Not so extreme makeover

Dallas Morning News: It's hard to think of trashier network programming than ABC's "Extreme Makeovers" reality show, in which -- how to put this? -- aesthetically challenged Americans submitted themselves to plastic surgery on the promise that, according to network promos, the procedures would "ultimately redirect their destinies." For many viewers, the show was a guilty pleasure; but for others, there wasn't any shame involved.
And, on balance, that might not be such a bad thing. Though orthodox feminists and conservatives of the "Homeliness Is Next to Godliness" school will never warm to it, a new wave of thinkers is reconsidering received notions of the relationship between aesthetics and ethics. They suggest that the natural antagonism many perceive between beauty and moral worth is an outdated idea, one that doesn't reflect the way we live now.
'Tipping point'
In her forthcoming book "The Substance of Style," Virginia Postrel, a Dallas writer and libertarian intellectual, says we may now be at a "tipping point" in which various social and technological changes have brought us to "the beginning of a new economic and cultural moment, in which look and feel matter more than ever."
Not so long ago, style was something that only the moneyed classes could aspire to. Everyone else had to plod along with whatever was available in a lesser price range. But now, stores like Crate & amp; Barrel and tastemakers like Martha Stewart have democratized good design. Affordable no longer equals cheap or ugly -- in clothes, home furnishings or anything else.
As descendants of the Puritans, Americans historically mistrust sensual pleasure. That's changing. Increasingly, Postrel argues, we accept that enjoying the look, feel and taste of things is valid in its own right, because it speaks to deep instincts within each of us, and provides avenues for creativity and self-expression.
Despite lapses of taste ("Extreme Makeovers") and common sense (skyrocketing rates of teen-age plastic surgery), it's good that the public is waking up to the ways caring about design can improve our lives.