Blog post #3

                    Reality show with the mordern audience

            Television is a vast, phosphorescent Mississippi of the senses, via which one may lose one’s sense of judgment and eventually one’s mind (Miller). Reality TV series such as America’s Next Top Model have ultimately become a staple of TV programing with obvious benefits to broadcasters in light of the fact that they are relatively not as expensive as producing scripted movies, and the fact that they can adapt to broadcast scheduling flexibility. However, the advantages they proffer to viewers are seemingly less clear.  Television critical theory since the mid-80s can be characterized by a certain amount of desperation: a frantic attempt to revive an audience it had originally helped to textually deaden (Caldwell) .In this way, programs that deem to capture audience viewership is relatively welcomed by networks regardless of what is communicated to the said audiences.

            Legitimate concerns surrounding the messages inherent in such a reality TV series are beginning to emanate. Television in the true sense is perceived as a model for social interaction as well as social behavior. This concept is especially true for young viewers who pick social cues from shows such as these. Caldewell writes that television viewer has never been passive-nor even typically theorized as passive by the industry are never be passive.(Caldwell) As we can see, America’s Next Top Model has come to portray sociocultural standards of how the feminine body is to be presented. The show consistently throws at viewers what it considers to be the ideal female body. Yet the models portrayed in the show are truly below what is medically considered healthy or natural body weights. The message transmitted to viewers are simply unhealthy and unrealistic notions which imply in the truest sense that a woman has to unhealthy for her to be beautiful. The concept that an individual can neither be too thin or too wealthy is all too prevalent within our society and is being propagated by such TV series.

             America’s Next Top Model, which is currently one of the most watched (Young) leaves many wondering why the show is such a success, when all it portrays or communicates is that for the typical woman to be considered beautiful, her body has to be conditioned to conform to relatively expensive beauty oriented regimens and unhealthy eating habits. The average female viewer of such a show basically is usually incapable of financing such beauty regimens. Hence, the beauty concept communicated on America’s Next Top Model tends to function as a dominant social context force, compelling women who are considered as being typical and average in society to be perceived as less attractive and less valuable than the women within society who are ridiculously thin or those who hold monetary, social or political power. It is paramount that as a society and as viewers of the TV phenomenon, we identify and realize that what such shows communicate are ideals that are oppressive, classist and sexist.

           Subjective assessments of appearances invariably have a significant effect on the psychological experiences and development of viewers. TV series such as America’s Next Top Model trigger subjective assessments in viewers, especially its female viewers thus propagating notions of body dissatisfaction. In situations when medical science has weighed in on media analysis, especially within the context of neurological effects of certain TV series, it was ascertained that the effects could be schizophrenic (Caldwell).Another notion portrayed by this TV series is the concept that to be tagged as beautiful, or valuable, viewers have to adopt the conventional middle class, conservative and largely white centric sensibilities, which are perceived as hallmarks of success. I perceive this as being highly racist. The show symbolizes the notion that those who embody the white, middle class standards by feigning eloquent speech via diminishing their accent or conditioning their bodies are rewarded with value and esteem (Julie-Ann).

             Images portrayed in TV series project a rather dangerous benchmark on what has come to be standard feminine beauty thus emitting powerful influence on the way the female body is viewed and consequently how women themselves view their bodies and their inner selves. It is important that society identifies, reveals and challenges the negative discourses that are being communicated by such series.

Works Cited

Caldwell, John Thornton. "Televisual Audience Interactive Pizza." Televisuality: Style, Crisis, and Authority in American Television. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1995. N. pag. Print.

Miller, Toby. Television Studies: The Basics. London: Routledge, 2010. 110-45. Print.

Scott, Julie-Ann. "Revising Bodily Texts to the Dominant Standard: A Feminist Rhetorical Criticism of the Makeover Episode of America's Next Top Model" 2013.

Molly Young. “Tyra Banks's unusual brand of feminism” Retrieved from http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/tyra-bankss-unusual-brand-feminism November 25, 2014