Shame and Pride in How to Look Good Naked

Abstract

Most academic work exploring the makeover genre has argued that TV “experts” draw on a narrative of humiliation to push the participant to adopt more appropriate forms of feminine appearance. However, shows like How to Look Good Naked, while sharing the problematic logics of the makeover, are qualitatively different in tone and style from more aggressive shows. We extend emerging analyses which argue that makeover shows can be read as reflecting struggles for recognition by demonstrating that TV “experts” can also interrupt processes of mis-recognition by offering alternative symbolic systems of interpretation of the body by which the body can be recognised, visible and valued. We argue that humiliation is not the only point of affective engagement for audiences of these shows, while wanting to avoid the seductive illusion that this makes the shows more empowering or less malevolent. We conclude that in failing to embrace the wide variety of affective mechanisms by which we might be able to appreciate the popular appeal of reality TV, we do a disservice to female audiences and women participants, as well as limiting our own theoretical insights.

Keywords::

• bodies
• humiliation
• makeover
• recognition
• scopic economy

Notes

^1. See http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/lifetime-renews-how-look-good-naked-for-second-season-6852.php (accessed 19 Jul. 2012).

^2. Following Crozier (2008) who says, rather than focusing on “identifiable viewers whose discourse about their experience could be empirically analysed” focuses instead on identifying emotionally charged resonances and is concerned with “imagining reception in different terms than those that television and cultural studies has more commonly relied on” (52).

^3. The show is very formulaic to the extent that the same phrases (almost word-for-word) are used in each show. Consequently, although we have chosen to extract illustrative quotes from one particular show these can be considered representative of the kinds of key comments which are made across different episodes.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hannah Frith

Hannah Frith is a Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology at the University of Brighton. Her research explores the ways in which mediatised representations shape our understanding of appearance, embodiment, identity and sexuality. In addition to exploring mediatised representations of celebrity death and the makeover genre, she is also investigating “new media” representations of sexuality including orgasmic experience. E-mail: [email protected]

Jayne Raisborough

Jayne Raisborough is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Brighton. Her most recent work is Lifestyle Media and the Formation of the Self (Palgrave, 2011). She is currently exploring constructions of obesity in the weight-loss TV show. E-mail: [email protected]

Orly Klein

Orly Klein is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Brighton. Her research interests centre on cultural memory, face transplants and the transformation of visual identities, and the cultural representations of refugees and asylum seekers. E-mail: [email protected]