Charm School
Charm School was a VH1 program featuring thirteen "Flavorettes" aka, thirteen women who were on season one or two of Flavor of Love. Charm School is one of the spin-off shows including both seasons of I Love New York. The producers for Charm School are Michelle Brando and Mark Cronin who are also the producers of the other shows. The target audience for these shows are young women between the ages of 18 to 35 because the advertisements were for hair care and birth control.
The premise for this show was to take thirteen unruly, not upper middle class acting women and teach them the "Ten Commandments of Charm School" which were:
1) Check Thyself Before Thou Wreck Thyself
2) Thou Shalt Goeth, Girl
3) Thou Shalt Show Some Class
4) Thou Shalt Work What Thou Art Working With
5) Thou Shalt Spit Mad Game With Style
6) Thou Shalt Mind Thy Money
7) Thou Shalt Payeth It Back
8) Thou Shalt Represent
9) Unless Thou Can Play, Thou Wilt Be Played
10) Thou Shalt Be Fully Fabulous
These commandments were posed by the 'expert' on etiquette Mo'Nique and she judged if the contestants were to stay or be kicked off. Also in the shows 'experts' were brought in to show the women how to act. These 'experts' were usually white and middle to upper class. The shots of the contestants often showed them in 'un-ladylike' circumstances, poses, and the dialog between them. They were constantly dropping swear words and talking down about the other women. The editing of the show does create more story lines and different reactions than what actually happened; however, this is commonplace in reality television shows.
The specific episode I watched was Episode Three "Dirty Drawers Done Dirt Cheap" and was aired on April 22, 2007. I viewed this episode on VH1's website "V Spot." The commandment in this episode was "Thou Shalt Show Some Class". In this episode the contestants went in front of an etiquette coach and was scolded and mocked by this coach because of the behavior shown. For example, one of the girls "showed her Britney" when she crossed her legs. The participants in this program played their stereotypical roles. The Flavorettes played the lower class and most of them were women of color except a couple of 'white trash' women. Mo'Nique, who presides over the girls, is shown to be higher class, always looked put together, and always acted above the Flavorettes because she was the 'expert'. The other people brought in for this particular episode were the etiquette coach, who was a blond haired white women (because they always know the best way to act) and a upper class man who owned a winery. The ranking of bodies in this is obvious.
In this representation of reality the ideal being communicated is that to be considered a woman you have to act like a lady. This is by imposing the commandments set by Mo'Nique and by humiliating the contestants to show this ideal. Humiliation is a key role in this television program and "is the unifying principle behind a successful reality show" (Mendrid 335). However, the contestants in Charm School subject themselves to this humiliation by succumbing to the rules of the game and acting out their stereotypical, overly dramatized roles. The Mendrid article explains this by, "This interdependence is central and unique to humiliation; the object of humiliation must know s/he is being humiliated and the perpetrator must be willfully exercising that power" (336). This is the case with Charm School: The Flavorettes know they are being humiliated through the challenges and the contrast with the 'experts' and the 'experts' are willfully exercising the power to humiliate them.
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