Week Six: Response 6.4
As an update to Pozner's book, apply her reality TV
observations about gender stereotypes, humiliation, violence, racism, sexism,
or body image to one of these current hit shows: Keeping up with the
Kardashians, Dance Moms or Bad Girls Club.
Keeping up with the Kardashians has a total of 13 seasons, and a runtime of over 10 years on E! Entertainment. The show focuses on the lives of the Kardashians sisters and their family. The images presented in the show that are related to beauty and body image are often warped or fabricated, but still presented as reality.
ReplyDeleteThe first body image problem on the show is the way the women are depicted as being “perfect” in almost every moment. The Kardashians always have on full makeup, their hair is always done, and their clothing looks perfect. Although everything about the girl’s appearance is artificial, it is presented as reality, and this artificial atmosphere is further encouraged with the help of good lighting and perfect backdrops/settings. Despite the use of many contrived elements, the show is marketed as reality television. Besides the warped image of reality that the girls present, another large problem in the show is that the Kardashians are obsessed with using plastic surgery to achieve perfection.
Most of the sisters have had some form of plastic surgery, including the mother, Kris Jenner, who allowed her 16-year-old daughter to get lip injections. The Kardashians go to Dr. Ourian, a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, to get procedures to fix even the slightest imperfection. It has become clear that their obsession with appearance has affected the youngest sister Kylie Jenner, who has gotten multiple lip procedures over the last several years, even though she was underage.
The reason that Kylie states for getting the procedure is because of “insecurity,” and a desire to change her lips. In the episode where Kylie addresses her lips surgery, she is talking with Kim who encourages her to get plastic surgery and Kim states that if Kylie doesn’t like something about her body she should change it because “life is too short.”
This relays the message to viewers that it is easier to change something about your body than it is to accept it, and for the Kardashians, who are worth millions of dollars, it is easy to change something, but most normal viewers cannot afford these procedures.
Every season the girls are shown having some new procedure done, and are constantly over-exaggerating the smallest “imperfection.” The Kardashians get plastic surgery so often that it has become normal, and they use it as bonding time for the family. The Kardashian’s normalization of plastic surgery and the warped message that changing your body to fit a standard is easier than accepting it are some of the main body issues present in the show.
Overall, the Kardashians are generally a controversial family, and their portrayal of body image is extremely warped and unrealistic. The girls rely on plastic surgery to achieve a perfect look, which unfortunately sends a poor message to young girls about body image.
Anisa S.
The popular Lifetime network reality show, Dance Moms has aired for seven seasons since it’s debut in 2011. The show revolves around the dance teacher Abby Lee Miller, her Elite Junior dance team, and their mothers. While the viewer expects to watch talented young girls compete to be the best in the nation, they end up getting a show about catty grown women. As with life, some of the children on the show are more talented than others and are more favored by Abby. This seems to enrage the mothers who get into multiple screaming matches one every episode under the guise that they are “fighting for their kids to get treated the same as the favorite”. This “unscripted” reality show serves as another example to the public of how inherently mean and catty women are. The show is produced and edited together to make it seem like the moms are all frenemies because they constantly gossip behind each other’s backs and are incapable of being happy for another child’s success. It seems like no matter what Abby says or choreographs, one of the moms will always find a reason to fight her on it.
ReplyDeleteTo add insult to injury, Abby tries to get the moms to follow her rules and “teach them a lesson” by punishing their children when their mothers act out or do not agree with her. This leads to the viewers getting to see at least one young girl humiliated or critiqued to the point of tears every week. Although the dancers are young and should be expected to have emotional outbursts at times, the production and film crew make a point to zoom in and focus on the dancer who is crying. Then, when they are conducting interviews one on one with the dancers they bring up the upsetting situation again and the viewer can clearly see that the children get embarrassed. So, in sum, the television show Dance Moms does not portray women any better than other reality shows. At least we get to watch talented young dancers in between the fights and humiliation though.
Madison V.