Fix Me Up

This collection of essays focuses on two sub-genres of reality television: dating shows, like The Bachelor, Joe Millionaire, and the earlier Love Connection; and makeover reality shows, like The Swan and Are You Hot? The Search for America’s Sexiest People. Each author explores a different aspect of one or both of these types of shows, focusing especially on the cultural interaction between the text—dating and makeover shows—and society.

Judith Lancioni is an associate professor in the Department of Radio, Television, and Film at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, where she teaches courses in media research and criticism, television scriptwriting, and images of women in film.

Edited by Judith Lancioni
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 224
Bibliographic Info: bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2010
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4382-6
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5808-0
Imprint: McFarland

Introduction

JUDITH LANCIONI      1

1. The Dating Games: Real Lessons Learned from Unreal Programs

DAVID GUDELUNAS      19

2. The Reality of Reality Dating: Analyzing Viewers’ Perceptions

ELIZABETH RIBARSKY      31

3. Women’s Shared Viewing of The Bachelor : Generational Motives and Perceptions

CARY W. HORVATH and MARGARET O. FINUCANE      43

4. Fans of Plastic Surgery Reality Television: Hopes and Concerns in Fan Postings

JOAN L. CONNERS      56

5. Parasocial Relationships in Dating and Makeover Reality Television

NARISSRA MARIA PUNYANUNT-CARTER      68

6. Average Joe and the Not So Average Jane

JUDITH LANCIONI      79

7. The Swan as Sado-Ritual Syndrome?

CHRISTOPHER D. RODKEY      93

8. The Boob Tube: Authority, Resistance, and Dr. 90210

SHANA HEINRICY      105

9. Revising Bodily Texts to the Dominant Standard: A Feminist Rhetorical Criticism of the Makeover Episode of America’s Next Top Model

JULIE-ANN SCOTT      118

10. Tyra Banks’ Top Model: Makeover in Reality Television
FRANK H. WALLIS      134

11. “She Just Called You a Metro”: Rating Masculinity on Reality Television

MATTHEW JOHNSON      146

12. Materialism, Disposal and Consumerism: Queer Eye and the Commodification of Identity

YARMA VELÁZQUEZ VARGAS      160

13. New Blouse, New House, I Need a New Spouse: The Politics of Transformation and Identity in Television Makeover and Swap Shows

SHIRA TARRANT      171

14. Revealing Western Norms of Gender Identity in What Not to Wear : Idealizing Femininity in Visual Culture to Win the “War on Terror”

ELLEN W. GORSEVSKI      182

15. Reality Television, Body Cult and Identity Metamorphosis in Brazil and the United States

BIANCA FREIRE-MEDEIROS and ANDRÉ BAKKER      197

About the Contributors      211

Index      215