Tough Love: My Hair Means Everything to Me

http://www.vh1.com/video/shows/full-episodes/inner-and-outer-beauty/1671738/playlist.jhtml

I chose to analyze the makeover episode of Tough Love: Miami for this blog because I felt that it would give insight to how women view themselves and how men prefer to view women according to the show. During this episode, the host Steve claimed that the women on the show were not portraying themselves in the correct way in order to find a suitable partner. The purpose of the show is to teach the women on the show how to act and carry themselves so that they can get dates and meet the "appropriate" man.

The show began with the host and his partner, also his mother, raiding the girls’ rooms to see what they wear when they go out and meet potential partners. Steve and his mother made comments towards how a pair of shoes was like “stripper” shoes because they were so tall and had animal prints. Other comments referring to excessive amounts of makeup and fake hair that were worn by the girls seemed to be offensive to them. Many of the women in this episode became defensive when Steve brought them for their makeovers. One girl, Bridget, stated to cry because she was on camera without any makeup on. Another girl, Christine, also started to cry when the hairstylist cut and dyed her hair. During the makeover sequence, Christine stated because she is a pageant girl, she loves her fake hair, tan, nails etc. and is devastated that Steve would force her to change. Another girl claims that because the stylists put her hair in an up-do, she now feels less confident because she cannot hide behind her hair to disguise the fact that she “has small boobs”. The superficiality of what the girls are saying, according to the show’s host, is making them less attractive to men, who apparently prefer more natural and down to earth women. In the next scene, Steve contradicts himself when he puts extensions into Jane’s hair because “men will like it”. Ironically, Jane (“the masculine one”) claims that she feels more feminine now that she has longer hair and makeup on her face and compares herself to a Victoria’s Secret model.

As another challenge, the girls are required to attend a pool party wearing bikinis. The bikinis are provided by Steve and the show. The swimsuits are all brightly colored and very small. The girls put up a fuss about wearing the bikinis out at a party where they were also required to meet new men. I noticed that the white women on the show were wearing brightly colored bikinis with designs on them while the Hispanic woman was wearing a red bikini and the African American women was wearing a black bikini. Christine, who claims to have “body issues” was wearing darker colored one-piece. While analyzing this episode I found myself questioning whether or not it was actually the girls’ choice to pick the bikini that they ended up wearing or if it was chosen for them by the shows’ producers. Before learning more about reality TV I would have assumed that the girls chose their own swimsuits because they are seen at the racks choosing, however, now I find it ironic that the Hispanic girl wore fiery red and the “bigger” girl was more covered, while all the skinny white girls had on tiny two-pieces.

According to PowerPoint slides from class, there are many different types of gazes that can occur in pop culture text. The gendered gaze suggests how gendered body should appear and act. Within the context of Tough Love: Miami and this specific episode, the women are viewed through the gendered gaze by the audience and by the producers of the show in such a way that they are portrayed to fit stereotypes. Another gaze that is relevant to this episode is the socialized gaze. The socialized gaze, according to PowerPoint slides, suggests how specific gendered bodies should act in certain social environments. For example, the “bigger” woman, Christine, should wear the one-piece bathing suit because it is more socially acceptable because the bikinis are more appropriate for the thinner women to wear. Also apparent in this episode is the internalized gaze. According to the PowerPoint slides, the internalized gaze can be described as a way of looking at oneself and policing oneself in such a way that is congruent with the way that one would want their bodies to be seen. The internalized gaze can be seen in the beginning of this episode when the girls’ rooms get raided by Steve and his mother. The girls are exposed for having tons of make-up, fake hair, and fake tanning supplies which are tools that the girls use to “beautify” themselves for others.

In the article “You Need a Makeover…”, Gallagher and Hebert state that the way that one views themselves can play a large role in the ways that they create their feminine identity (pg. 68). They also state that the basis of make-over reality shows came about in the start of the obsession by women that their bodies are not good enough to begin with and therefore must be changed (pg. 75). In connection with Jane, she claims that she feels more feminine after her make-over because she has make-up on and was given longer hair. Her femininity was re-constructed due to her new self-image. Christine, who put up a fight about her hair being changed, ended up having it changed back to her original color towards the end of the episode. According to Gallagher and Hebert, the strive to look in such a way that is socially acceptable is embedded so deeply that it is undeniable and, like for Christine, these cosmetics and changes are necessary to feel like an “acceptable woman” (pg. 75). Reality television has become such a part of our culture that often there are aspects incorporated from dramas and sitcoms as well. Jane, in this episode, can be compared to Eva Longoria’s character on Desperate Housewives because she is the stereotypical Hispanic woman. More so in Tough Love: Miami, Jane fits the category of “vamp” than anything else, according to Debra Merskin. The “vamp” can be characterized as a sexual object and the type of woman who uses her sexuality to get what she wants (pg. 328). Jane being seen in the red bikini and using her attitude to allure or deny the men in the show is congruent with the characteristics of the vamp.

While Tough Love: Miami is not known to be a make-over show, when the girls underwent this make-over process, they resisited quite a bit because they did not join the show to be made-over. Having Steve tell them that they are not carrying and portraying themselves in an appropriate way to attract a man frustrated many of them. According to Gallagher and Hebert, the media views of how women should look is always changing and the idealized way for women to look puts pressure on women so their views towards themselves always seem problematic (Pg. 77). After their makeovers were complete, many of the women did not like the way they looked because they looked different and they claimed that they spend so much time “perfecting” the way they looked before, which they thought was good, and now have to question everything that they know about beauty.

Gallagher, A. H. & Pecot-Hebert, L. (2007). “You need a makeover!”: The social construction of female body image in A Makeover Story, What Not to Wear and Extreme Makeover. Popular Communication, 5(1), 57-79.

Merskin, D. (2007). Three faces of Eva: Perpetuation of the hot-Latina stereotype in Desperate Housewives. Howard Journal of Communications, 18, 133-151. Reprinted by permission of Taylor & Francis Ltd.