How To Look Good Naked
This show premieres tonight, and I am told it’s a British show coming to America. Based on the comments (by the way, [sic]), it seems like a very body positive show.
I have always admire Carson sense of humor and love for life. Imagine my surprise that he is doing what he did for the guys to enhance their best feature, to show women how to be at their best. It is such an inspiration to me as a personal trainer to bring out the best in my client when they come for me. Not everyone can look like a certain movie star, and there is beauty in all kinds of body type.
I am 28 5’2” and weigh 175. This is the biggest I have been my whole life. It takes great internal strength to be able to program your mind and eyes to accepting the person you really are. I am a full figured woman and everyday I tellmyself how beautiful I am. Of course I do have those days where i want to hide for the rest of my life. I recently broke up with a boyfriend who put me down so much about my weight. And after a while he almost had me convinced of how much weight I had to lose to look decent. All women are beautiful!
We live in a society where women are brainwashed into thinking that they are not beautiful unless the have THE perfect body: flat stomach, tight butt, perfect perky breast, and NO cellulite. All women big and small will be able to relate to this show. I’m 5’3″ and 110 lbs, I know I’m not fat but, I hate to look at my self naked or in a swimsuit. I’m hoping that by watching this show, I can reprogram my brain to over look my flaws and see what is beautiful. Thank you Lifetime and Carson for the positive show. You are changing lives .
So, should we all check it out? Has anyone seen any promos, or the original version? Should we believe the hype? I guess we should all come back here and talk about it after we’ve seen it. But if you’ve heard any buzz, let us know!
Thanks to fatfighter for the alert.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advertising, Fashion, Fat Positive, Feel Good Friday, Question, TV
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I am eagerly anticipating this show tonight. I think that anything we do to promote self-esteem and true body awareness is a great step. I hope I’m not let down. The ads I’ve seen and the reviews I’ve read have all been very positive. Let’s keep fingers crossed!
I just think it’s great that they show people that know matter who you are, what you look like, you are never satisfied but you CAN feel beautiful and love yourself.
To me the show sounds like it’s less about fat acceptance, and more about SELF acceptance.
I quite enjoy the British version, except for the fact that they REALLY like ‘bodyshaping’ underwear.
I had no idea there was going to be an American version, but I hope it’s just as good.
I watch The Golden Girls reruns on Lifetime, so I’ve seen quite a few ads for this show. At first I was kind of apprehensive, but it actually does look like it’s going to be really positive. In one of the ads, Carson’s slogan is, “Don’t accept what you see in the mirror, flaunt it!” and it looks like he’s going to be dealing with a large variety of body types, so I’m actually holding out hope for it.
I’ve seen the first two episodes on Comcast On Demand. They were awesome. Very inspiring and empowering. And the women were brave and beautiful. I think this is going to be a huge hit.
I just finished a new post on the show. I loved watching the first episode. Very body positive and really inspiring.
I have watched one episode. I really think that it is going to do good things. One example from the episode I watched is that they showed the young woman that the bra she was wearing was actually the wrong size for her. It was her ill-fitting bra that caused the “underarm fat rolls” that she berated herself over. A proper fitting bra and those “rolls” were gone. I think that it will give a great deal of useful information that will empower women of all sizes and shapes.
I enjoy the original very much. They do go on rather about control underwear and I remember some stuff about wearing your hair long because it’s slimming, but overall it’s very positive. I think my partner finds it a bit silly, that women can end up in tears in front of the mirror because they actually like the way they look. But I get it.
Harriet of Feed Me! posted about this today. I have to say I’m intrigued. I like her take on it.
http://harrietbrown.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-to-get-naked-on-national-tv.html
I saw the first episode on iTunes. It is well worth the watch. Very body positive. We all need our own little Carsons!
Thanks for the heads-up, I’ll have to check it out. I’ve seen the UK version, it has something good to say.
I’m halfway through the first episode on On Demand and it’s amazing. I never thought I’d see anything like this on TV.
I actually teared up — so nice to see something encouraging self-positivity.
They broadcast the original version here in New Zealand, and I was pretty impressed – it was partly ‘What not to Wear’ Trinny and Susannah style with the fashion advice that was given, which appears to be the marketing drawcard; though when you watch it, the focus is very much on improving the self esteem and confidence of the participants. It’ll be interesting to see if the American version differs.
I’ll second AquaMarine and point out that the first episode, “Layla,” is available for free download right now on iTunes. I haven’t watched all of it yet, but the full-length mirror scene was enough to cue the waterworks. Overall, so far, it looks like a score for Body Positivity. Yay!
I want to like this show, I really do. Carson is a doll, it’s a great premise, and there really does seem to be some heart in it … we just don’t see it, or enough of it. I found it a bit frenetic, hurrying from one bit to the next without ever really exploring the underlying issues. I have the same problem with Tim Gunn’s new show (and I love Tim).
Also, I was just on the Naked website, where they have a feature where you can identify your body type and get advice about how to dress. I would just like to state for the record (now listen up Naked, Marie Claire, Glamour, and any other show or magazine that is hip enough to actually feature products for big girls): PLUS SIZE IS NOT A BODY TYPE.
I am a plus size woman with an hourglass figure, short waist, and broad shoulders; and I am petite. My good friend Marlene is a plus sized woman with a boyish figure, who is also petite. My ex-roommate was plus sized, tall, pear shape with a teensy-tiny waist. PLUS IS NOT ONE SIZE FITS ALL.
:Thus endeth the tangential rant:
I just watched the rerun of this and I loved it. I do kind of wish it had been an hour instead of a half hour so we could see more of what they do with the women to help them with perception change, etc. But it had some good eye openers for all women with regards to how the right clothes can make a huge difference in how one looks/feels about themselves, and I loved it when they had her estimate her hip size just to show her how wrong her perceptions were about herself. (Also, I really want the black and white dress the girl tried on because it was awesome!)
This is what I said over at Shapely Prose:
It’s been on over here for a while, with this divine young boy called Gok Wan presenting it. I love him, I want to be his lavendar wife.
It always starts off with about 10 women all dressed in bra and knickers, of various sizes, and the woman who’s the star has to put herself where she thinks she comes in terms of bigness. Of course, they always get it wrong, and they’re always a lot slimmer than they think they are. He asks her to look at the other women and asks her if she thinks they’re beautiful, and why, if she thinks they’re beautiful, why she doesn’t think she has the right to be. It’s a pretty cool little thing, really.
Then he does loads of clothes/exercise/botox-y type stuff. It gets a bit What Not To Wear at the end.
I was telling my Mum all about it yesterday actually, because we think her sister thinks that cos she’s fat now that she no longer has to the right to pretty clothes. Her sister is about the same size as my mum – and smaller than me – and we also think my uncle perpetuates her idea that she doesn’t have the right to look good. I told my mum that if anyone made me feel like that I’d tell them to Naff off, politely. It felt good :)
The U.K. version is pretty body positive.
It doesn’t actually involve any botox, plastic surgery etc. He spends the first part of the show improving their self image, then at the end the get a (non invasive) makeover and a naked photoshoot (a tasteful one!)
mmm, I dunno. Thinking about this show in the most literal of terms, doesn’t full body acceptance and celebration involve accepting every flaw? Including your saggy boobs? The whole point of a bra or “shaping undergarmets” is to alter the way your body looks in its natural state. It’s almost like the message is: “love your cellulite since we haven’t come up with a quick easy fix for that yet, but please for God’s sake, wear a bra.”
I love this show! I know what you are saying Arlene, but sometimes I dresses that just looks better on if I’m wearing Spanx underneath. But you couldn’t convince me to live in the them or anything! I think Look Good Naked does a great job of showing you how to love your body without adding “no matter what” or “in spite of” into the mix.
I’ve watched many episodes of the UK original and it’s great fun and very body positive. They give lots of useful styling tips and try to make the women ACCEPT their body, instead of making them feel bad for every pound of weight they carry or for other perceived imperfections on their bodies! They explain how to work what you’ve got. Plus the UK presenter is quite funny, I like him, and I also like Carson. Let us know if you liked the show will ya!
The original version has been running in the UK for a while now and I love it. I think whether your US version will be as good depends on the presenter. Over here it’s done by a gay stylist called Gok Wan who adores women and really has a knack of making them feel and look fabulous.
I watched it and overall liked it. I have mixed feelings about the scene where Layla had to place herself in thatlineup of women, though.
On the one hand, I thought it was a really good illustration of how one’s body image could be completely skewed. On the other hand, there was a slight tone of, “See! You’re not that fat! You could be all the way up there.” I might have been reading too much into it, and I don’t think that was the host’s intent, but I do wonder if they will ever have a guest on who’s heavier than the heaviest woman in the lineup and how that would be handled. Right now, the way that segment is set up almost seems to depend on the guest being thinner than the other women. There’s a whiff of body competition there that I thought contradicted the overall tone of the show.
Of course, I have not seen the UK version, so I don’t know how it’s played out there. And like I said, overall, I thought it was pretty good.
I just saw the first episode and I love it. The whole tone is one of love and respect — and Carson is so much more genuine than I expected him to be. I can’t wait to see the next episode.
I’ve been watching this blog for a while, and for the longest time I’ve seriously hated myself for everything. I’m 5’11 and I weigh 183 pounds, give or take a couple on any given day. I’m not extremely fat, but I always find something to beat myself up on. My fiance tells me I’m beautiful everyday, but it’s always so hard to believe.
I don’t know what it was about the first episode of that show, but it really hit me. Beauty isn’t what’s on the outside; it’s the confidence on the inside. My fiance tells me he misses my confidence all the time, and I’m finally realizing what he said was true. Confidence is sexier than what you look like. A size-two woman could have no confidence and look horrible, but a size 26 could be absolutely gorgeous if she has her confidence. Size seriously has nothing to do with beauty.
For some reason, the first episode of this show made everything click for me. The woman wasn’t a size 2, but she was absolutely gorgeous. Thank you so much for posting it.
I’m a huge fan of the UK version and I’m absolutely in LOVE with the presenter, Gok Wan – I want him to take me shopping and brush my hair and be my best friend.
He genuinely loves women and even during the line up (and this is in response to Nonk’s concerns), he frequently uses terms like ‘gorgeous’ and ‘fantastic’ and ‘lushious’ in describing the largest ladies so I’ve never thought of it as being a sort of competition – in fact, it’s more about celebrating those things that make us who we are, all of us, and driving the point that those differences are what makes us beautiful.
Ok, so the use of slimming pants is a bit over the top (even on women who aren’t particularly big which I have to question) but I admit to purchasing some and by god, they work.
I do think the presenter is one of the best things about the UK version – I’m very interested to see how they interpret this for a US audience. It’s fantastic to have a show where cosmetic surgery isn’t shown as the end-all-be-all of looking great at any size or age.
Like Corinna, I, too, did a blog post about this show, after it almost moved me to tears.
I wasn’t aware that it is based on a UK version. Does anyone know if there’s a clip of it online somewhere? I’d love to see it.
In Georgia, girls are not judged for weight UNLESS they are extremely overweight and even then only concern is shown and friends try and help that person make healthier choices and not only that we eat what she eats when she eats so she’s not alone and we try to keep her motivated. shes beautiful already but she needs to feel it. 200 pounds for me isnt bad I dont like the scrawny picture perfect girls i like REAL girls