Thursday, April 08, 2004
SURGERY PORN: "This show epitomizes what's wrong with America. Of course, it's on Fox."--Some Guy
As you can see from previous entries, the FCC is whipping itself into a froth over various bits of indecency. I'm sure it's just a conincidence that all of this is happening in an election year during a jobless recovery, but that's beside the point. For all the talk of keeping the airwaves safe, they probably won't be touching what may be the most obscene production of the current season, Fox's The Swan, which debuted Wednesday night. The setup is that plain women are set up with extensive cosmetic surgery and an aggressive two month program of exercise, diet, and psychotherapy. All of this time, they're not allowed to see their own reflections. The big reveal is done in a mansion-like hall Of the two women on each of the set-up shows, the one that cleans up the nicest will move on to a pageant, and thousands of dollars of fabulous prizes.
The first two victims were named Kelly and Rachel, and the implications were that Kelly was one bad day away from killing herself and Rachel was ruining her marriage by pursuing Swanship. The phone conversation Rachel had at one point with her husband was telling: he wanted her to come back and take care of him again. "I go to work, I go to bed, I go to work, I go to bed," he whined to her, while she kept shaking her head and snapping "Don't go quiet on me again!"
I'm not calling the show "surgery porn" because of anything directly sexual that goes on, but for the emotional masturbation of a segment of the audience, stroking their vulnerabilities until they cry out. Although part of the regimen in the build-up months is extensive psychological counselling, they showed a grand total of five seconds from that footage, and a lightning fast montage of the "grunt work" that goes into a physically fit body. However, we do spend a large amount of time watching the prep for the surgery, the doctors being given a free hand to do whatever the hell they think is necessary, so we jump almost directly from the operating table to the revelation of the new look several months later. If you remember, one of our victims is shown almost constantly in tears because of how ugly she feels she is. The reveal (or money shot, since I'm pursuing the porn analogy to the bitter end) shows her bursting into tears of a different sort, whimpering about how beautiful she is.
What's our message here? That there's no personal problem that can't be solved by being pretty? That by changing the most superficial things about yourself, you can fix it all? That's what I got from it, and it's very dangerous thinking. I can tell you from personal experience that if you're fat with all sorts of deep-rooted personal issues, then you lose the weight without addressing your mental baggage, not only are you STILL going to be miserable, but you won't have the weight crutch to keep the ugly truth hidden. Certainly there are well-adjustded weight-challenged people, but we're not talking about them at the moment. Kelly was an overly emotional, intensely depressed person before going into the competition; we're given no reason to believe she won't be just as dismal once she adjusts to the new reality of her adjusted face and figure. Of course, since she wasn't picked to move to the next round, she's not "our" problem any more, but I hope she keeps her soul together. At least, as much as I can wish that on a total stranger.
I'm told for every crime The Swan commits against humanity, MTV's Famous Face does it all in spades. The only prize there is the dubious distinction of having a face that allegedly looks like a celebrity. I've often said I'll watch anything once, but I don't know if I'm up for that one.
As you can see from previous entries, the FCC is whipping itself into a froth over various bits of indecency. I'm sure it's just a conincidence that all of this is happening in an election year during a jobless recovery, but that's beside the point. For all the talk of keeping the airwaves safe, they probably won't be touching what may be the most obscene production of the current season, Fox's The Swan, which debuted Wednesday night. The setup is that plain women are set up with extensive cosmetic surgery and an aggressive two month program of exercise, diet, and psychotherapy. All of this time, they're not allowed to see their own reflections. The big reveal is done in a mansion-like hall Of the two women on each of the set-up shows, the one that cleans up the nicest will move on to a pageant, and thousands of dollars of fabulous prizes.
The first two victims were named Kelly and Rachel, and the implications were that Kelly was one bad day away from killing herself and Rachel was ruining her marriage by pursuing Swanship. The phone conversation Rachel had at one point with her husband was telling: he wanted her to come back and take care of him again. "I go to work, I go to bed, I go to work, I go to bed," he whined to her, while she kept shaking her head and snapping "Don't go quiet on me again!"
I'm not calling the show "surgery porn" because of anything directly sexual that goes on, but for the emotional masturbation of a segment of the audience, stroking their vulnerabilities until they cry out. Although part of the regimen in the build-up months is extensive psychological counselling, they showed a grand total of five seconds from that footage, and a lightning fast montage of the "grunt work" that goes into a physically fit body. However, we do spend a large amount of time watching the prep for the surgery, the doctors being given a free hand to do whatever the hell they think is necessary, so we jump almost directly from the operating table to the revelation of the new look several months later. If you remember, one of our victims is shown almost constantly in tears because of how ugly she feels she is. The reveal (or money shot, since I'm pursuing the porn analogy to the bitter end) shows her bursting into tears of a different sort, whimpering about how beautiful she is.
What's our message here? That there's no personal problem that can't be solved by being pretty? That by changing the most superficial things about yourself, you can fix it all? That's what I got from it, and it's very dangerous thinking. I can tell you from personal experience that if you're fat with all sorts of deep-rooted personal issues, then you lose the weight without addressing your mental baggage, not only are you STILL going to be miserable, but you won't have the weight crutch to keep the ugly truth hidden. Certainly there are well-adjustded weight-challenged people, but we're not talking about them at the moment. Kelly was an overly emotional, intensely depressed person before going into the competition; we're given no reason to believe she won't be just as dismal once she adjusts to the new reality of her adjusted face and figure. Of course, since she wasn't picked to move to the next round, she's not "our" problem any more, but I hope she keeps her soul together. At least, as much as I can wish that on a total stranger.
I'm told for every crime The Swan commits against humanity, MTV's Famous Face does it all in spades. The only prize there is the dubious distinction of having a face that allegedly looks like a celebrity. I've often said I'll watch anything once, but I don't know if I'm up for that one.
|| Eric 2:06 AM#
