12 years old,, Gerren Taylor became a leading model and then a year later was cast aside .
America the Beautiful(2008)
Director: Darryl Robert
Writer Darryl Robert
In capturing Garren's story, Director Darryl Robert brings to our attention the miriad ways in which women's bodies and minds have become the rightful property of the corporate world where money reigns supreme and men dominate the decision making process that determines women's clothes, make up, plastic surgery, perfumes, and the fashion industry where beauty pageants came into popularity right after women won the right to vote.
Women's response to the societal mandate to be "beautiful" is to copy the bodies of the thinnest woman in the world, the "ultra thin" models. These models of note must be unhealthily thin to fit into the designer;s clothes. This all reduces down to money.
The bigger the model the more money it costs to drape her in costly material . One shot of Garrren wearing the skimpiest short shorts must have been super cheap for the designer rather than a full length dress, or a pants suit. We are talking in the tens of thousands of dollars,, just for the material of designer's choice.
Peer pressure is at odds with this skeletal image. The twelve year old girl has been taught to embrace and love Barbie dolls, the stick thin doll with "boob". Girls who feel driven to be "grown up" want boobs. This contradiction is highlighted in America the Beautiful. It is not just the cost to life and pocketbook that informs on what women think will make them beautiful but the peer pressure is intense particularly for the adolescent. These same forces inform on the plastic surgery, depicted in all its grueling moments but also the source of the modern day anorexic or bulimic teenagers and adult who think thin is good, when in fact for them it is deadly.
Garren's mother's solution to this problem of beauty in the eyes of the world(no boobs, curves , bumps) versus beauty in the eyes of her peers, was to remove Garren from peer pressure.. She took Garren out of school and provided home schooling.
Garrren's mother is one person in the Documentary that I felt Mr. Robert did not depict with an even understated tone that he used with everyone else. .Garren;'s mother is a single mom. She is Black and a likely candidate for welfare as is Garren. financial security is what this is all about. Not education that might or might not lead to future well being, but money: a cushion for those times when Garren will be an adult and on her own.
Money is what drives Garren's mother And that is what the White educated Principal in Garren's school failed to understand. There is a definite culture gap that being Black in America, being female without a man to support and help in rearing of children Darryl brings to the screen as a silent undercurrent that will ring loud and clear to those who identify with this courageous, driven single mom who stepped into the world of the rich and famous without a road map in hand nor a supporting arm to lean on.
One of the most delightful moments was watching Garren wash the dishes after dinner. She was excellent super competent at this chore. Her actions were so real and natural I felt hypnotized like I was there with Darryl, having finished a lovely dinner provided by this child/girl and now getting down to the business of the day, (or was it night) having her talk to me , to you, to the camera as she washed the dishes.
What a wonderful person, what a delightful girl. At the end of the film when she was so unhappy I wanted to reach into the screen and give her a warm loving hug.
Why didn't Darryl do that for me? It would have been the right, the perfect ending to an almost perfect film
There is so much to learn, to discuss, to think about and talk about and to feel in America the Beautiful. Don't let it escape without seeing it. America the Beautiful 2008. See it. at the theater or rent it for home viewing with family.
Linda Z
Rotten-tomatoes Vine Witches Brew
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