Makeover as takeover: Scenes of affective domination on makeover TV

Configurations

Volumn 15, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 77-99

  Weber, Brenda R ^a  

^a INDIANA UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 67651238891     PISSN: 10631801     EISSN: 10806520     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/con.0.0020     Document Type: Article

References (59)

1. What Not to Wear, British Broadcasting Company, Producers Vicki Barass and Tracy Jeune, 2002 to present.
2. Vital Radiance, a Revlon product, had a short life. Originally marketed as cosmetics for women over forty-five, both the advertising campaign and the makeup were pulled when it seemed that women "of a certain age" would rather buy their makeup for different reasons than their age. The Associated Press suggests that clothes companies have also had to cancel new retail gambits designed for "boomer" women because these women resist the implication that they have an "AARP attitude": Anne D'Innocenzio, "Stores Find Targeting Clothes to Boomers Isn't a Sure Bet," Hoosier Times, April 15, 2007, p. D10.
3. See Brenda Weber, "Beauty, Desire, and Anxiety: The Economy of Sameness on ABC's Extreme Makeover," Genders 41 (Spring 2005), online at www.genders.org.
4. The Swan, Fox, Producer Nely Galán, December 13, 2004.
5. Rachel Moseley, "Makeover Takeover on British Television," Screen 41:3 (2002): 299-314.
6. What Not to Wear, TLC, Abigail Harvey, Season 3, Episode 94, 6/3/05.
7. Though many makeover shows also include men in their transformation processes, the percentage of madeover men is quite low (typically less than 10 percent). For this reason, I deliberately default to a female pronoun when talking about makeover subjects, though I have addressed the dynamics of men and the construction of masculinity through makeover alterations elsewhere: see Brenda Weber, "What Makes the Man?" International Journal of Men's Health (Fall 2006): 293-312.
8. In this concentration on the style agent as affective agent, I make a distinction in makeover programming between those shows that employ style experts and those, like I Want a Famous Face, Dr. 90210, I Lost It!, The Right Fit, and countless others, that purport to document transformations without actually influencing their outcomes. Other shows, like Head 2 Toe and How Do I Look? use the style agent as a mediator between the "victim" and the unhappy friends, family, and coworkers demanding change.
9. Richard Brodhead, "Sparing the Rod: Discipline and Fiction in Antebellum America," Representations 21 (Winter 1988): 71.
10. Ibid., p. 72.
11. Ibid., p. 73.
12. I do not want to minimize the affective signifi cance of these shows. Indeed, I am continually moved by their moments of transformation and rejuvenation, humiliation and intimacy. In the process of writing this very article, I happened upon an episode of Ambush Makeover where three female students "ambush" their engineering professor, who they believe looks dowdy in her oversized glasses, frizzy hair, and ever-present white socks. Though the style agent assigned to her case is the frenetic-to-the-point-of crazed William Watley, I was deeply moved as I watched her reluctant willingness to undergo change. With the help of the president of this professor's university, Watley grabs the "target" by the arms, carrying her to a large Ambush Makeover van. Inside the van, he takes hold of her long hair and immediately whacks off six inches. He rips the glasses from her face, leaving her blinded and blinking. I felt anger on her behalf, wanting to protect her, though wondering at the same time if my students would ever set up a similar ambush of me.
13. Angela McRobbie, "Notes on What Not to Wear and Post-Feminist Symbolic Violence," Sociological Review 52 (October 2004):106.
14. David Dimbleby quoted in Gareth Palmer, "'The New You': Class and Transformation in Lifestyle Television," in Understanding Reality Television, ed. Su Holmes and Deborah Jermyn (London/New York: Routledge, 2004), p. 173-190.
15. Ibid., p. 182.
16. www.bbcamerica.com/content/140/about.jsp (accessed April 7, 2007).
17. In October 2006, Trinny and Susannah left the BBC and What Not to Wear for Britain's ITV and a new show, Trinny and Susannah Undress, where this trope of baring the body continued to factor largely. The new WNtW presenters, Lisa Butcher and Mica Paris, continued to use stripping in the "dreaded 360-degree mirror" as a critical tool to teach subjects what not to wear.
18. What Not to Wear, TLC Abigail Harvey, Season 4, Episode 140, 6/23/06.
19. Ibid., Abigail Harvey, Season 4, Episode 125, 2/24/06.
20. Extreme Makeover, ABC, Louis H. Gorfain, Season 2, Airdate April 14, 2004. It is Extreme Makeover's sister show, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, that has really upped the ante with "oh my God!" moments. When people receive new houses courtesy of EM:HE, those residences come fully stocked, often with new cars and college tuition for the kids, causing recipients frequently to scream or swoon.
21. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Dorothy Aufiero, Christion Barcellos, Ferances Berwick, and David Collins, Season 4, Episode 87, 8/29/06
22. For a time, the TLC version of What Not to Wear also started with an Americanized version of this female friends-berating/stripping-friends motif, but soon dropped it for a new lead-in depicting Stacy and Clinton patrolling the streets of New York City, gazing in horror at the fashion mishaps on every side, and then magically bringing good looks and happiness to all whom they touch.
23. John Arlidge, "Just a Couple of Swells," Observer, (December 22, 2002) p. 23.
24. Angela McRobbie calls the BBC's What Not to Wear, in particular, a program that "actively generate[s] and legitimate[s] forms of class antagonism particularly between women in a way that would have been socially unacceptable until recently" (McRobbie, "Notes" [above, n. 13] p. 100).
25. Arlidge, "Just a Couple" (above, n. 23) p. 23.
26. Sarah Bailey quoted ibid., p. 23.
27. What Not to Wear, BBC, May 7, 2006
28. Ibid., November 12, 2003.
29. Ibid., March 29, 2005.
30. The Swan, Fox, Producer Nely Galán, 12/6/04.
31. William Egginton, "The Best or the Worst of Our Nature: Reality TV and the Desire for Limitless Change," Configurations 14:2 (in press).
32. These include Extreme Makeover, I Want a Famous Face, The Swan, Brand New You, Plastic Surgery Before and After, and Dr. 90210-though fashion and cosmetics makeover shows, such as What Not to Wear, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, How Do I Look?, and Head 2 Toe, also work through the language of loss and corporeal discipline.
33. Feminist theorists, such as Kathy Davis, Debra Gimlin, and Suzanne Fraser, have done much to demonstrate that the power relations between doctors and patients in plastic surgery settings are quite complicated. Indeed, women in real plastic surgery encounters often hold considerable agency. It is important to be reminded, however, that on makeover shows, we see not "real" women but "reality" women whose stories are told through the aegis of mediated television. See Kathy Davis, Reshaping the Female Body: The Dilemmas of Cosmetic Surgery (New York: Routledge, 1995);
34. idem., Dubious Equalities and Embodied Differences: Cultural Studies on Cosmetic Surgery (Lanham, Md: Roman and Littlefield, 2003);
35. Debra Gimlin, Body Work: Beauty and Self-Image in American Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002);
36. Suzanne Fraser, Cosmetic Surgery, Gender and Culture (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
37. The Swan, December 13, 2004.
38. Ibid., November 20, 2004.
39. Ibid., May 17, 2004.
40. Ibid., May 10, 2004.
41. Donald F. Sabo and Joe Panepinto, "Football Ritual and the Social Reproduction of Masculinity," in Sport, Men, and the Gender Order: Critical Feminist Perspectives, ed. Michael A. Messner and Donald F. Sabo (Champaign, Ill: Human Kinetics, 1990); p. 117.
42. Bernadette Wegenstein and Geoffrey Alan Rhodes, Made Over in America, Waystone Productions, 2007.
43. The Swan, April 7, 2004.
44. In the fall of 2006, when Trinny and Susannah moved to ITV and the BBCr eplaced them with a fashion model, Lisa, and a jazz singer, Mica, the network retained the trope of the style guru as celebrity. The new opening shot describes Lisa and Mica as "great friends" and depicts them in a joint photo shoot; the opening therefore preestablishes that though the show's famous presenters are no longer a part of the format, celebrity itself remains.
45. As just a small sampling: Trinny Woodhill and Susannah Constantine, What Not to Wear (New York: Riverhead, 2002);
46. Woodhill and Constantine, Trinny and Susannah Take on America: What Your Clothes Say About You (New York: HarperCollins, 2006);
47. Woodhill and Constantine, What You Wear Can Change Your Life (New York: Penguin, 2004);
48. Stacy London and Clinton Kelly, Dress Your Best: The Complete Guide to Finding the Style That's Right for Your Body (New York: Crown, 2005);
49. Ted Allen, Kyan Douglas, Thom Filicia, and Carson Kressly, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy: The Fab 5's Guide to Looking Better, Cooking Better, Behaving Better, and Living Better (New York: Crown, 2004);
50. Sissy Biggers (former host of Extreme Makeover), Jon A. Perlman, M.D., Garth Fisher, M.D., and Carl Noback, M.D. (plastic surgeons on Extreme Makeover), Extreme Makeover Fitness - Weight Loss Workout for Beginners (Los Angeles: Walt Disney Videos 2004);
51. Michael Thurmond (fitness coach on Extreme Makeover), 6-Day Body Makeover: Drop One Whole Dress of Pant Size in Just 6 Days-and Keep It Off (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2005) (calendars, teeth-whitening solutions, and DVDs also available);
52. Nely Galán, The Swan Curriculum: Create A Spectacular New You With 12 Life-Changing Steps In 12 Amazing Weeks (New York: Regan Books, 2004).
53. For a more detailed analysis of celebrity than I can offer here, see Leo Braudy, The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and Its History (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986);
54. Richard Dyer, Stars: New Edition (London: British Film Institute, 1998);
55. Joshua Gamson, Claims to Fame: Celebrity in Contemporary America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994);
56. Jackie Stacey, Star Gazing: Hollywood Cinema and Female Spectatorship (London/New York: Routledge, 1994);
57. Graeme Turner, Understanding Celebrity (London: Sage, 2006).
58. Egginton, "Best or the Worst" (above, n. 31).
59. Virginia L. Blum, "Objects of Love: I Want a Famous Face and the Illusions of Star Culture," in this issue.