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The skin game: Makeover series turn self-loathing into freak show
By Sarah Rodman
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Forget Janet Jackson's boob. It's boob jobs the FCC should be investigating.
The current rash of makeover shows infecting our airwaves with unsettling self-loathing is a lot more disturbing than any fictional sex or violence.
Fines should be levied against Fox for shamelessly promoting ``the better living through surgery'' message of ``The Swan'' (Monday at 9 on WFXT, Ch. 25) to the young demographic watching ``American Idol.''
Wrists should be slapped at MTV, in which disclaimers stating the cable network doesn't pay for the surgeries of ``I Want a Famous Face'' (Monday at 10:30 p.m.) are supposed to mitigate the blood-and-guts horror of watching people disfigure themselves.
And the finger should be pointed at ABC, which started this ``you, only better'' movement with ``Extreme Makeover'' (tonight at 10 on WCVB, Ch. 5).
Several people with whom I've spokenwatch these shows with their hands over their eyes - as if spying the breast implants, liposuctions and chemical peels through the spaces between their fingers might help dull the upsetting images of people trying to get a little bionic juice.
What's next? Parents who decide their children aren't beautiful enough and put them under the knife? Women given spectacular new bodies who are then forced to compete in a pageant in which the losers must return to the operating room to have all the work undone?
That last scenario, sans the makeover penalty, is the premise of ``The Swan.'' The producers earned a small credit for employing therapists, trainers and nutritionists as part of the ``Swan teams.'' But they squandered that shred of credibility when they edited the premiere to give precisely 90 seconds of airtime to those components of the ``ugly duckling'' transformations.
MTV may not pay for the surgeries of ``I Want a Famous Face,'' but it is responsible for the shaping of the show. The ecclesiastical choir sounds that are triggered by the arrival of the show's ``angel,'' the plastic surgeon, are particularly revealing.
Wielding their weapons of mass reconstruction, the plastic surgeons on these shows seem a little too up for the challenge. After hearing the sob stories of the ``Swan'' contestants, the doctors could barely contain their glee when discussing the possibilities.
``Of course, we'd do her nose,'' said one doctor immediately after a contestant - who had a really pretty smile - revealed intimacy issues with her husband.
The bottom line, of course, is that these people are free to change themselves any way they like. If the ``transformation'' ultimately allows the patients to feel better about themselves, well, good for them.
But you don't have to look very hard to find examples of how peroxide, silicon, tooth veneers and nose jobs don't add up to happiness. Does anybody think Michael Jackson looks happy? (His current visage looks like the extremely loose approximations of those on ``Famous Face.'')
A responsible reality show might take any of these people - the ``Famous'' twins who want to resemble Brad Pitt or the ``Swan'' with the husband who called her ``average'' on national television - and instead of giving them fake parts, give them real help. Start with intense therapy, follow up with a balanced diet and exercise plan and top off with realistic, affordable style tips.
Who couldn't use that? Some would still opt for surgery, of course, and there's nothing wrong with that. But at least they would have the opportunity to experience improvements that would allow them to master their own lives.
But as viewers, we don't have to watch with our fingers over our eyes. Instead, we can use those fingers to change the channel. Perhaps to ``Extreme Makeover: Home Edition'' (Sunday at 8 p.m. on WCVB), in which the design teams make life a little easier in practical ways for families who can really use the help.
http://theedge.bostonherald.com/tvNews/view.bg?articleid=530