F06 :: Feminist Film Studies

The reality television show Beauty and the Geek which originally aired on the WB was co-produced by none other than Ashton Kutcher. Kutcher is known for his role on That 70s Show and Punk’d. Kutcher's lastest production is called a "social experiment." His show takes seven “gorgeous� beauties and pairs them with seven “geeky� men, to help both sides become well-rounded individuals. The show may seem like it has good intentions, however, it reinforces many stereotypes of women and strengthens the arguments of many feminists. As viewers will see, Beauty and the Geek is related to Punk'd - ultimately humiluating its participants.

The show was recently replayed constantly on MTV over the Thanksgiving break – a time when kids are out of school and catching up on missed shows. Beauty and the Geek aired seven women and each of these women had certain characteristics in mind. Many had dress sizes no larger than a 6 and there interests were similar. The women were never shown without make-up. The only time that they weren't fully done up was when they were shown getting ready. However, the camera only show a few seconds of each women getting ready. Yet, the scenes that viewers saw were the tail ends of getting ready - putting the finishing touches on make-up or doing their hair. Besides these few seconds of film, the women were always shown looking perfect - especially during their interviews. The lighting is forgiving of impurities and the angles flatter each girl.

When the "beauties" were shown on camera with their name, a small description came up. Each woman had stereotypical “I’m pretty but nothing more� descriptions. One woman, Mindi, was described as a sorority girl; another Lauren is a lingerie model. The descriptions of these women reinforce the gender roles of our society.
In the first episode of the show, the men and women pick pairs and then the first competition begins. The women’s challenge was a middle-school level trivia game. Questions ranged from saying two states that had the word “new� in them to which president was in office during the civil war. Many of the women got their questions wrong. During the challenge, a live studio audience was present to witness the event. The challenge turned out to be a public display of humiliation for the women. From Myra Mendible’s Humiliation, Subjectivity, and Reality TV, she notes “that a defining characteristic of the process [humiliation] is that the victim is made passive and conscious of the humiliating act, while perpetrators must be aware of the victim’s condition and derive satisfaction from it…� From the moment the women knew that they would be participating in a trivia game, they knew they would be humiliating themselves, however continued to participate because in the end a prize of $250,000 was on the line.

However, not only are the women of the show objectified to humiliation, but also the male gazes. Many of the women are spectacles in their careers. Lauren, the lingerie model, to Erika the human Barbie model, these women are gazed upon. Nothing changed in Beauty and the Geek. The “geeks� were used to only looking at beautiful women, so now that they had women talking to them in order to win money, the male gaze intensified. The gaze of these “geeks� carried out exactly what Laura Mulvey describes the fetishistic scopophila. This gaze “builds up the physical beauty of the object, transforming it into something satisfying in itself,� (Mulvey Visual Pleasure). The men are caught staring at the women when they are in the hot tub. They barely talk; all they do is watch their interactions.

In addition, by picking these seven beautiful women, the show reinforces the stereotype of what a “woman� is. It continues to tell us that you will only be desired if you are tall, thin, tan, and know how to apply make-up just the right way. Beauty and the Geek continues to back-up the idea that smart women don’t necessarily get ahead. The show scales and ranks the body of women. Through the filmic construction of this show, the importance of "perfection" is stressed. The camera angles, lighting, and framing flatter the bodies of the girls. With these constructions, the producers create a façade, avoiding any imperfections that the girls may posses. The constructions produce an unreal woman, something that is not found naturally, but viewers do not realize this. Which creates this obsession with perfection and ranking bodies.

Although one of the women was not completely confident of her body image, her dress size was still a 6. These women are models for beer or Barbie and have become the oppressed group – which “the oppressed groups, on the other hand, are locked into their objectified bodies, blind, dumb, and passive� (Young The Scaling of Bodies and the Politics of Identity). In short, Kutcher’s show, continues to reinforce our patriarchal society by stereotyping women, humiliating women, and scaling their bodies.