History Main / JustTheWayYouAre

A subtrope of BeYourself. Should they go through with it anyway, the convincer will likely think of it as an UnnecessaryMakeover; whether the audience does as well is subjective. See FansPreferTheNewHer when the audience disagrees with this trope.

* Averted on ''DavesWorld'', where Dave's friend Shel is an unrepentant plastic surgeon. During one episode, Shel's brother shows up unexpectedly at his office and convinces a potential patient of his with a Jimmy Durante nose that she's fine Just The Way She Is. Shel is, understandably, not pleased.

---> '''Victim''' (in a flashback, talking to an old friend of both him and the killer): Can you imagine it? She altered her face ''for me''! I ''never'' asked her for anything like that! ''Why'' did she change herself '''just to please me'''...?

* Rather cynically played with (perhaps an outright deconstruction) in a second-season episode of ''Series/VeronicaMars'', where in an attempt to investigate a plastic surgeon's possible gang connections, Veronica (played by ''[[http://amansworldonline.com/wp-content/gallery/kristen-bell-1/kristen-bell-1.jpg Kristen Bell]]'', people) starts listing "flaws" that she wants fixed for her eighteenth birthday. (She doesn't have a large chest--which she of course starts with as "the obvious"--but it wouldn't work with her body type anyway.) The surgeon hands her a pamphlet that deals with body issues, saying he'd refuse to operate on her, and leaves his office. She ''immediately'' gets suspicious of him...and turns out to be right.

-->-- "[[TropeNamer Just the Way You Are]]" by '''Music/BillyJoel'''

** Very, very cruelly seen in a case where a woman murdering her ex boyfriend over suspected jealousy. After the investigation, it is revealed that the boyfriend ignored the woman after her plastic surgery, but is actually in no way cheating. A post-murder confession from his best (female) friend reveals he's just waiting for the woman to realize that she's beautiful Just The Way You Are by herself, which promptly breaks her down.

* Harry on ''EmptyNest'' spends an episode talking a young female patient (played by Mayim Bialik of ''Series/{{Blossom}}'', who was well-known in RealLife for her large nose) out of having rhinoplasty. She finally decides against in after speaking with a woman who has had tons of plastic surgery and is not any happier with herself.

* In a refreshing change, Hawkeye and Trapper in an early episode of ''Series/{{MASH}}'' actually give a soldier who wants it a nose-job (after a token attempt to talk him out of it), but in a later episode BJ refuses to perform blepharoplasty (eyelid lift) on an Asian boy because he's fine Just The Way He Is.

* The entire "Born This Way" episode of ''Series/{{Glee}}''. Rachel breaks her nose, and decides to get a nose job. (Somehow, without parental consent?) The entire club takes sides, with nearly everyone on the "don't change how you look" side, and Quinn, interestingly, on Rachel's. Rachel, after 40 minutes of angsty singing, decides against a nose job, to the delight of her peers. Quinn, it is revealed, used to be overweight and had glasses, but now changed. However, this somehow works out for her, as people admire her for both being beautiful now and for being "herself" then. It's unclear what the message is for Quinn, as she still remains beautiful. One could argue that the message was for her to accept her old self, but that must be much easier [[GrassIsGreener looking the way she does now]].

* TLC's ''Unpretty'' is largely about wanting to change one's appearance but having to accept that changing the outside won't change the way one feels inside. To that end, Chilli runs out of a plastic surgery clinic instead of getting the breast augmentation her boyfriend suggested while an overweight girl tears down all the pictures of skinny models on her wall and puts on swimsuit with a smile.

** A subtle subversion in that Antimony is almost always wearing makeup and manages to avoid carrying on a conversation directly after this CosmeticCatastrophe with Kat as to why Annie needs to wear it. Later it's indicated that its directly connected to her mother's death (she wears make-up both to seem more adult/mature and because it was a rite-of-passage her mother shared with her before dying).

* The Cyclopean Leela on ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' gets another eye in "The Cyber House Rules", but after seeing a three-eared girl get teased, decides she was wonderful Just The Way She Was and [[StatusQuoIsGod reverts to normal]].

** Moe never actually learns the Aesop, and indeed everyone around him treats him ''better'' due to his plastic surgery. The only reason he changes back at the end is because [[StatusQuoIsGod of a freak accident that hideously deforms his face, coincidentally changing it back to the way it once was]].
** Marge's case is kind of strange too. She went in for liposuction, but due to a mix-up she ends up with the breast implants intended for the Mayor's latest arm candy. The doctor convinces her to try them out for a while, and she ends up becoming a model. After [[ItMakesSenseInContext she saves Bart from an elephant by flashing a crowd of people]], she decides to go back to normal.

* In the SeriesFinale of ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'', Courage gets caught up in his insecurities and imagines a SadistTeacher who teaches him to be "perfect". [[ItMakesSenseInContext Then a gator-fish thing tells him he's perfect just the way he his]] and Courage accepting himself does away with the teacher.
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': This is the moral in "Steven's Birthday", after Steven attempts to impress everyone by aging himself up.

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* In a move highly progressive for Japan, the SliceOfLife manga Blue Roses has Taki, who was never unattractive to begin with, begin to slip into anorexic behavior to be more beautiful like her mother and the skinny girls at school. Her boyfriend, Kouhei, sits her down and explains that no matter what her weight is, she will always be kind and that's the real beauty he fell in love with, and over three issues they overcome it together, though it's always part of her thoughts throughout the series. Given Japan's obsession with thinness, this is ValuesDissonance for their culture, but the author felt it was a case of SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped.

* Subverted in ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle''. Lois is told by her boss she needs to look more feminine and starts wearing heavy makeup. Everybody likes her more. She quits when someone mistakes her for a hooker. But played straight with her husband. The episode at first seems to play out that Hal is seemingly more attractive to Lois due to the make-up, but when she returned to normal, Hal is still turned on (if not because she briefly donned a plain ol' baseball cap).

->--"[[TropeNamer Just the Way You Are]]" by '''Music/BillyJoel'''

* Harry on ''EmptyNest'' spends an episode talking a young female patient (played by Mayim Bialik of ''{{Blossom}}'', who was well-known in RealLife for her large nose) out of having rhinoplasty. She finally decides against in after speaking with a woman who has had tons of plastic surgery and is not any happier with herself.

* On ''Rudolph and the Island of Misfit Toys'' (2001), the cheesy CGI sequel to ''RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer,'' Rudolph has the opportunity of getting a normal nose, but he learns...eh, you know by now.

** In another episode Monica worries that if she gets fat Chandler will stop loving her. He comes out with ''this''[[note]]Especially heartwarming as Monica was fat in the past and Chandler (an immature college student) insulted her. This proves he grew up enough not to care at all.[[//note]] :

* Played with in [[{{FriEnds}} Friends]] when Chandler ''thinks'' Monica is getting plastic surgery and tries to show her he loves her as she is.
** In another episode Monica worries that if she gets fat Chandler will stop loving her. He comes out with ''this'':
--> Chandler: "I don't think of you as a thin, beautiful woman...You’re Monica. Okay? And I am in love with Monica. So you can balloon up or you can shrink down and ''I will still love you.''"
--> Monica: "Even if I shrink down to two inches tall?"
--> Chandler: "I'd carry you around in my pocket."
** Especially heartwarming as Monica was fat in the past and Chandler (an immature college student) insulted her. This proves he grew up enough not to care at all.
** And another episode ''proves'' how sincere he is. An alternate universe story shows Monica overweight and Chandler falling for her anyway and being just as crazy about her as his normal world self.

-->'''Flannel''': "I don't care about your body or anything, I love you as you are!"
-->[[spoiler: '''Tsukuyomi''']]: "Age isn’t a problem because I love you as a person.""

* Cruelly applied in the ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' manga. A murder case sees a woman murdering her ex boyfriend over suspected jealousy. After the investigation, it is revealed that the boyfriend ignored the woman after her plastic surgery, but is actually in no way cheating. A post-murder confession from his best (female) friend reveals he's just waiting for the woman to realize that she's beautiful Just The Way You Are by herself, which promptly breaks her down.
** In the anime rendition of the same case, the guy is an IdolSinger murdered by said scorned ex-girlfriend, who dumped her because he turned psychologically abusive to her after she had a nose job. It turns out that not only he liked her better when she was just a sweet GirlNextDoor, but the woman had specifically gotten plastic surgery to ''please'' him, which he could never forgive her ''and'' himself for.

** You would think the girl would get a hint when he made her sing ''Rudolph The Red '''Nose'''d Reindeer''.
* As far as manga goes, the popularity of ''Manga/KimiNiTodoke'' can be attributed to its mastery of this trope. Whereas lesser stories would make the protagonist get a BeautifulAllAlong makeover or some such thing, ''Todoke'' has Sawako Kuronuma, whose [[StringyHairedGhostGirl unique]] appearance actually catches the eye of the school's most desirable guy. Bonus points for him being made of "100% niceness," too.

-->'''Flannel''': "I don't care about your body, I love you as you are!"
-->[[spoiler: '''Tsukuyomi''']]: "Age doesn't matter, because I love you as a person!"

* This is, of course, exactly the opposite of how it works on ''[[NipTuck Nip/Tuck]]''.

* Played very darkly (natch) in ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'', as the promise of unconditional love is one of the Chaos Gods', especially Nurgle and to a lesser extent Slaanesh's, favorite tactics for ensnaring people. Because the Imperium is a fascist, [[FantasticRacism xenophobic]], militaristic state whose express purpose is to mold everybody it doesn't condemn to death for being mutants or heretics into soldiers to fight and die in the name of their undead GodEmperor, this is not an unattractive prospect to many people.

* Subverted on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' in "He's Too Sexy For His Fat": Peter gets repeated rounds of plastic surgery, becoming so, [[InformedAttractiveness uh...handsome?]], that his reflection in the rearview mirror distracts him from driving a la [[GreekMythology Narcissus]], causing him to run off the road and fall into a vat of lard which he [[strike:slowly]] quickly drains accompanied by [[{{Squick}} disgusting swallowing noises]]. [[StatusQuoIsGod Like the Simpsons example above, his face is returned to normal by the end of the episode.]]

* In an episode of ''Series/DiagonsisMurder'', Mark Sloan and Jesse Travis visit a plastic surgeon for information to help solve a murder. When they meet the doctor, he is finishing a consultation with a very attractive young woman, prompting Jesse to compliment him on his work. The plastic surgeon reveals that his patient had not had any work done yet but was consulting him regarding having her cheeks lifted. He then assures Mark and Jesse that he hopes to convince her that the surgery is unnecessary.

* In the SeriesFinale of ''CourageTheCowardlyDog'', Courage gets caught up in his insecurities and imagines a SadistTeacher who teaches him to be "perfect". [[ItMakesSenseInContext Then a gator-fish thing tells him he's perfect just the way he his]] and Courage accepting himself does away with the teacher.

* Averted ''hard'' in ''Theatre/AChorusLine''. Val advises to ''definitely'' improve themselves with plastic surgery ("Keep the best of you, do the rest of you") in the song "Dance: Ten, Looks: Three". Of course, in this case, it's purely economic - pretty, busty dancers get work. "Flat and sassy" dancers don't.

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* Averted ''hard'' in ''Theater/AChorusLine''. Val advises to ''definitely'' improve themselves with plastic surgery ("Keep the best of you, do the rest of you") in the song "Dance: Ten, Looks: Three". Of course, in this case, it's purely economic - pretty, busty dancers get work. "Flat and sassy" dancers don't.