Beauty and the Geek
Just finished watching the first part of a two-part season finale for Beauty and the Geek. While I think that there would be some better episodes than the one that I watched, as this was focused just on two couples post-transformation, so the element of cruelty was tuned down, I still found the entire premise of this show to still be very offensive. This division, between people who are beautiful and people that are geeks perpetuates the stereotypes of what it means to be geeky and what it means to be cool, and while these stereotypes are a reflection of current social norms, it still serves to perpetuate such preexisting beliefs and divisions.
The show presents itself as being about "transformation." To be fair, there is meant to be transformation for both the geek as well as the beauty, but this does little to change the overall message of the show, which is that geeks should stop being so damn geeky and learn how to conform a little. The forced social transformation of the geeks into people that are slightly less geeky already occured at this episode, though flashbacks helped to illustrate the ways in which the geeks had changed throughout the season. The only moment in the episode that really lived up to the cruelty of the shows premise in its delivery of degradation came when the male geek, Dave, had his partner, Jasmine, play a Live Action Role Playing Game (LARP) with some of his friends. They dressed up in fantasy costumes, complete with swords and shields and enacted a fantasy scenario involving swordplay. This moment in the show exists mostly for the viewers amusment, to laugh at the ridiculousness of going to the park and playing dress up. It is because of things like this, the interest in fantasy and the willingness to play a LARP that defines Dave as a geek and this social atribution is exploited for the viewers amusement in this sequence.
One thing that was interesting about this particular episode/season is for the first time, they had a partnership that was between a male beauty and a female geek. This is somewhat of an interesting idea, in that idiotic reality TV sort of way, but it serves as little more than a gimmick. It is evenhanded I suppose, the idea that not just men are geeks - women can be geeky social outcasts too! And men can be hunky! Gee, what a deeply nuanced and complex society we live in. It does show, at the least, that women can be ridiculed for their nerdy and antiscoial qualities, the same way that men are. The alleged geekiness of her character isn't really exploited in this episode, enough so that I'm not really sure why she was picked for the show. She doesn't seem to be the most social person, but she certainly doesn't seem to be an extreme example of what a geeky woman looks like. Is she geeky just because she is shy and inteligent?
The character that is most fascinating to me in this episode would have to be Jasmine, the female beauty. Her charatcter (can you even call someone in this kind of show a person anymore?) is so uninteligent and stereotypically 'ditzy', qualities which all too often are equated with being attractive in our current social climate. Some highlights: "I'm so excited to go home! I hope we get to go shopping!" "I don't look like them or talk like them and some people will judge you for that" (in reference to Dave's friends.) The first quote, obviously, relates to the expectation/cultural conditioning that women who are beautiful must also be consumers...a message that is so prevalent that it may perhaps be the dominant message of television. Her preppy, bubbly uninteligence also further drives the message down people's throats that to be cool or pretty, you need to keep your inteligence in check.
Formally speaking, this show looks a lot like most other reality TV shows. Yes, there are subtle differences, but the style of these shows tends to be so similar. Lots of fast cutting, used to cover up the lack of any thoughtful mise-en-scene. Constant musical pieces that use every musical cliche to elicit an immediate emotional reaction out of the viewer. This particular stylistic choice within reality TV is very often used in an ironic fashion, particularly in this show, as its not meant to be a particularly serious slice of hyperreality. The style of the show in general is meant to be entertaining and humorous, and is not meant to be taken very seriously. This is a show that is meant to be a family show, as it is rated "TVPG", is on at an early time (7:00 pm) and the adverteisments are clearly meant to be geared towards a family audience, with WalMart being the sponser of the show. Of course, when things are not meant to be taken very seriously, when its just "family entertainment", this is when they seep into our subconcious most easily. When ideology is invisible is when ideology is most at work.