Making Over Reality (Re: [lbo-talk] Queen for a Day: My Gay Makeover)

[Liza Featherstone]

I agree, the obsession with making things over on TV IS an interesting one.
I've watched more of the ones on the BBC channel, and interestingly, the
British What Not to Wear (and the home decorating show too) lack this
redemption component, or at least its not as pronounced. The women whose
wardrobes are so critiqued are often (not always) defiant, resist the hosts
suggestions at every turn, and return to their slutty/tacky/frumpy ways
after the show. They say the new fashionable/tasteful/age-appropriate look
was OK, but it's just not for them. Often, the joke is on the style police,
because while they consider the woman to be a style disaster, she's
perfectly content with her look. the message often is, fashion just doesn't
matter that much to most people. sometimes the implication is, the fashion
ladies are elitist/conformist and the folks rejecting their suggestions are
working-class individualists.  similarly on the home decorating show, the
subjects very often hate the changes, even if they are more "tasteful" by
bourgeois standards. It is an interesting cultural difference: the British
show has a bit more subtle class warfare and resistance to expertise, more
questioning of why/whether things or people need to be made over.

on the other hand, Faking It, also on BBC involves such a heavy dose of
humiliation and performance anxiety that it makes me too stressed-out to
watch it. I always make Doug change the channel.

Liza


> From: Kelley <the-squeeze at pulpculture.org>
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 20:32:51 -0400
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Making Over Reality (Re: [lbo-talk] Queen for a Day: My Gay Makeover)
> 
> At 07:29 PM 7/14/03 -0400, you wrote:
> 
>> On Mon, 14 Jul 2003, Liza Featherstone wrote:
>>> Also, I think it's a sign of progress that straight men are realizing they
>>> may not always have the privilege of looking bad. When women "needed" men
>>> more, economically and socially, they had to accept them no matter how
>>> terrible (sloppy, badly dressed/groomed) they looked.
> 
> What I was thinking last night as I was watching a reality makeover show
> was that this is an interesting phenom. What is it with making things over.
> First, there was the wildly popular home improvement shows on TLC. Rooms in
> homes or landscaping are given a make over: Trading Spaces (which has a
> brit counterpart, I think) and While You Were Out. Reality TV where you can
> actually learn a little bit, though surely not much.
> 
> The latest on the same cable channel are about making over people--and now
> Bravo's show. I can't wait because I wonder if it will have the same
> flagellation/redemption theme going on.
> 
> Both of these shows are trying to make it appear that the person being made
> over is somewhat traumatized, if not brutalized by the experience. It's
> about some sort of flagellation/redemption thing.
> 
> The first show, What Not to Wear, is about making over some poor frumpy
> chixor who like sweatshirts and 6 yr old birks or the Long Island housewife
> with a penchant for sequins and holiday appropriate attire (i.e., pumpkins
> sweaters at halloween) or successful business guy who still buys thrift and
> in bulk. For the life of me i can't remember the name of it.
> 
> the other, i just caught last night: Faking It.
> 
> First episode. Middle/Upper middle class Harvard grad, geeky, physics
> loving attractive hip urbanite chixor learns to become a cheerleader. Goal:
> with three weeks of training in technique, style, personality, comportment,
> diction, etc. see if you can be a cheerleader in front of a panel of
> experts and win a competition with other real cheerleaders.
> 
> ditto for Mr. Beer, the kind of guy who had a nickname that =reflected his
> love of bodily noises. Not a complete slob, middle class, nice home, nice
> kids, nice family. not upper level she she but definitely a nice life. Mr
> Beer spends three weeks visiting wineries, reading books, tasting, getting
> schooled by mentors, yadda in order to try to pass himself off as a somalier.
> 
> Anyway, I wonder if Bravo has this flagellation/redemption theme going on
> or what.
> 
> 
> Kelley  
> 
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