I must descend from my pink puffy cloud of lists and memes and blankies of love to draw your attention to something queasy. Sorry!

There is a show on The Learning Channel called Ten Years Younger. It’s a makeover show where a group of Hollywood exhibitionists called the Glam Squad overhaul a dumpy man or woman, turning them “fierce”, “rockin'”, or a “man trap”, to name a few superlatives.

Pretty overused premise. The gimmick for this one is that they put the subject into a large, soundproof transparent box in a public place and have strangers guess their age and make snarky comments about their appearance. The goal, then, is to make the subject look ten years younger than the average guessed age. The goal is achieved using dental surgery, Botox, Restylane, laser eye procedures, overdone hair/makeup/clothes…standard 2000’s techniques for a prettier, better you, apparently.

Compared to some of the dreck on television (Extreme Home Makeover, that new horrible William Shatner game show, and the HEINOUS The Swan), this is a pretty tame show.

However, I saw an episode today where the subject was a cancer survivor, who just finished chemotherapy. She had lost her hair, and her skin was ravaged. She had had a mastectomy, and wore big, baggy clothes.

Watching the footage of her in the box was painful. “Um, that doo-rag is NOT working for me,” smirked a 20-something a-hole. To me, she looked unmistakably like a post-chemo patient. I wonder if there was unused footage of spectators bursting into tears, wondering why an obviously-ill woman was being forced stand in a box.

The woman then had to sit watch the footage of the strangers making all those comments. All that so that she could get a wig, some make up, and a goddamn dress.

I have been exposed to plenty of horror (on TV and otherwise) and my thick, desensitized armor is pretty chink-free. But every once in a while the truth comes bearing down and it makes me so, so sad.

I mean, it’s nothing new, mining someone’s (especially a woman’s) misfortunes for entertainment value. But, the fucked up thing is: it’s nothing new.