Extreme Makeover: Vanity Edition?

So as I was finally able to catch up on TiVo yesterday as my midterms were (finally) done, and I sat down to watch the weekly show that has a habit of making me tear up; Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. I'm not manly, whatever. Lucky me, this was supposed to be a "no tears" episode and everyone was going to be happy. The family gets a new house because the parents who are madly in love run a non-profit that helps couples work through their issues and love each other. Aww. They worked out of their house which has to be in one of the poorest shapes I've seen on the show. Like holes in the walls that you can see outside and cabinets that hang on the lob-sided walls and can only hold paper plates because the weight of real plates will make the cabinets fall. So they needed a new house, I was ok with this. They also had 5 daughters. Aww. These daughters are where my problems come in. The girls liked fashion and modeling a whole bunch, which as our society so forcefully tells them, they should. So after the family flew off to Paris for the week (fashion capitol of the world), and came back to find a beautiful house, naturally. The designers decorate the house and rooms according to the personalities of the family, and naturally since the girls love fashion, all of their rooms had to do with Paris and fashion and glitz and glam. They even had a ginormous closet bigger than my room for all five of the girls decked out out with the latest trends. The best part? Out of the closet was a runway that ran the length of the hall way of the girls' rooms.

This is what bothers me, the fact that the "designers" so blatantly endorsed the world of fashion and modeling, and gave the family the tools to easily reinforce the stereotypes that our culture places on women. In a household where the parents spend their lives getting other couples to love and respect one another as equals, their daughters are dreaming of entering a world dominated by anorexic women with low self esteem and men who are all too quick point out each and every one of their flaws. I don't mind as much when some "girlyness" is embraced, to a point, as long as we are making sure to teach our young women the value of equality and mutual respect. This episode to me was just sad, and I hope these girls realize there is more to life than being skinny and beautiful, and just use these spaces to have some fun.