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'Extreme Makeover' had its own flaws, faculty researcher finds

Looking for love in all the wrong faces

Sociology researcher Emily Boyd has taken a long look at how a reality show portrayed femininity and masculinity -- and the findings aren't pretty.

2008-07-21
Minnesota State University, Mankato Media Relations Office news release [7/21/2008]

A Minnesota State University, Mankato sociology professor has taken a long look at how a reality show portrayed femininity and masculinity -- and the findings aren’t pretty.

Emily Boyd is using a 2008 summer research grant to write a journal article about how the television show “Extreme Makeover,” which ran on ABC from 2002 to 2007, treated men and women who sought to change their appearance through plastic surgery.

Boyd’s research focused not so much on the emotional effects of the transformation, but on how the show defined masculinity and femininity. Essentially, Boyd says, women on the show were told they needed to obtain femininity through various methods such as plastic surgery and fashion lessons, but men undergoing the same “makeovers” were never portrayed as needing to generate masculinity.

“There’s no discussion of men lacking masculinity, whereas women lacking femininity is a huge threat,” Boyd says. “It’s interesting to me that it’s acceptable to talk about women’s bodies in this way, but not about men.”

The show, similar in substance to reality makeover shows such as “Dr. 90210” and “The Swan,” portrays femininity as something that can be created instead of something innate and biological.

“I suggest we’re not seeing multiple definitions of what a woman is,” Boyd says, “but a preferred standard.”

Sociologists, Boyd adds, enjoy discussing issues of the individual and institutional, and “Extreme Makeover” was of interest because it did not view the beauty industry as an institution that needed updating, but portrayed the individual as needing change.

Boyd says “Extreme Makeover” and similar shows encourage mass consumption of goods and services to fix problems that can’t be solved by goods and services.

“It essentially says if you have a problem, there are ways you can solve that problem – by buying surgery or buying these other items that will make you a better you.” She says guests and viewers of such shows are not encouraged “to be introspective or work on their sense of self, but to get out their wallets and take care of things that way.”

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