Own It! Gender Actualization in Reality Makeover Shows.

If makeover television shows are as oppressive as feminist critiques argue, why do so many people watch and enjoy them? Drawing on data collected from transcripts of five different reality television shows airing from 2002 to 2008, we demonstrate that makeover shows construct an intertwined relationship between participants' gender performances and their ability to achieve self-actualization. All five programs employ a script that progresses through an accusation that a contestant is not taking care of herself or himself, an expensive correction to her or his gender performance, a moment of revelation in which he or she embraces a new self, and a "big reveal" of that new self to family and friends. In contrast to previous studies, which focused on the detrimental effects of sexualizing bodies to achieve self-esteem, we find that the transformation of gender performances on makeover shows is in fact a transformation of self. This process, which we call gender-actualization, naturalizes gendered beauty myths by linking them to contestants' abilities to successfully render their "true inner gender" with the help of expensive garments, products, and procedures. In that sense contestants are encouraged to "own" their inner selves in order to achieve self-confidence. Thus, the rhetoric of gender-actualization ultimately helps construct gender as an immutable inner quality which serves as the foundation for gender oppression and simultaneously masks the intent of makeover shows to fuel fashion markets. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]