Restraining My Fist of Death from The Swan

[kenjari]

I was watching the Simpsons on Sunday night, and saw an advertisement for Fox's new reality/contest show "The Swan". It really pissed me off. Just when you think Fox has hit bottom, it finds a trapdoor.
The premise of the show is that about a dozen average -looking women are given extreme makeovers, including what looked like some serious plastic surgery. Then, they must compete in a beauty contest to see which transformation produced the best results.
This may not seem so bad, but I think that there's a very misogynistic subtext here, particularly when you compare this show with other reality shows to air on Fox.
First of all, this show strongly reinforces the idea that a woman's appearance is the most important thing about her, as well as reinforcing the impossible standards of beauty and perfection to which women are held. Not only are average looks unacceptable, but women must be willing to undergo the most drastic measures to "correct" this "fault". The ad clearly indicated that this was not a demonstration of how good anyone could look if they were given professional hairstyling, makeup, and wardrobe.
Second, compare "The Swan" with Fox's reality show "Average Joe", in which average-looking men compete for the affections of a beautiful woman (usually an ex-model or former beauty queen). The message average looking men are being sent is that they can still win the heart of beautiful woment in spite of their looks. This message is consistent with other Fox reality shows like "Joe Millionaire" and "Mr. Personality", in which women are encouraged to maintain or develop affection for a man despite his lack of superficial attractions (looks, money). I should also point out that there are no counterpart "Average Jane" or "Mary Millionaire" shows. The message being sent to average looking women is quite different, however. "The Swan" says that average looking is vastly inadequate, so much so that an attractiveness upgrade cannot be accomplished with mere makeup and grooming - it requires surgery. And even then, the formerly average woman is not allowed to simply bask in and enjoy the beauty she acquired with such effort. Oh no, she must compete in beauty contest to prove that she has done the job right. Even after going to all that effort, she might still be judged lacking, it still might not have been enough.
I just hope that I'm not the only one to see "The Swan" for the ugly thing it truly is, and that the show tanks.

Comments

[iralith.livejournal.com]

The tricky bit is that "The Swan" may not suffer at all on account of its depravity. Those reality shows trade on human evil, derive all their power from it, so that the nastiness of this show's setup--re which I agree completely, of course--is in fact an asset.