We love to hate reality TV, and reality TV knows that. It cues our hate to keep us watching, like a bullfighter taunting a bull: waving red to draw our attention and anger. Usually, the red flag — the brandished target for our hate — is a loathsome character, the best example from this season being The Apprentice’s Omarosa. And, for the joy of the game, we pretend that the flag is live prey, rather than a manipulation introduced and controlled by the bullfighter.
But The Swan, which ran an encore debut last night, drapes the red around the bullfighter and knots it like a cape. Other shows have had equally shallow and enraging premises —remember Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire? But the premise always drew equally shallow and enraging contestants, while the contestants on The Swan don’t seem shallow so much as insecure and clueless. The show itself is the villain, the only target for our hatred. But the question is, is The Swan purposefully loathsome, or just deeply hypocritical?
In defense of the latter, Swan creator Nely Galan told The Boston Herald that she thinks of The Swan as the "most loving `lottery for women' show in the world." (In each episode, the show gives two contestants a three month makeover, worth about $250,000, and awards one of the two contestants a spot in “The Ultimate Swan” pageant.) “The competition, Galan said, serves dual purposes, to motivate the contestants and to ‘demystify’ the pageant process for viewers.”
If you still have doubts that The Swan is hypocritical rather than intentionally loathsome, it’s worth mentioning that Galan has also cast herself as a “Swan Coach,” placing herself on the “panel of experts” responsible for guiding and performing the contestants’ makeovers. A producer aware of her show’s dubious morality probably wouldn’t award herself a starring role.
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| Kelly |
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| Rachel |
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| "a lot of work.” |
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| Kelly's stick figure drawing |
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| “a more alluring, tantalizing face” |
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| the "after" shots |
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| Who "surrendered to 'transformation'"? |
Redefining “Cute” and “Average”
Each episode of The Swan begins with a Clearinghouse Sweepstakes-styled door ambush; a contestant unlocks her front door and, too overwhelmed by the news of her winning entry, sobs behind the screen door she forgot to open. Cue a video montage, a “greatest hits collection” of the contestants’ insecurities. Contestant No. 1, Kelly, got spit on as a kid, and, because she hates her body, has only “been intimate [with her boyfriend] seven or eight times in the past three years.” Cue the panel’s reaction: sympathetic winces, sad nods, faux-pensive expressions. One by one, the panel members list the improvements they can offer Kelly. “You know, she’s cute. This will be pretty easy,” one plastic surgeon says, before rattling off the ten invasive surgical procedures Kelly “requires.”
Contestant No. 2, Rachel, confesses in her video montage, “I feel average because I look at myself and that’s what I see.” Her husband adds, “She’s a little average, but when she’s happy, she’s a beautiful person.” The panel, shocked by the husband’s insensitivity, immediately questions the degree to which the “men in her life have been supportive of her.” They all agree that they can give Rachel “new confidence.” “The key will be bringing out her femininity,” notes a male panel member. And then, prepping his Swan associates for the challenge, adds, “It’ll take A LOT of work.”
The Work Begins:
In the dentist’s office, the women’s teeth are cleaned, drilled, and, for the purpose of veneers, ridged like Ruffles chips. At the gym, they’re weighed and assigned workouts and low calorie diets. (“Kelly’s got a lot of weight to lose if she’s going to be the one to win the pageant,” the trainer comments.) Next, they prep for surgery. Rachel looks at her unaltered face one last time; this will be “a nice memory,” she says. And Kelly shows her surgeon a stick figure drawing of herself, each body part circled and claimed by a friend or family member.
The surgery itself whizzes by, edited down to its least bloody moments: a surgeon slices with a foot-long blade, the body barely wobbling with resistance; sheaths of fat are loosened and removed; a surgeon looks at Kelly’s stick figure drawing, calls out the name printed by the butt, and says, “This butt’s for you.” Then, Rachel and Kelly are wheeled away, motionless and mummified, while Rachel’s surgeon proudly states, “I’ve given [Rachel] a more alluring, tantalizing face.”
Though both women have undergone extensive surgery — almost every aspect of their face and body altered —Kelly has a much more difficulty recovery. “I’m concerned about Kelly’s attitude,” Nely Gana, Swan Coach, confesses. “She’s been whiny and depressed since surgery.” And, in a more exasperated tone: “We’ll have to go see her.”
During Nely’s visit, Kelly points to the parts of her body that hurt most. Nely is unimpressed. “She’ll have to pull herself together and fight this depression if she’s going to get into the pageant.” Meanwhile, Rachel, more fully recovered, attends therapy, filmed for the audience’s benefit.
The Reveals: Induced Prosopagnosia
It’s been three months since the contestants arrived, and at least two since they’ve been allowed access to a mirror. So, while other makeover shows stage a “Reveal” for the benefit of friends and family, The Swan’s reveal is meant for the participants themselves.
Finally confronted by their new selves, both women cry and have trouble standing. “I don’t look anything like that girl,” Rachel says, triumphantly, though we’re unsure if “that girl” refers to her image in the mirror, or her old appearance. “How will your husband react?” she’s asked. He’s going to be “stunned,” she says. “There is no way he’ll recognize me.” Kelly, during her reveal, is asked how her boyfriend will respond. “I don’t even recognize myself. I bet he would pass me on a street,” she answers. “Oh, I don’t think so,” someone says —and though that implies her boyfriend has a roaming eye, this cues the panel’s fierce nodding and applause.
Asked about the women’s transformations, Kelly’s surgeon says, “I was concerned Kelly would go into a challenging post-operative depression, but with the help of the swan team, we got her through it.” And Rachel’s surgeon comments, “Rachel’s gone from being average to being a fully confident, beautiful woman.”
In the end, Rachel wins, because, according to Nely, “she surrendered to ‘transformation.’”
Returning to the Question: Loathsome or Loathsome and Hypocritcal?
•The panel expresses shock at Rachel's husband calling her "average," only to use the same word when describing her --- that is, when they aren't using the more premise-sanctioned phrase "ugly duckling."
•In a bid to raise the contestants' self-esteem, they make the contestants believe they need each face and body part resculpted. The women, though, aren't that bad looking, and, in the following weeks, the women, if anything, get cuter.
•While the surgery on Extreme Makeover "improves" participants' faces but keeps them recognizable, the surgery on The Swan turns the women into caricatures, with bloated lips (that look modeled on Nely's), small, curved noses, and x-large breasts.
•The contestants are supposed to "surrender" to the "Swan program" without complaint. Any form of rebellion, like pain or depression, barrs them from the pageant.
Unfortunately, The Swan is loathsome to the degree that it takes itself seriously, and, thanks to the panel's complete lack of intellect, it takes itself very, very seriously. The Swan simply isn't smart enough to realize how disturbing it really is: the panel applauds the idea that the women's husbands will no longer recognize them because it marks their success in creating "transformation," not because they know their applause will reveal a shockingly brazen attitude towards the relationship bewteen appearance, familiarity, and emotional attachment. And, while Kelly and Rachel only have a boyfriend and a husband who might fail to recognize them, future contestants will have children. (At 24, I still remember the day when I was five and my father, having just shaved his beard, picked me up from a friend's party. I cried and cried; even if I recognized him, my emotions for him didn't --a face being both love's cue and its subject.)
Similarly, the panel members are incapable of thinking through the concepts that they hawk (self-improvement, confidence, self-esteem), preferring to equate the concepts with the show's premise -- a conflation as lazy as it is self-congratulatory. The "beauty pageant," which at first we hope functions mostly as metonymy, standing in for the more abstract idea of self-improvement, quickly asserts itself as that idea's replacement. (“Kelly’s got a lot of weight to lose if she’s going to be the one to win the pageant.”… “She’ll have to pull herself together and fight this depression if she’s going to get into the pageant.”)
In the end, The Swan has more sympathy towards its premise than it does for its contestants, and its audience is likely to dole out sympathy in the opposite proportions. We may find a woman's long list of physical insecurities disturbing, but far more disturbing is the person who, by eradicating the source of each insecurity, confirms each insecurity as justified.
Posted by nchicha at April 9, 2004 06:39 PMBravo, nChicha. This show magnifies the already superintense insecurity that out consumer culture puts on women to conform to the narrow gaze of Howard Sterns ("cute", "average").
Oh yeah, sometimes a guy likes a girl with some curves who doesn't balance down the street precariously on the needle points of Manolo Blahniks.
Posted by: Ron Mwangaguhunga on April 10, 2004 11:40 AMHeather Havrilevsky wrote a pretty passionate denunciation of the show over at Salon.com which can be read with the usual day-pass nonsense at http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/review/2004/04/08/swan/. What's both ironic and amusing is that Salon's "Sponsored Links" places ads for several plastic surgeons and "miracle" cosmetics at the bottom of her diatribe.
Totally agree about the show, and yours is the best and most complete explanation of why this show isn't just viscerally disturbing but morally and ethically bankrupt as well. Too bad it's going to make some evil people a few truckloads of money.
Posted by: Nate on April 10, 2004 12:35 PMthanks for this, chicha. i had considered writing on this show for slate, but was sort of relieved to find that it was already claimed by another writer there -- this 'reality' stuff is just getting too goddamned depressing. but between you and heather at salon, i don't know what more there'd be to say. the link to prosopagnosia? fantastic. the face as love's cue and its subject, and the story of your dad's traumatic shave? lovely, spirited and thoughtful -- all qualities that shows like the swan seem determined to crush out of women worldwide.
Posted by: lizpenn on April 12, 2004 09:42 AMyou know, i really felt morally obligated to watch this show, like a nun watching a mass murderer she prayed with as he gets the lethal injection. but, after two episodes, i don't think i can take it.
i've watched a lot of awful shit on tv, but The Swan is absolutely the worst.
Posted by: jessica on April 13, 2004 09:12 AM‘demystify’ the pageant process for viewers ? ? ?
WTF? But then - it makes perfect sense. The people who would watch that show would probably be interested in the "pagent process" and furthermore, "mystified" by, like, the rules and, like, processes that are so, like, complicated and stuff, you know?
Posted by: Charles on April 14, 2004 05:04 PMIt would be so happy if this show would just get cancelled and for once Americans wouldn't be seen as the consumer whores of mass media that we are known to be. I'm sickened by the premise of this show and that people can honestly be interested in something that promotes negative self-imagery as well as heavily downplaying what it means to be only "average" and not beautiful. But I guess thats the American way....
God Bless my Country
where do you sign up!! thank you
Posted by: regina on April 20, 2004 10:17 AMwhere do you sign up!! thank you
Posted by: regina on April 20, 2004 10:18 AMFrom a philosophical perspective "The Swan" begs the question: What is beauty? The presupposition being "beauty brings happiness". Clearly this stirs emotions and spawns discussion of issues that are worthy of exploring.
Here is something to consider. Why is it that we applaud women, in fact congratulate their spirit, physical fitness, and independence, when they take up dangerous outdoor sports such as hang-gliding, and bungee jumping, which can snap your neck and kill you instantly on your first jump if something goes wrong?
But the minute that same woman wants to go under the knife to make her boobs bigger or her nose smaller we hiss. Maybe having big boobs will bring her the same pleasure as jumping out of an airplane, so who are we to judge? (Besides, I've known women who have gone out with men and jumped out of airplanes just to get laid, hardly a risk worth taking.)
Suddenly we are unsupportive of a woman's personal choice. We decide she is a victim of a cruel society that puts too much importance on beauty, so it's not really her decision. She is weak and powerless. She is putting herself in danger and it is unfounded.
The show doesn't make the claim outright that beauty brings happiness, but many people choose to read into it and decide that is what the producers are implying, and then make a case out of it. Is that really fair?
If anything, the show dwells on the fact that changes the surgeons make are merely physical and a person must find herself through therapy in order to feel whole again. Of the shows I've seen they have been downright vigilant in pointing this out. So at least give a little credit where credit is due.
Clearly the show's producer's are not stupid. They know how to reach a bottom line. If we didn't watch the show it would lose ratings and advertisers would pull out. The show would be cancelled. America would be spared.
But I love watching "before and afters" and my seven year old daughter loves watching them with me. When we watch we are spending time together. I know I can use this show as a springboard for further conversation about self-esteem. (Oh, and did I mention the "before and after" shots are really entertaining?) So maybe the show has some redeeming qualities, after all.
Children are truthful barometers of the physical world, but it seems adults aren't allowed to be and I don't think that is fair. A contestant's husband is criticized for calling his wife average when the panel themselves are guilty of using the same description. But so what? It was truthful.
The difference between the husband and the panel is that the husband was clearly not living up to our standards of what an ideal supportive husband should be (he failed to follow up with saying, "But I love her just the way she is."), and the panel follows up with, "because she volunteered for this we are going to make her physically beautiful but we are also going to give her some therapy to work on her insides."
Now your kid can look at your butt and tell you it's huge---but it doesn't mean anything. It has absolutely no bearing on their love for a you. So in that same vain, my daughter can look and say, "yes, her nose is smaller and I think that it's cuter now." She is entitled to her opinion. But in the same breath she'll totally dwell on the fact that the woman is dealing with an unsupportive husband and that she should seriously consider his attitude for not loving her for who she was *before* the surgery. My girl isn't stupid. She is also quick to point out that regardless of newfound beauty some of the women were agitated and whiny and that they had a long way to go before finding happiness.
I only hope that intellectuals aren't so arrogant as to assume the rest of the public (the "masses", right?) can't think for themselves. Perhaps the masses, children included, aren't as impressionable as one might think, and perhaps one shouldn't worry so much about how people are going to internalize the show.
If the show causes a person to pause and reflect, then one should ask one's self (and answer honestly): "What do I consider to be beautiful? How do I measure up to my own personal standards?" The fact is, personal standards too often reflect society's standards. But that doesn't imply society's standards are wrong or bad, either.
I don't think it's fair to make women feel bad or pathetic for wanting to change some physical attributes. So maybe it isn't fair to judge The Swan's producers for capitalizing on this.
As women we should support other women's choices. Perhaps we just don't do that so much when it comes to physical appearance because once a woman is a beauty she becomes a threat. She is competition, and in our world it's survival of the fittest. Like it or not, sex drives the human species and more often than not beauty determines who gets it and who doesn't.
Big deal. It's great entertainment and I am not (too) embarassed to get caught watching it.
Posted by: susan on April 21, 2004 10:45 AMI love this show I would give anything to be apart of it...when you have been humpty dumpty all your life it would be nice if someone would help you break the egg and become a swan
Posted by: Liz on April 22, 2004 11:40 AMFOX, We love your show The Swan, My daughter asked me why I didn't try to get on the show. She too feels that I need this type of help. Please get my message to Dr. Randal Haworth.
Thank you
FOX
Dr. Randal Haworth please help me!
CJ
My mom is 64 years old, is that to old to be on this, amazing show? I like watching this show cause, the contestants really do look beautiful after wards.
Posted by: sheila on April 23, 2004 11:01 AMThank you Susan, I am so sick of reading what's wrong with the show, I can't stand it any more. If you feel so strongly about the motives behind it, DAMN IT! STOP WATCHING. I love the show and would also like to know where to sign up. I can tell you right now, I do not have any issues with myself. Hell I just want a flat tummy and a sexy butt (for free!!!) I have to agree when Susan says "most women don't want to see this happen for other women, because then she becomes competition for all of the self rightous people who fail to see their own physical flaws." Get over it, PLEASE! No one is holding a gun to your head making you watch this show, but if you think that it will be cancelled because YOU don't watch, you have another THINK coming.
Oh! Do me a favor, post the web address where I can "Sign up" so that I can piss people off too.
Great post and analysis. The way the staff unfeelingly changed the women's identity was horrifying, but I hadn't put words on it.
Posted by: Jan on April 27, 2004 08:03 AMI want to be a contestant. Please tell me how I sign up. Does having a 13 1/2 pound baby naturally qualify me?
Posted by: Susan on April 28, 2004 01:10 AMThat is so scary. All these individual women are turned into some kind of barbie.
It's also scary that so many people here think your article is some sort of Fox advertisement and want to sign up.
Please let me know how to contact Dr. Randal Haworth. Is he has a website?
Thank you.
I WOULD LIKE MY WIFE TO BE A CONTESTANT ON THE SWAN SHOW,SHE IS A WONDERFUL MOTHER OF 5 CHILDREN VERY DEPRESSED OF HER APPEARENCE AND WEIGHT , I BELIEVE THAT THE SWAN SHOW CAN HELP HER REGAIN HER SELF ESTEEM AGAIN I BELIEVE SHE WILL COME OUT A WINNER. SO PLEASE CONSIDER MY WIFE ,OR TELL ME HOW I SIGN HER UP.
Posted by: Vinny on May 10, 2004 09:30 PMTo whom it may concern:
I was wondering how to become a contestant on your show? please respond to me .
Thank-you-
michelle
Randal Haworths work may look good on TV, but I have seen some of his patients who have spent a fortune on revision surgery.
Posted by: Larry on May 13, 2004 08:06 PMHI, I AM A MOTHER OF FOUR CHILDREN AND ALSO HAVE CUSTODY OF MY TWO NEICES,I BECAME A MOTHER AT THE AGE OF SIXTEEN,SO THEREFORE I FEEL EVERYTHING NOW THAT I AM THIRTY-THREE HAS WENT SOUTH,I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE A CHANCE TO HAVE ALOT OF PROCEDURES DONE,NOT TO COMPETE WITH BEAUTIFUL WOMEN,BUT TO HAVE A CHANCE TO LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND FINALLY LIKE WHAT I SEE!!!! TO ME THIS IS THE BEST SHOW ON TELEVISION,I FEEL THE PEOPLE THAT WORK WITH THIS SHOW SHOULD GET LOTS OF CREDIT,DO YOU REALIZE THE MONEY THESE PEOPLE ARE OUT OF BY VOLUNTEERING THERE TIME AND EXPERTESE?I APPRECIATE WATCHING THE WOMEN FINALLY FEEL THAT THEY CAN WALK WITH THERE HEADS HELD HIGH IN TODAYS SOCIETY,WHEN SO MANY PEOPLE ARE SO QUICK TO JUDGE!I WOULD LOVE TO BE A CONTESTANT ON THIS SHOW,SO PLEASE,PLEASE,LET ME KNOW HOW TO SIGN UP AND I WILL GLADLY GO, AND I WILL STICK TO ANY AND EVERYTHING THE DOCTORS,THE COUNSELOR,THE FITNESS TRAINER,TELL ME TO DO. SEE THERE ARE LOTS OF US OUT HERE THAT WOULD LOVE TO JUST HAVE A CHANCE!!!!! SANDY
Posted by: sandy on May 13, 2004 10:02 PMThey DID NOT volunteer their work. It was reported on one of the news channels that each surgeon got up to $200,000 for each makeover.
Posted by: on May 14, 2004 01:12 PMI would also like to know how to become a contestant. I can't wait to hear from you Thanks Denise
Posted by: DENISE SNYDER on May 14, 2004 02:42 PMHi , I love the show . When I first watched it, it brought me to tears just thinking about how you have changed the lives of so many women, some people don't realize the great amount of stress that comes with outer beauty, I am one that wakes up to the fear of what I look like everyday. I would love to be able to have that beauty that some women are blessed with and need no help to accomplish that. So where do I sign up. Christine
Posted by: Christine Anson on May 15, 2004 06:55 AM
