“You Need a Makeover!”: The Social Construction of Female Body Image in “A Makeover Story”, W “hat Not to Wear”, and “Extreme Makeover”

Abstract

This article discusses the cultural ideology that permeates our society surrounding female body image by focusing specifically on socially constructed ideals of beauty and identity as they are represented in media texts—those of the makeover programs, A Makeover Story, What Not to Wear, and Extreme Makeover. For this study, we conducted textual analyses of selected episodes of each of these programs to examine the ideological impact of patriarchy, particularly as it relates to female body image.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

A version of this manuscript was originally presented to the Cultural and Critical Studies Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Toronto, Canada, August 3–7, 2004.

Notes

These three popular shows have been picked up for additional seasons after their premieres. For example, Extreme Makeover in its first season averaged a 2.6/7 to 3.8/9 in the 18 to 49-year-old demographic and in its second season had an average viewing audience of 10 million people (“Suit Claims,” 2004).

There have been studies regarding men's relationships with their bodies and identity formation, see, for example, Connan (1998) and Grogan and Richards (2002).

The typical plastic surgery patient is Caucasian (84%), is female (85%), is usually aged 30 to 50 years old (45%), and is a repeat patient, meaning they have already undergone at least one procedure prior to their next surgery (37%) (American Association of Plastic Surgeons, 2004b)

According to one of the show's producers, 80% of the applicants are women (ABC, 2004).

A Brazilian butt lift as described in Extreme Makeover involves liposuctioning fat from one area of the body and then pumping it into the buttocks area to give them a more defined shape and roundness (ABC, 2004).

Case in point, in the months of March and April 2004 alone, two new plastic surgery transformation programs premiered: I Want a Famous Face on MTV in which young people can transform themselves into their favorite celebrities by “adopting” their faces and bodies and The Swan on FOX, very similar to Extreme Makeover, involving a group of women who undergo plastic surgery and then compete in a beauty contest—transforming themselves from the ugly duckling to the swan.

Although thisstudy focused specificallyonthe text, therearefuturestudiesofproduction, consump-tion, and participation that should be undertaken toachieve amore triangulated (Patton, 2002) approach to this genre of television programming. For a production study examining these makeover programs, it would be useful to place this genre of reality television programs into the larger picture of other reality television programs. Further, questionsof audience consumptionof these texts shouldbeaddressed. For example, who is watching these programs? Why are they watching these programs over others? In addressing the participation element, one should discuss with these participants why they chose to be on these programs or how they felt that their friends volunteered them to be on these programs. Also, these participants could be asked about their lives after the cameras have disappeared and life returns to “normal,” if that is even possible—was their “destiny” as they were promised ever fulfilled?