Watch this show, buy this product, you can be a whole new you!
Makeover television shows repeatedly promise self-renewal and the
opportunity for reinvention, but what do we know about the people who
watch them? As it turns out, surprisingly little.
The Makeover is the first book to consider the rapid rise of makeover
shows from the perspectives of their viewers. Katherine Sender argues
that this genre of reality television continues a long history of
self-improvement, shaped through contemporary media, technological, and
economic contexts. Most people think that reality television viewers are
ideological dupes and obliging consumers. Sender, however, finds that
they have a much more nuanced and reflexive approach to the shows they
watch. They are critical of the instruction, the consumer plugs, and the
manipulative editing in the shows. At the same time, they buy into the
shows' imperative to construct a reflexive self: an inner self that can
be seen as if from the outside, and must be explored and expressed to
others. The Makeover intervenes in debates about both reality television
and audience research, offering the concept of the reflexive self to
move these debates forward.