killing us loudly and clearly

I'm about to rant again.  Last night I saw a commercial for Fox TV's latest in degrading and repulsive reality programming.  This one, called The Swan, sells itself as "transforming ugly ducklings into swans." 

Yes, you've guessed it, we now have another TV show that shows American women how to mutilate and cut up their bodies for public approval.  I don't see how there is any redeeming value to this project. 

To me, these cosmetic surgery shows are worse than pornography. How the heck did this female-bashing cr*p make it into primetime TV?  Why aren't feminist organizations boycotting these shows or writing public commentaries denouncing them and their creators?  When the hell are we going to tell the men (age 25-40) who run corporate America and TV programming that you cannot keep telling women that they are ugly and need to be thinner, younger, and have bigger boobs.  When is this disgrace going to end?

I predict that 15 years from now my children will be sitting in college and studying this period in TV history - now referred to as the "black hole of the new millinneum" or a "veritable wasteland of nasty, mean, unenlightened, uninspiring, insipid, cruel, and barbaric entertainment."

According to Jean Kilbourne, in Killing Us Softly III,  advertisers and their messages about women haven't improved in the 20 years since she started studying them. In fact, she says that "Advertisers still relentlessly intimidate, shame, and even flatter women into spending billions of dollars trying to change the way they look. One difference is they now set the standard of beauty so high that today’s woman must aim to be nothing short of perfect, “flawless”. She is likely only to see models with a body type only 5% of women share, who have often been reshaped by death-defying diets and plastic surgery, to say nothing of computer enhancement and even biomorphing."

I feel that Reality TV programmers have crossed a dispicable line.  They aren't content to "kill us softly" like advertisers with subtle negative images and hidden misogynist messages.  Reality TV is killing us rather loudly and clearly with their barbaric and cruel entertainment programs.  They aren't sugarcoating their hatred of women and they aren't hiding anything from public view. 

And yet, not one person seems to be offended or complaining.  And thats what scares me the most, that major cosmetic surgery is being treated like a simple "makeover"  or comparable to a manicure.   Women are risking their lives in order to fulfill some ideal image that doesn't exist, and never will.  I can't help but think that we will never ever be "beautiful enough" for the media because they just keep raising the stakes, pushing the limits of taste and decency, and encouraging more extreme forms of self-mutilation.

I beg anyone who considers themself a feminist to BOYCOTT shows like The Swan. Don't be hooked by watching, because it gives the programmers steam to produce more crap.  Think about the the way in which these programs influence our society - especially our children.  After all, what kind of world will our daughters live in if they continue to be confronted with such harmful and degrading messages about their bodies and their beauty? 

Cosmetic surgery should not be treated like a sport, a competition, a prize, or a goal.  Yes, many women feel ugly, fat, and are full of self-hate.  And this society and the media are now exploiting those feminine feelings of self-hatred, which they helped to create in the first place.

The sad fact is that most Reality TV is very crass, cruel and exploitive.  And frankly, I've had quite enough.

Comments

[Libby]

And it's not just TV. A local plastic surgeon is running print ads with this come-on: "A woman's laughter is beautiful. Unfortunately her laugh lines aren't."

Yuck! And worse...

[Linda]

Can you please tell me the author of this article?

[chiLLi]

I'd like to know, too.. this article is amazing.

[Julie K]

I would love to know who was the author of this article also, it is brillant and I would like to give credit to them by acknowledging them in a paper I am writing. Thanks, Julie K

[Square1]

I wanted to say I think that the point of "The Swan" and other shows like it are attractive to some folks because it preys on the insecurity of women, who have probably been told their whole lives that they are ugly. They have not just been told this by the media, but by others around them as well. So it becomes attractive to the participant by offering to turn them into what they've always wanted to be, and honestly I can't say that I blame them. If someone offered to turn me into what I look like in my mind, the drop dead gorgeous wet-dream that guys loll over for free, I can not say that the offer would not be tempting. So in many women's eyes, people like myself who even though not unattractive, have not grown up with the best self-image, it seems these corporate assholes are doing these women a favor and making their dreams come true. I had not thought of it any other way until now, but then I sort of make it a point to avoid the norm and don't watch reality tv. I wonder how we are going to combat decades upon decades of the conditioning that MEN and WOMEN have undergone in what we consider attractive and sexy, since as most intelligent people know, for women, we have to feel sexy ourselves, as well as find our mates sexy for there to be anything there. Perhaps that is why "The Swan" is so popular. It perpetuates men's attitudes towards the ideal woman, and it gives women hope of attaining that "ideal" with someone waving a magic scalpel... I mean wand.

[lynn]

I WONDER WHAT MEN WOULD DO IF ALL THIS WAS TURNED AROUND. IF EVERYWHERE THEY BROUGHT THEIR DAUGHTER INCLUDING STORES, WOULD BE NAKED OR HALF NAKED MEN FOR THEIR DAUGHTERS TO SEE. WHAT IF THEY NEW IF THEY TOOK THEIR DAUGHTER TO A MOVIE THEY WOULD SEE NAKED MEN IN THEM. WHAT ABOUT TV. LETS HAVE COMMERCIALS TELLING ALL THE LADYS TO COME CYBER WITH THEM AND BE IN LITTLE BITTY BATHING SUITS WITH HALF OF THEM HANGING OUT.TELLING YOUR DAUGHTER TO CALL THEM FOR FUN.AND EVEN WRESTLING YEA WRESTLING, LETS PUT THE MEN IN TINY TRUNKS AND LET THEM SLIP INTO THEIR BUTTS FOR YOUR 6 YEAR OLD TO SEE. I JUST DONT THINK MEN WOULD ALLOW THIS ON TV OR IN STORES.BUT WHAT THEY DONT GET IS THEY ARE TEACHING THE LITTLE BOYS TO THINK THIS WAY ABOUT GIRLS , THAT THEY ARE NO MORE THAN A SEX TOY FOR THEM. BUT I JUST DONT THINK TV WILL EVER DO THIS TO MEN IT MIGHT INSULT THEM. THEY MIGHT NOT WANT THEIR WIFE SEEING ALL THE HALF NAKED MEN. SOME5THING TO THINK ABOUT.WE HAVE ALLOWED IT FOR MANY YEARS . WOULD THEY LIKE IT.I THINK NOT. THEY DONT WANT THEIR WIFE LOOKING OR THEIR DAUGHTER LOOKING BUT ITS OK FOR THEM.