F06 :: Feminist Film Studies

Shocked really doesn’t describe my feeling towards the way this reality television show projects beauty-- ashamed might come close, but appalled would be much more accurate.
This show follows two doctors, Dr. Ray and Dr. Diamond, through their patriarchal practices in Beverly Hills as they help their patients become ‘normal,’ and ‘perfect.’
What is considered perfect inside this fabricated TV. world is disgusting-- both the doctors home lives (which are detailed to fill time during the show) are mirrors of this negative image. For example, multiple times throughout the episode Dr. Ray makes note of his ‘93 pound’ wife as genetically blessed, then continues to ignore her on all other fronts. She is merely there to give the show one more pretty face, or perhaps attract viewers by displaying the humiliation caused by her marriage-- either way her role in the episode causes a saddened headshake. Dr. Diamond makes less of a show of his trophy wife, but in this episode he was trying to convince her to quit her job (also a practicing physician) so she could stay home and take care of their childless new house. This show screams backward, and reflects the increasing problems our society has with how they look.
The two people actually receiving surgery procedures were west coast exotic dancers. They both felt the surgeries would increase the amount of money that they made at work by giving them the ability to feel sexier and more confident on stage. Jay wanted his nose straight, and Liz wanted new breast implants. Both patients were coerced by their doctors into a larger procedure than originally planed. For Jay it was a new chin, and for Liz it was a much bigger implant than she had planned on.
It made sense to read that the number of plastic surgery procedures has increased over the past twenty years, but I couldn’t believe how much. According to the Bordo article the number of annual procedures in ’89 was around 700,000 while twelve years later that number had jumped to 8.5 million. She attributed the increase to the willingness of doctors to commit procedures purely for aesthetic reasons, and not actual health benefits. The way Dr. Ray and Dr. Diamond push their practice of perfection on their patients reflects that trend.
Even without a barrage of tasteless commercials and advertisements, Dr. 90210 pumps an unrealistic, unhealthy, and unobtainable body image onto its viewers. What I want to know is why people are tuning into such a show? Is it actually believed that this type of entertainment has no effect on people? Look at what happened in Fiji-- look what is happening here. The correlations are not hard to make, but the public continues to tune in. WHY?

blog augmentation:::

okay, so I watched this episode two more times in order to catch some of the context and form aspects of it and now I'm even more disgusted with TV than before. As far as filmic construction goes, I noticed that all the shots in-between scenes where either of expensive cars, or headless skirts gyrating down the beverly hills sidewalk. Also, the time spent telling the story of the female dancer was over twice that of the time spent telling the back-story of the male dancer. I guess cop uniforms and latin spandex don't get the ratings that pole lessons and censor blurs do.... or is there something else going on here??
This led me to wonder about context-- who was benefiting from this show, and it was quite interesting to find out that at the end of this atrocity of an episode no credits rolled. Are the producers embarrassed? Are the writers ashamed?
Fortunately for me I am now finished with this assignment and can once again go back to ignoring all the mind mutation that goes on between viewer and television screen. However, I thought I'd leave this electronic space with two quotes just to document why I turn my head from primetime.

dr. diamond in regard's to jay's nose:

" your chin is a little bit weak, i think an implant would really give you a more masculine look"

dr. rey in regard's to liz's chest (okay i have two for him because this guy was wacked out)

(while liz is under the knife) "just look at how ugly that is... ugly. ugly. ugly."
(post surgery interview) "in about a month liz's swelling will go down, and she'll have that really beautiful seventeen year old look"

WHAT THE YUCK!!!!-- and i'll just leave it at that.