F06 :: Feminist Film Studies

The reality television show that I watched this week was the show America’s Next Top Model. This is a show that takes the desperation of women to become “something big�. This show allows women to humiliate themselves in the hopes that they may become America’s Next Top Model.

As disgusting as this show is to sit through and watch I must admit that I have a strange addiction to it and I must watch this show every week. I really do not understand my obsession with the show because the way it is shown to the audience is something that is suppose to be inspirational to women, but it actually makes you feel kind of horrible about yourself. The show makes you feel horrible about yourself because it shows these women with the impossible body types, yet they are suppose to be real women from around the world that have somehow achieved this perfect body type.

When it comes to the gaze of the show, I believe it is definitely a male gaze. I really do not see this show empowering women, but rather it breaks them down. I have been watching this show for a while and in almost every season that have one “real� woman in the season. One episode from this season they had one girl, Anchal, who was bigger than the other girls on the show, however still a tiny women, and all the other “models� talked about how fat she was and how her body was not good enough to be a model. Another illustration of how this show is shown through a male gaze is the choice of pictures that they take of the girls. In the very first episode of the season there first photo shot was a naked photo shot. The girls had to sit naked in front of the world and directly in front of many individuals they did not know. This sounds somewhat empowering, to the fact they are taking charge of their sexuality, however most were uncomfortable, and when they did not want to do it they had to worry about getting kicked off the show.