"The Ultimate Social Experiment"
Produced by Ashton Kutcher the reality TV show “Beauty and the Geek� first aired in 2005 and is now in the middle of its fourth season. This show consists of a group of 10 “beauties� who rely heavily on their looks in life, and a group of 10 geeks who rely on their smarts and are socially awkward. Ashton Kutcher who created and produces this show describes it as a comedy reality show. Each beauty is paired with a geek and they are supposed to teach each other and they compete for the grand prize of $250,000. The episode that I analyzed was the fifth episode of the fourth season called “Viva La Mexico�. I watched this on the CW website on Sunday night because I had missed it when it aired on Tuesday. The five couples left in the competition traveled to Mexico and the beauties had to learn about Mayan culture while the geeks had to learn how to salsa dance.
The CW, which is the merge of the WB and UPN, airs this show. According to the CW’s president “the networks shows are going to appeal to 18-34 year olds�, but this show leans more toward the lower end of the spectrum. Many of the viewers are young men and women who admire and look up to the contestants. The commercials vary from Pledge Cleaner to other products for adults, but mostly they are for other TV shows that young adults watch like Smallville. The shots of this show are usually not long. They alternate between shots of the competition and personal interviews with the contestants. These interviews shots are also strategically placed, so that only the women’s head and breasts fit in the frame.
Most girls watch this show because they want to look like the girl contestants, because they are portrayed as the girls all the guys want. While boys watch to look at the girls because they are hot and usually only half dressed, which shows the voyeuristic gaze of the audience. There is also a male gaze within the contestants as well. All the male contestants look at the women only for their looks. From our reading of Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema we learned that pleasure doesn’t just come from looking at others it also comes from being looked at. Men enjoy looking at the women on this show, but part of the reason these women agree to do this is because they get pleasure and enjoy being looked at. As Fredric Schick states the object of humiliation must know s/he is being humiliated and the perpetrator must be willfully exercising that power. Obviously Ashton Kutcher knew that humiliation would be part of his show and the women he chooses know that they are going to be humiliated, but I don’t think either party thinks about the impact that this humiliation will have on their audience. Young boys and girls shouldn’t be watching their role models be humiliated.
This show reinforces the many stereotypes of women by portraying them as beautiful, dumb, and dependent on men. All the women contestants have long, flowing hair, lots of makeup, skinny, and of course big breasts. The only woman who actually represents the average female is a “geek�. This constructs an image that to be smart you have to be fat or to be pretty you have to be stupid. Never are any of the women contestants shown eating, but ironically they are often drinking. From champagne to tequila shots alcohol plays a large role in this show as if these women aren’t acting stupid enough they always have alcohol to help. I guess it doesn’t really matter that women are being portrayed poorly, because for some reason I can’t put down the remote!