Thursday, 29 March 2012

Sisterhood, sexuality and the space of the benign in makeover TV


The perfect relationship or the perfect body is only heard of in fairy-tales. To work around what you have, and that little bump here and there- that’s what makes for a beautiful relationship with your partner and yourself, starting with your 'body'. In ‘How to look good naked’, Gok wan does not mock or belittle the imperfections of the female body, instead he tries to make women confident of their body and forms a synthetic sisterhood as discussed in C’mon Girlfriend (Frith et al 2010). This synthetic friendship between a straight woman and homosexual man is critically analysed by Annus (2011) , who proposes that the gay experts on the show capitalize on traditional stereotypical traits of femininity assigned to women and gays in contemporary western societies. In the HLGN Gok wan is this traditional stereotype  best-friend because of his suspended sexuality .
This new trend of benign makeover TV shows relates to the everyday woman.  Unlike the shows ‘Queer eyes’ or ‘What not to wear’,  Gok wan tries to make the woman form a friendly camaraderie with her body. Gok wan’s show has changed the trend of woman aspiring for the perfect stereotype model body. In the paperback ‘Makeover TV: Selfhood, Citizenship, and Celebrity’, Weber (2010)  contends that the makeover television show is a complicated text from which we can learn much about cultural desires and fears as expressed through narratives of selfhood.

Weber (2010) also argues that although makeovers are directed at both male and female viewers, their gendered logic requires that feminized subjects submit to the controlling expertise wielded by authorities. Although Gow wan’s show is classified as benign, it still wields stereotypical yielding of woman participants to the authority on fashion, in this case the authority is Gok wan.

1 comment:

  1. can't help but agree with this article. fashion today is driven like a classroom where they are experts, good students and the rebellious students. but in this situation the rebellious students are treated as outcasts and not the cool ones . Gok wan is perceived to be all about embracing your femininity and ditching any idea of masculinity. also the idea of "once you dress well everything will be perfect.http://eprints.gold.ac.uk/6473/1/What_Not_To_Wear_-_Working_Paper.pdf

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