Jessica Simpson's "Price of Beauty" Explores Trends Worldwide

This is how Jessica Simpson summed up her eye-opening trip to Thailand to film the first episode of "The Price of Beauty", her new VH1 series. The show, which premiered last night, actually looks quite promising. Unlike so many reality shows which feature inane competitions between people who seem anything but real, Jessica Simpson's show, "The Price of Beauty", attempts to do something very real: take stock of what true beauty means to different people, in different cultures, all around the world.

Jessica Simpson has long been scrutinized and often teased in the media for her weight, her intellect, and her possible ability to alter the course of several major league football games through voodoo. However, Jessica Simpson has time and again shown poise and grace, and musical abilities aside, really shouldn't be so harshly judged. Simpson can be a bit silly, perhaps, but one look at her and you can tell she's a sensitive girl.

On "The Price of Beauty", Jessica displays this sensitivity when she meets a Thai woman scarred for life as a result of a bad reaction to bleaching skins creams common in Thai markets. Simpson was moved to tears as the woman, a former singer who lost both her job and her husband after these creams she tried left her with pale and dark patches all over her face and arms, explained her story.

Jessica, along with friends/assistants/travel companions and now "Price of Beauty" co-stars Ken Paves and CaCee Cobb, were surprised to learn that looking fair and light-skinned was the standard of beauty in Thailand, since in the West a tan complexion is considered healthy and often more desirable. In America, pale skin can sometimes be judged as sickly, or boring. The group's tour guide, a beautiful Thai woman herself, explained that in her country, fair skin is equated with not having worked long hours in the sun, and so implies a certain social status.

Lighter moments came when Jessica, Ken and CaCee sampled some freaky local cuisine with a reputation for clearing toxins from the body, improving metabolism and nourishing hair and skin. The foodstuffs in question included several varieties of bugs and worms, and though the group (pardon the pun) sucked it up and met the challenge, the girls displayed embarrassingly Western reactions to eating them.

Later in the first, 30-minute episode of "The Price of Beauty", Jessica Simpson and pals journeyed from the bustling markets and city streets to a village in the Thai countryside. There they met a tribe of women whose beauty regimen included not just creams, but coiled metal rings around their neck. The rings do not stretch the neck, but eventually push down on and crush the shoulders and produce an elongated appearance to the neck.

Jessica Simpson narrated throughout the episode with voice-overs and short chair segments, and it was ironic that even as she appeared to be genuine and sincere in her thoughts and opinions on what she had seen and what "real beauty" was, her face barely moved. She could smile, but all around the corners of her mouth, and her forehead, were completely motionless as she spoke, which was eerie and probably the result of a recent injection or procedure. However, in America, it truly does seem to be botox and tanning salons that produce the looks that appeal to the masses.

It should be interesting to continue watching Jessica Simpson on "The Price of Beauty", because frankly, she is interesting to watch. If her antics are indeed just Jess being Jess, so to speak, and not prompted or scripted, she can be pretty funny sometimes, too. Like when she laughed inappropriately during meditation with a Thai monk; inappropriate is the key word here, but it was funny nonetheless.

There is a ton of information on "The Price of Beauty", along with plenty of fun clips and extras, on the VH1 website for the series. The series will run for its first season on Monday nights, so be sure to check your local listings!

Source:

VH1 - "The Price of Beauty", Episode One, original air date: 3/16/2010