Average dudes in movies can be babe magnets. Why can’t the same be true for women?

In movie world, dudes can get the girl even if they might not square up physically. It’s true in real life too, and it works the other way round. We are not all such shallow creatures, and even when we are, there is more to animal attraction than arbitrary beauty standards. But on screen, it’s not a two way street.

I was reminded of this by the otherwise excellent movie Chef, where Jon Favreau plays a grumpy and rotund cook (albeit a good one) whose hungry admirers include Scarlet Johansson and Sofia Vergara. I found this casting choice jarring. Not that I have a problem with couples of mishmashed hotness. It’s just that in Chef, and in so many other films, the loveliness of our hero’s better halves is just a given. I seems schlubby dudes are naturally irresistible to the opposite sex, in a way that simply doesn’t apply to women.

I did some research to see if I could find any female examples. By this I mean movies where an imperfect looking heroine bags a dreamboat without this achievement being the entire emotional journey of the film. Surprise surprise, I haven’t really come up with much. Actually almost nothing at all.

TV Tropes, which describes this phenomenon as Ugly Guy Hot Wife, notes only one female led example: My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I re-watched the movie and I’ve decided it doesn’t count. Nothing with a big transformative makeover (where our heroine takes off her giant glasses and saggy sweater, and is suddenly adorable) counts. It brings back raw memories of that most rage inducing Breakfast Club scene, where gorgeous weirdo Ally Sheedy is made to wear a fucking hairband, just so she can snog Emilio Estevez.

Other films that came up were Never Been Kissed (Drew Barrymore), She’s all that (Rachael Leigh Cook), The Truth About Cats and Dogs (Jeanne Garfulo), and Muriel’s Wedding (Toni Collette). But in each of these, the heroine’s suggested unattractiveness and their overcoming of this affliction is central to the plot. Another problem: these women are all obviously stunning.

I get why it happens. I understand that Hollywood actors tend to be on the good-looking side. And, thanks to oppressively restrictive beauty standards, women tend to need to conform a little more. This leaves us with a pool of actresses who are way above average being scruffed up unconvincingly for roles. We end up with Hollywood Homely: producers putting a drop dead gorgeous girl in braces and hoping we won’t be any the wiser. This is the reason there’s not one but two movies (Sabrina, Funny Face), where Audrey Hepburn is meant to be embarrassingly fugly, despite being one of the most exquisite creatures of all time.

British TV offered me some interesting examples. I got back into the excellent My Mad Fat Diary. Teen heroine Rae is overweight and suffering from mental health problems, but that doesn’t stop her finding love with gorgeous Finn. Still, Rae’s body issues are a struggle for her to overcome, and put their relationship at risk. Another contender is slapstick sit-com Miranda. But while Miranda does find love with buff best friend Gary, her physical awkwardness is a key part of the shows premise. I don’t blame these productions: they are both funny and insightful in exploring what it is to be a woman who doesn’t fit into the narrow confines of beauty. Still, neither fits my strict criteria.

The closest thing I can find is Lena Dunham’s character Hannah Horvath in Girls. She’s not as conventionally attractive as some of the other key characters, but she is comfortable in her own skin and has no trouble getting laid. Sure, she’s a bundle of neurosis, but her anxieties are more about her career and her friendships than her body. It shouldn’t be such a revolutionary act to have a totally normal woman romp around unselfconsciously on screen, but it’s been a big part of why Girls feels so modern and groundbreaking. I see myself far more in Hannah than any of the other supposedly relatable prime time heroines (I’m thinking specifically of Zooey Descenels's “adorkable” Jess on New Girl). She might not be typically perfect, but she gets on with life and doesn’t waste her time apologizing for or denying her own sexuality.

This is still a fairly weak example, when you consider Kevin James has been cast opposite the likes of Amber Valletta, Selma Hayek, Winona Ryder, Jayma Mays and motherfucking Rosario Dason, presumably without being incessantly trolled for the cheek of it.

The culmination of all these tropes is a real bummer. Because, while the ugly dudes enjoy their hot wives, and the geeks always get the girl, women who are only Hollywood homely have to endure unnecessary makeovers to prove they were beautiful all along, and only then deserving of love. When actresses who don’t fit into Hollywood’s narrow beauty box (always skinny, mostly white, mostly under 35) dare to persue the hunky guy, they might end up being painted as a hilariously delusional abhorrent admirer. Most likely they will be cast as a sassy sidekick or someone’s mum rather than the romantic lead. This, amongst other things, is an enormous waste of talent.

In real life there are so many factors in attraction. Your sense of humor, your intelligence, your tastes, your talents, and more often than not your physical “imperfections” (I myself am a sucker for a snaggletooth). While films ram down the idea that it’s natural and easy to love a guy for other factors than his appearance, the same assumption is not made for us ladies. Hell, I wouldn’t even get a date with Steve Carrel right now (not if I was up against recent love interests Anne Hathaway, Keira Knightley, and Olivia Wilde).

We live in a world where girls as young as five are worrying about their weight. A world where 91% of women are unhappy with the way they look. We point the finger at the fashion industry, at fitspo instagram (these things don’t help), but we too rarely question the lack of beauty diversity on screen. We’re used to only seeing picture perfect women leading stories. It deepens the impression that our worth lies only our looks, with the standard of beauty being impossibly narrow.

So let Jon Favreau bone Scar Jo and marry Sofia Vergara (twice!). But lets balance it up. Let’s celebrate greater diversity in our leading ladies. Let’s have them lead stories about things other than low self-esteem. And please, lets not make them over so they can find true love.

*By the way, if anyone can think of any other examples for me, please leave in the comments. I’m hoping some more can be unearthed.

First published on strongfemalelead.wordpress.com