How To Look Bad Naked
Here’s Leah McClaren’s unique criticism of the show How To Look Good Naked, which we talked about a while back.
Each episode begins with a regular chubby gal, clad only in underwear, crying in front of a three-way full-length mirror as Kressley stands behind her, pointing out the positives. “Look at this gorgeous décolleté,” he’ll say. “And those shapely calves. And your feet – they’re perfect!” It’s a strangely cringe-worthy display reminiscent of the backhanded chubby-girl compliment, “Such a pretty face.” I don’t know about you, but if someone looked at me naked and remarked on my “delicate wrists,” I’d slap him…
Worse yet, the resulting nude portrait (also projected onto a billboard) has been obviously touched up, sending the mixed message that while women should learn to love themselves just the way they are, the way they are is not quite good enough.
Of course, we also have this paragraph:
The fact that overweight is now “what a real woman looks like” in North America is disturbing, and says at least as much about our unhealthy consumer behaviour as it does about our ability to love ourselves. I’m all for going to the spa and hugging it out with my gay friends, but perhaps the solution for these women is something more radical – say, a gym membership or eating less?
First of all, “real women” come in all shapes and sizes; not just overweight ones, but inclusive of overweight ones. To attribute any particular person’s overweight to “unhealthy consumer behavior” is a dangerous generalization, to my mind. Also, I have a gym membership, and I use it. What’s your point?
Okay, sorry, I didn’t mean to get off track there. The point is, I found the article to be an interesting discussion of a show that is maybe not quite as fat positive as it thinks it is. Your thoughts?
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Fat Positive, Fatism, TV
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I’ve only seen about five episodes of this show before I got bored with it, but I will say that not every episode is about a “regular chubby gal”. They had one episode with a short woman who felt like no one took her seriously because she was so small and an episode with a woman who was quite tall and slim – and felt unwomanly because she didn’t have “curves”.
I wish i had something profound to say about this show. But I haven’t watched it so I’ll shut my mouth. But seeing as how my day revolves around making semi-funny sex related comments I will say this:
If i am half naked in front of a mirror with a guy behind me, he’d better be “doing” and not talking:)
Thank you and good day.
I think a lot of what Gok remarks on is what he feels the woman will BELIEVE. “Wow, that is a great belly!” “Er, no, Gok, I hate it,” vs “Wow, you have cute ankles!” “Gosh, I never thought about my ankles before, yes, they are cute.”
Leah is such a cow…
I haven’t seen the show but I agree with Ailbhe above, that he’s probably not meaning it in the sense that the rest of her can’t be pretty, but rather he has had experience with certain things that make people unhappy and they haven’t necessarily worked themselves up to believing.
I think he’s pointing out parts that women can look at on themselves and agree, yeah that part is good. It’s a start on liking your whole body, baby steps, ya know? In the short amount of time given for each woman, no way is she going to love her whole body at the end of it, but she may end up liking parts she used to hate, which may lead her to liking other hated parts.
My take on it? It’s tv, people, and you aren’t ever going to have a show that’s totally fat-positive in all the ways you want it to be. Finding sponsors for a show like that (advertising), hell, finding someone to make it and fat people to star in it is a herculean task all by itself. Then selling it to a network and getting people to watch is a whole ‘nother set of headaches in this day and age of obesity hysteria.
I got bored watching the show after a while, mainly because there hasn’t been anyone on there that is really fat. I’d like to see Carson take a woman who is, say, Mama Cass-sized and do a makeover on her and make her look good naked. Make her feel good about herself, find flattering bras and undies and clothing for her. A woman with a rack o’doom and the ribcage and shoulders to support it. That’s a show I’d pay to see.
I mean seriously … sometimes you have to accept that things won’t be perfect but good intentions should be rewarded. I think this show is touching and truly attempts to be honest about the insecurities many women feel due to societal pressures. They don’t ask anyone to change anything except their negative view of themselves. Why complain about that?
I like the part where they line up several different sized women in their underwear and have the subject place herself where she thinks she belongs and then they pull her out and point out where she really belongs. I only saw it a couple of times and they both picked the wrong place in line like she thought she looked bigger than she really was. When I was underweight and had no chest I still thought my butt was enormous. It wasn’t, it was a normal size.
It seems like they are making them see what they really are instead of what’s in their minds and that it isn’t nearly as bad as they think and some of it is their clothing making them think there is something wrong with their bodies when there isn’t.
I think the show is mostly good, what I’ve seen of it.
You’re making me wish I had TV so I could decide what I think about this show :)
I only caught a few episodes but from the reviews Ive read of the show, I have nothing but applause and praise for it. I tried to read the entirety of McClaren’s review but it said I had to purchase the article. It did include the first line, in which McClaren criticizes herself in front of a mirror. Perhaps she ought to be the next profilee on the show. Perhaps her own insecurity is the reason why she criticizes the women selected to be on the show. As they say, misery loves company.
Leah McClaren is, to put it mildly, not well-liked by most Globe readers in general. I get the impression that most people read her column to make fun of it later. Here’s a good quote from her :”…the underground media revolution is officially over…the blogosphere… is spectacularly boring.” – LEAH McLAREN
Just google her name…you’ll get the idea.
I think she’s over analyzing the show. I saw the first episode and it made me like my body, so I don’t care if it’s not ‘technically’ fat friendly.
My initial feeling was that having a skinny, super-stylized fashionisto gay man tell women how to feel comfortable in their skin seemed sorta… misguided. But I watched an episode, and it was good-intentioned, if yes, still slightly misguided.
I’m glad someone here mentioned that the show has gone on to feature other types than “heavy”–e.g. short, boyish, tall, underweight, etc. I was wondering if they would do that, and I’m glad. (That way the emphasis is just on general self-acceptance techniques, & becoming less self-conscious is a great tool for anyone!)
There used to be a reality/therapy show called “Starting Over” and I watched an episode where, to get a heavyset woman to like and accept her body more, they had her pose nude in a fine art class and then look at all the beautiful portraits painted of her. There’s something about seeing your body through the eyes of someone else that makes you embrace it more (like through a lover’s adoring eyes, or the artist’s appreciative gaze, etc.). Our own gaze is usually the most hyper-critical, sadly.
I don’t hate the show. It just wasn’t totally lost on me that it’s a guy — gay, sure, but a guy — giving a woman permission to approve of her own body.
Other than that, i don’t mind it.
Oh and yawn on the whole “fat people need to go to the gym” mantra.
I have to echo the comments of sj and Lady Vengeance. LM may be widely read but my impression is that her fan club is very small.
I think the show is definitely fat-positive, except I’d like to see, as vesta says, a *really* fat woman or one who doesn’t have such an obviously pretty face already. I read the article in question when it came out, and my comment to the asshole who wrote it was that losing weight and exercising are not remotely RADICAL – that’s all anyone ever says or does.
What was really radical? Carson telling the woman to STOP dieting and enjoy her life. The woman at the end saying “NO MORE DIETS!” THAT was freaking radical. I hated that article.
Sometimes I feel like shows like that are a side-show for all the skinny people to watch and go, Oh my god look at that fat chick. But I’m paranoid. I always feel like people are saying that about me.
i have to say that anything that helps a woman to feel more comfortable in her own skin is NOT bad. so many women, fat and skinny alike, feel as though they don’t measure up. i don’t care if they do touch up those naked photos, those women see themselves as beautiful when the whole process is over. that’s enough to get my “positive tv” vote.
oh, and i too LOVE the part where they line up the chubbies from largest to smallest and the girl in the show always puts herself as bigger than she really is. don’t we all see ourselves like that??
For starters, I watched every episode of How To Look Good Naked, and I loved them all. Secondly, the only episode that showed a woman talking about how she hated her fat, specifically, was the very first episode. Every other episodes showed women of all body types, races, ages, heights, weights, and personalities. I know some people might object to Carson’s methods, but I would agree with Anna above. Anything that helps a woman love herself is not a bad thing.
I forgot to add to my above post that all the women in every episode had something different they didn’t like about themselves. Not every woman on the show thought she was fat.
It may interest you all to know that Gok (the presenter) although now a skinny gay fashionista comes himself from weighing 20 stone and wearing tracksuit bottoms all the time and having zero self esteem. I think it is great that he encourages REAL women to properly look at themselves. After watching the shows I always feel better about my cellulite, wobbly bits etc – and I have learned to love my fairly enormous breasts as a result!
I’ll repeat what my gay apartment manager told me – gay men make the best girlfriends ever. I love my boys, and when they give me compliments, I take them.
What Carson does is good. He makes you open your eyes and see yourself – helps you find the positive and points out all the good bits, and that’s the start of self acceptance.
As for Leah, she can kiss my ass. My frickin’ personal trainer who tells me over and over that I can wipe the floor with his thinner clients. I bust my ass five times a week in the gym to strengthen my core because I have a broken L-5 vertebrae, and I am certainly no skinny girl at all.
I wish I had cable so I could watch this show more often. One thing that I wish they would incorporate more time into is when they go shopping for flattering clothing. There was one particular curvy, super busty gal on there who has the same exact shape and size as me and I’d wished I was able to get more style advice out of that segment. I would think that this would be helpful for anyone watching that can see themselves in the women that are featured on the show. Sometimes we all have days when we actually *feel* sexy and would like our clothing to reflect that in a way that flatters our particular shapes…and sometimes we might struggle to find the right outfit to make that happen.