Swans and ducklings

Wow - what a powerful piece of writing. Here's an excerpt:
===========================================================
"...What if ducks got to set the beauty standards? Swans could still be pretty, but ducks wouldn't have to stretch their necks, bleach their feathers and lengthen their wings to become something they're not. They could just be ducks, beautiful in their own right..."
===========================================================

I watched The Swan twice and felt like absolute crap about myself for a couple of weeks. The show seems wrong to me on so many levels but I have to come back to this question: "If these women truly and authentically transform themselves & gain meaning in their lives because of this show, can it be as bad as I feel it is?"

I suppose my problem with the entire concept is that women who don't meet a certain beauty standard feel that they're ugly & that they have to go through all that trauma to be beautiful. Someone doing what they choose to their body isn't really the issue - the fact that they feel they *have* to is what bothers me so much.