call her outside her name as the town prostitute but Malena has her own plan in mind she's being ostracized by the town's Marketplace hungry she is left to barter her body her breath in the debris of War Molina's father is found this is the second loss that Molina has endured during the funeral procession you can see that they're staring at her body and even in moments of grief she is objectified dehumanized relegated to a visual experience to be had the act of cutting the hair is Molina's shifting Point she is letting go of her old identity and instead embracing her new self the self that the entire town projected and cast on to her if she has to live by the sword of their words she might as well fall on the sword through the active purification Milena washes herself with water and lemon cleansed and renewed as her new self and this is the moment that she has entered her new life foreign [Music] ly reached the most iconic scene of the entire movie Milena walks through the town square with an entirely New Look the first time she wears black for the grief and Dark Inner transformation she's undergone to assume this new identity and the Scarlet red hair to match the most obvious is in her eyes this is the first time she actually makes eye contact with everyone in an act of defiance she walks up to the cafe pulls out a cigarette as the men rush to light it for her a tear descends down her cheek because this is all she'll ever amount to in the eyes of people just a pretty face and once that's discarded she will have nothing and no one so she has been reduced to use her beauty as her only function in this heart-wrenching scene the women drag Malina out to mercilessly beat her the men simply watched the women punish her for the crimes that they stamped onto her the jealousy that ignited in their bellies turned into pure hatred the scissors come out and they cut her hair off one of the women screams now let's see what the men make of you as in now that you don't have your beauty your hair now that you're bruised and beaten now that we've stripped you for the only value we placed on you we stripped it from you now what are you and for Malena it was The Men Who fantasized their desirous fulfillment with her and it was the towns women who projected their damaged self-esteem and envy of her beauty onto her and to her entire town she was ill-fated as being irredeemable for her ultimate sin her beauty after her fall from grace her husband returns wounded and humbled and Molina returns to her old ways of no eye contact in a demure aura [Music] the same women who engaged in the violence against her comment on how she's aged and put on weight while still acknowledging her Timeless Beauty and for one moment after all the pain isolation and violence she experienced she is treated like she's always wanted to be treated as a human with a soul her walk is different she's been beaten into submission into Conformity while still retaining some semblance of herself in some sense just like Renato we are viewers of Molina's life Enchanted by Molina's Beauty but unable to do anything to protect her when you first met her what were you expecting then you read all the stuff the tattoos blood and the vial Jolie as not what the publicity leads us to think completely redoing myself as a person trying to figure out who I am all over again yeah I'm actually a really shy person and I'm really uncomfortable with people judging me and looking at me Angelina Jolie has suffered with depression for a very long time she used to participate in her own self-destruction through self-mutilation and hard drug use when she was younger her depression reached such a low point that she didn't want to live anymore and hired a hit man to end it all Angelina's choice on characters are often dealing with a lot of inner turbulence full of things and I understood what love was with her and uh Lisa I'm I don't have many friends or many girlfriends I don't understand some saying the world let's go she was so impulsive and so open and so bold and saying that she carries the characters she plays inside her in some sense they reflect her misery or her inner battles it's really hard for people to imagine that someone with ethereal Beauty can be so devastatingly hopeless dead suicide found outside of her apartment building on 42nd Street on Sunday morning a devastating story of The Beauty Queen Chesley Crist who suffered from depression and committed the tragic Act of self-ending she was literally a beauty queen she won Miss Universe in 2019 she held both an MBA and a law degree reading through some of the comments on her Tick Tock and Instagram people could not bring themselves to believe that someone with beauty status and riches could commit this act of self-annihilation she sent her mother this devastating text on the eve of her end first I'm Sorry by the time you get this I won't be alive anymore I love you Mom and you are my best friend and the person I've lived for for years I wish I could stay with but I cannot bear the crushing weight of the persistent sadness hopelessness and loneliness any longer the film Molina addresses the devastating reality of someone like Chesley of how exceptionally beautiful women can often lead lonely lives what does she think she is Marilyn Monroe famous fickle and I know it it has its compensation it does but it also has its drawbacks the same is also a burden and in the same ways that the beautiful are burdened by the perceptions of others the deep bond between Fame and beauty is undeniable and inextricable because they are essentially extensions of one another because in reality Fame is fueled by Beauty and Beauty ignites Fame just as the famous are canvases that we as a society project onto based on the media's inclinations the beautiful are also canvases painted with our personal fantasies and we project what we deem they deserve thank you miss it gives him some kind of a privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you beauty in and of itself is an engine for the collective imagination that doesn't always end so beautifully but let's put this all together the idea of pretty privilege is quite real while I won't go into details on each of these it's important that I recognize that there are absolutely privileges that come with the gift of beauty and to deny that would to deny half of my point for How can there be a dark side if there isn't a bright side According to some research Society perceives beautiful people as happier more successful wealthier healthier and more intelligent which in turn oftentimes creates the positive feedback loop of a happier and more successful person but what often isn't discussed is that pretty privilege is a double-edged sword with the assumptions that Society projects onto beautiful women those beautiful women now have to live up to that ideal the fantasy of an elusive beauty that withstands time which which is simply not possible then that societal pressure translates into harsh inner battles that are sometimes lost when some people are held in the mass cultural imagination as having a Transcendent Beauty their beauty is perceived as having a Divine quality one that will endure time but the reality is we all age we all become weaker and we are all destined for the same end and the message here is to behold people as they fully are it's about being awakened to the truth behind the saying beauty is only skin deep well it is because our skin just like Fame is fickle we're all human and we are here to connect beyond the flesh to realize that we're all having this joined experience as Humanity all seeking to feel the same love the same happiness the same peace foreign

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Length: 11min 57sec (717 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 23 2022