Per the recommendation of someone, I watched The Substance (2024). As succinctly described by one source, the plot of the movie relates to a “fading celebrity [who] takes a black-market drug: a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.”
Herein, I won’t offer many spoilers of what I consider to have been a self-aggrandizing film that wasn’t worth the time I invested in it. Of course, appreciation of art is a subjective matter and I suspect that some people may enjoy the horror flick.
Ultimately, the main character maintains a significant self-downing belief, associated with global evaluation, and endures the cognitive, emotive, sensational, and behavioral effect of consequences which are directly related to her self-disturbing narrative.
This form of belief-consequence (B-C) interplay is illustrated through use of the ABC model pertaining to Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) which maintains that when an undesirable Action occurs and people Believe something unhelpful about the event, this assumption causes an unpleasant Consequence.
For a pragmatic example, consider an event that occurred when I attended Marine Combat Training (MCT) in Camp Pendleton, California (1997). Having undergone Marine Recruit Training in San Diego, California prior to MCT, I was taught that Marines don’t smile in photos.
However, as would haunt me throughout my military service (1996-2007), I have an incredibly low amount of the personality trait related to agreeableness. Perhaps a surprise to no one who knows me, I’ve scored in the zero percentile for this trait.
Therefore, when in MCT and required to pose for a training unit photo, I flouted Marine customs and courtesies. Prior to our image being captured, one Marine in charge said, “Okay, no one smile. We gotta look hard!” Leave it to me to have defied instruction, because I cast a big smile.
Shortly before finalizing our training, Marines received our photos. The military members with whom I posed weren’t pleased. Using the ABC model, allow me to illustrate how they disturbed themselves.
I smiled in an official Marine photo when being told not to do so (Action). The composite irrational Belief of the Marines with whom I served was something like, “Hollings shouldn’t make us look soft, because we couldn’t stand to be thought of as weak!”
When unhelpfully assuming such a thing, the Marines in my training unit disturbed themselves into anger (emotion), expressed thoughts about me having apparently ruined their experience (cognition), and verbally chided me (behavior) – all of which was a Consequence of their Belief.
Understanding how B-C interplay works is an important step when journeying down the path of feminist self-disturbance, as it regards The Substance. Pertaining to the movie, one source states:
After two hours and 20 minutes of flamboyantly repulsive variations on this well-worn theme, even the strongest-stomached and most feminist of viewers could be excused for muttering, We get it already.
One tired trope that was rammed down the proverbial throats of the audience, presumably to digest whatever victimhood narrative would’ve been otherwise impalpable without force-feeding, was the accusation of males telling females to smile as being representative of some degree of oppression.
This allusion to supposed maltreatment of girls and women was also prominent throughout the film Barbie (2023). Concerning this matter, I stated in a blogpost entitled Life in Plastic, it’s Fantastic:
Another example of a feminist trope unveils itself as Barbie is rollerblading on the beach and a man within a group of other men yells, “Give us a smile, blondie!” Of course, that man was white. According to one source:
Men tell women to smile because society conditions men to think we exist for the male gaze and for their pleasure. Men are socialized to believe they have control over women’s bodies. This [is the] result in them giving unsolicited instructions on how we should look, think and act. Essentially what a man is saying when he tells a woman – one he doesn’t even know – to smile, is that his wants outweigh her own autonomy over how she exists in the world.
Setting aside the suppression of free speech matter, why shouldn’t a man be able to tell Barbie to smile? What gives females the right to should all over others so that the sensibilities of women aren’t offended?
The same B-C interplay used toward me when in MCT, by which Marines upset themselves with unfavorable beliefs when I defied an advisement not to smile, may be used in regard to girls or women who apparently are being advised to smile by boys and men.
This is the eloquence of the ABC model, as self-disturbance stems from the same construct no matter the undesirable situation: irrational beliefs. When further contemplating this matter, I’m reminded of a classic hip hop song.
On his 1997 album The Untouchable, my favorite Texas lyricist Scarface released the song “Smile” which featured the late 2Pac and departed Johnny P. Both deceased artists contributed to the hook which stated:
Smile for me, won’t you smile? (Smile for me now)
Just smile, smile for me (Smile)
(What you lookin’ all sad for? Nigga, you black, smile for me now)
Smile for me (Nigga, you ain’t got nothin’ to be worried about)
Won’t you smile? (No doubt, smile for me now)
Just smile (And the next generation)
Girls, boys, women, and men are asked or told to smile by others. Yet, for irrational reasons, feminism covets this experience as one akin to oppression when a boy or man prescribes behavior to a girl or woman.
Admittedly, prescribing behavior to others serves as its own form of irrational demandingness. Telling someone to “smile” infers that the individual “should smile.” Prescription of this sort isn’t necessarily helpful.
However annoying as it may be, it doesn’t constitute oppression or victimization. When 2Pac and Johnny P. told people to smile, it wasn’t as though psychotherapy was thereafter needed in order to process a perceived traumatic event. Let’s get our facts straight.
Being told to smile, as was the case for me in MCT, wasn’t traumatic. It also wasn’t traumatic for the Marines with whom I posed to have had a smiling member of their training unit in a picture. Also, when girls and women are told to smile, this isn’t a traumatic experience.
Unlike the utter nonsense I was told when undergoing formal training for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, I reject the notion that trauma-is-whatever-a-person-believes-it-is. Trauma has a functional definition, and I maintain that the words we use matter.
Unlike what was depicted in The Substance, trauma isn’t the experience of aging, maintenance of beauty standards, transitioning from a position of fame to commonplace status, or being told to smile. These matters may be annoying, frustrating, or disappointing, with little doubt.
Yet, actual trauma is being told that there’s an incoming peace treaty and when celebrating the matter you receive incoming bombardment from the other party of the treaty. According to one January 16, 2025 source:
Israeli air strikes are continuing in Gaza ahead of the ceasefire agreement and hostage deal with Hamas, which comes into effect on Sunday [1/19/2025], subject to the Israeli cabinet’s approval.
The strikes killed 73 people overnight, following the announcement of the deal, Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency reported.
Victims include 12 people who were living in a residential block in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City, the health ministry said.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) initially said “a fallen projectile” had been identified in southern Israel on Thursday [1/16/2025], but later said it had been wrongly identified.
Whoops-a-daisy, a traumatic bombing! One wonders how many of the men, women, and children unjustifiably killed in that unwarranted attack were members of Hamas. Nothing like a little last minute murder, amirite?
Perhaps responsible members of the IDF or other Israeli authorities will be held accountable. (If you believe that, then you may as well irrationally believe that being told to smile is akin to a traumatic experience.)
In any event, self-victimization associated with unhelpful B-C interplay in regard to a request or advisement for a smile may not be entirely helpful. Understanding how the ABC model works is a reasonable beginning point when you find yourself venturing down the path of irrationality.
Ultimately, if you don’t want to make a horror of your life, as is the literal genre of The Substance and my figurative categorization of the feminist flick, you have options. Of course, the choice is yours. For your sake, I hope you choose rationally. Now, how about a smile?
If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help you understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.
As the world’s foremost hip hop-influenced REBT psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.
At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!
Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW
References:
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