UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 6, Page 3                                
October 8, 1992                                                
What's in a face?; Local reporter decries society's beauty myths        
                                                               
     If you can stop thin like and work toward becoming an interesting        
human being-spend a little less time with the blow dryer-you won't   
have to worry when you're 43 or 44 that your husband's going to book 
out the door with his secretary."                                    
     So advised alumna Valerie Helmbreck-television writer for the   
Wilmington News Journal and Gannett News Service and a former        
executive editor of The Review-who spoke on campus last week as part 
of the University's Research on Women Lecture Series.                
     In her talk, "Beauty Myths and the Media," Helmbreck made it    
clear that our culture's preoccupation with beauty both fascinates and        
disgusts her. Interestingly she puts the blame for this national     
obsession on women who buy into beauty myths.                        
     Helmbreck's talk was peppered with her professional observations
and comments on her personal life that led audience members to believe        
that she really does consider appearance of secondary importance in  
life.                                                                
     She tolerates her husband's ponytail ("My mother hates it. His     
mother hates it.") and her daughter's eclectic school wardrobe ("My  
husband says, 'Should we really send her out looking like that?')    
because she loves what's inside.                                     
     Professionally, Helmbreck has seen firsthand the trappings of   
beauty, having covered the Miss America Pageant for several years and
having once been made over during a pageant.                         
     She wants very much for us to know that what we see is not      
"natural" beauty.                                                    
     "Miss America contestants have trainers. These people teach them
how to stand, walk, talk, smile. Do you think those two-hour smiles  
just come naturally?" she asked.                                     
     "When I was in my mid-30s, and about as far removed from a Miss 
America contestant as possible, I had them make me over. It was      
hysterical. I looked in the mirror and didn't recognize myself. I    
didn't look like me.                                                 
     "That night someone showed the pageant director a Polaroid of me   
made over and asked him who it was. First, he guessed Miss America   
l987, then, he guessed Miss America l984. It took five tries. See?   
They all look alike."                                                
     Covering the pageant another year, Helmbreck uncovered a plastic
surgeon who had done nose jobs on five contestants. Her articles     
generated so much publicity for the doctor that he, ironically,      
offered her a free nose job. She declined.                           
     But the issue of beauty continues to intrigue her.              
     "Our culture perceives beautiful women as powerful. We think you
have to be beautiful to be listened to. So, how we determine who is  
and who isn't beautiful becomes very important," she said.           
     One person whom Helmbreck doesn't consider beautiful is Kathleen
Turner. When Turner visited Wilmington a few years ago Helmbreck     
interviewed her in the hallway of the Hotel du Pont. The gist of the 
article was how different Turner looks in real life from the person  
you see on the screen.                                               
     "My feminist friends were outraged. They didn't understand how I   
could write about what she looks like. I contend that Kathleen Turner
has made it her business to be beautiful and that the beauty of      
Kathleen Turner is a lie.                                            
     "The image of beauty sold by the media bears little resemblance 
to what women look like. Most of us never see what goes into making  
these women look the way they do."                                   
     The fashion industry, Helmbreck said, just doesn't understand   
that most women look little like Cindy Crawford and more like Barbara
Bush.                                                                
     In reference to plastic surgery, Helmbreck said, "With          
skyrocketing medical costs, it borders on criminal to encourage women
to inflict such trauma on themselves."                               
     If women don't look like the women they see on television or in 
the movies, they feel incomplete, imperfect and unloved, Helmbreck   
said, and seem to have no idea that the people they are looking at   
aren't even real.                                                    
     "I'm not saying that what we look like is irrelevant. I did wash   
my hair to come down here," Helmbreck said, "but it's a matter of    
degree. What are we willing to do to change ourselves?               
     "Life has very little to do with hairdo and a lot to do with the
person we can become. It's time to get on with your life and stop    
making the cosmetic companies rich. Go with what you've got and work 
toward developing a sense of humor, in hopes that people can stand to
be around you!"                                                      
                                        -Beth Thomas