Reasons to Be Pretty

1. Increases chances of me getting my dream job: MUSE.
2. Clothes look better.
3. Will no longer have to look at Jon Hamm and shake head in astonishment.

Actually none of the above.

It is the name of the new Neil LaBute play which opens on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre. I saw it with my friend Bob today. And I really liked it much to my surprise.

Surprised because I had a preconceived notion. (But preconceived notions are the basis of loads of dramas!)



I had never seen a Neil LaBute play nor a Neil LaBute movie, and my preconceived notion (ala "all French are rude" and "the Middle East is hella dangerous") was that all his stuff is "misogynistic." Right or wrong that is what I thought. And I hate misogyny. And people who are into it. Especially women.

But it was not the case with this play. I didn't find it misogynistic. It was about relationships. Something I know little about, but I am smart enough to know these people were having them and they weren't easy.

The lead woman hears that her boyfriend referred to her as plain/ordinary compared to this other woman, but that he loved her with all his heart. Forget the love/heart stuff, she is unable get past this comment on her "ordinary" looks and though he apologizes profusely at the stupidity of the statement, it is curtains.

I think the play partially comments on how we are so obsessed with beauty and how fragile we are over it. (Well, duh.)

PLAIN=PAIN

I would scoff at all this, but I have to say that when I was in college someone told me that my best friend (at the time!) said, "Pat is someone you wouldn't really notice at a party, but once you get to know him he is the best!"

Much the same premise as the play. Really a compliment wrapped in something that the referee will never forget - being plain.

And clearly, I have not!

(I was also voted "2nd Ugliest" in grammar school. Sure it was an unofficial poll, but it still stung.)

So we can handle many other things, but don't call us plain which really translates to unattractive and undesirable and unloved and unwanted. Amazing how it can snowball. Thank God there are loads of therapists and plastic surgeons at the other end to pick up the pieces.

And rearrange them.