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not to participate; but this is still a significant step in a scary direction. This obsession with the human body is taken
to the extreme with Anatomy For Beginners and Autopsy: Life and Death (Channel 4). The human body is preserved then cut and dissected into its individual parts in the name of anatomy. If we are currently airing human bodies after death then is it only a matter of time before we are airing an actual death on live television? With taboos becoming more widely accepted, are we running out of shocking things to address?
Body makeover TV Another cause for concern is the ideology
underlying some of these ‘real’ situations. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (USA) will demolish a house to the ground, start from scratch and create a brand new house in its place. ‘Well that’s not controversial’ I hear you mumble. Maybe not; but how about applying the same techniques to a face? The Swan (USA) takes three ‘ugly ducklngs’ who undergo extensive plastic surgery and therapy to become a beautiful swan. These swans are then compared against each other and the best one goes through to the final where they parade their plastic parts in a desperate attempt for recognition and approval. The strange (or perhaps inevitable) thing though is that, post-surgery, they all look the same as each other and all unique beauty has diminished. Equally, I Want A Famous Face (MTV) takes
real people and follows them as they go under the knife in order to look like their idols: cue the creation of the freaky Brad Pitt twins. These Frankenstein shows promote a seriously superficial message namely, if you are unhappy with yourself then get expensive surgery to sort you out. Accepting who you are is not an option as that would not make great TV. Instead, it’s more entertaining to see insecure people sliced and diced in order to turn them into the plastic- wrapped versions of their former selves.
64 MediaMagazine | December 2009 | english and media centre
The future is Japanese The real possible future of reality television
though lies in the Japanese entertainment industry. Japanese reality television has taken seedy exploitation to a new level where boundaries are pushed and acceptable television is questioned. With shows like Erotic Hypnosis which sees members of the audience strip and perform upon command, we can begin to understand the darker direction of this genre. Sky Television aired Being Miriam to something of a media maelstrom where male contestants competed for the chance to be Miriam’s boyfriend. Contestants were unaware that Miriam was still technically a man and post-broadcast, lawsuits were underway. Japan takes this one step further with Transexuals In Transition where gentlemen are filmed being intimate with a lady, only to find out she is in fact male. Perhaps it is a reflection of the vast differences between our cultures when considering the values underpinning such shows. Reality TV in Japan has moved from prankster-
related fun to what we would regard as ritual humiliation and degradation. This is reflected in the most controversial of TV shows: The Virgin Show (Japan), a weekly 2 hour-long programme that begins with contestants guessing which
girl is a virgin. The show then follows the girl in extreme detail as she loses her virginity. Producers justify the show by claiming that it is a ‘documentary not extreme pornography’ but it is a show that stretches the boundaries of decency more than any other. Ironically, this demonstrates a loss of innocence in more ways than one, not just for the contestant but also for the reality genre itself. As the reality genre morphs into a shadow
of its former self, it moves into previously unexplored areas to provide us with edgy and groundbreaking entertainment, the result of this being the exploitation of the insecure and the ridiculing of the ignorant. More and more institutions are able to sacrifice their responsibility of care for the sake of entertainment but as an audience apparently gripped by televisual controversy, do we care enough to switch off?
Richard Smith is a Media teacher at Herne Bay High School in Kent.
Before
After
Before After
The Kobal Collection for The Truman Show image;
Image.net for Make Me a Swan
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