How to Look Good Naked
posted by M. LeBlanc
For science, I just watched the first episode of Lifetime's new show, How to Look Good Naked. The premise of the show is your standard "makeover" show; actually, it's more like Queer Eye for fat chicks, minus the whole redo-your-home thing. I don't watch much television and I think this is the first time I've ever watched something on Lifetime, so my tv-reviewing is based on my own idiosyncratic tastes.
First, Carson is kindof annoying. Doesn't the whole "you go, girlfriend" thing get old? Apparently, every woman in America wishes for a fabulous gay best-friend-cum-fairy-godmother to tell her she seems awesome. Second, it's the same basic makeover-show shit as always, with an expensive haircut-and-highlights job, new clothes, and a spa day.
But this show is totally revolutionary in that it features plus-sized women in their underwear. More plus-sized than the Dove "real" women (can I just say the whole notion that larger women are "real" women really turns me off? And skinny women are fake? Or what?), and still totally unairbrushed. You can see some of them, if briefly, in the show trailer here. And they look hot. I kept thinking throughout the show that there are several men I know who would like to watch it for non-educational purposes, because seriously, hot chicks with big racks, in lingerie.
Chicks with hips and big racks in lingerie aside, the show is also revolutionary in that it seems to espouse a "no diets" mentality. Carson even says at the end of the episode, "no more diets, ok?" In a television era filled with people getting liposuction and being bribed to lose weight, this is shockingly refreshing: instead of trying to change your body, accept your body and try to feel look and look good as you are. It still falls into some of the traps of using terms like "problem areas" and creating "illusions", but hey, Rome wasn't built in a day.
Of course, there are people who think it's wrong to encourage fat people to feel better about themseves, like this guy who says
It's just like the people who argue that the wide array of clothes sizes in the United States is making people fat, because if you couldn't buy any cute clothes in your size, you'd just have to lose weight. Let's make the fatties feel bad! Then they'll change! 'Cause that's so worked thus far.
You know what I realized yesterday, after some really hot sex? I don't even want to be thin. If I could tap a magic wand and be 5'8" and 120 lbs., I wouldn't. I want to be fit, yes, and have lots of energy, yes, and look hot, yes, but only the cultural trope that being all those things requires being thin makes me think about thinness at all. I like my body. It's the one I've had for twenty-five years. I like walking around with this body, I like having sex with this body. It's part of my personality, and people's conception of me, and it's the body that's strong like my dad and olive-skinned like a cross between my mom and my dad and has a powerful singing voice like my mother. This body is my genealogy, and my history, and my vehicle for living, and I'm very, very attached to it.
First, Carson is kindof annoying. Doesn't the whole "you go, girlfriend" thing get old? Apparently, every woman in America wishes for a fabulous gay best-friend-cum-fairy-godmother to tell her she seems awesome. Second, it's the same basic makeover-show shit as always, with an expensive haircut-and-highlights job, new clothes, and a spa day.
But this show is totally revolutionary in that it features plus-sized women in their underwear. More plus-sized than the Dove "real" women (can I just say the whole notion that larger women are "real" women really turns me off? And skinny women are fake? Or what?), and still totally unairbrushed. You can see some of them, if briefly, in the show trailer here. And they look hot. I kept thinking throughout the show that there are several men I know who would like to watch it for non-educational purposes, because seriously, hot chicks with big racks, in lingerie.
Chicks with hips and big racks in lingerie aside, the show is also revolutionary in that it seems to espouse a "no diets" mentality. Carson even says at the end of the episode, "no more diets, ok?" In a television era filled with people getting liposuction and being bribed to lose weight, this is shockingly refreshing: instead of trying to change your body, accept your body and try to feel look and look good as you are. It still falls into some of the traps of using terms like "problem areas" and creating "illusions", but hey, Rome wasn't built in a day.
Of course, there are people who think it's wrong to encourage fat people to feel better about themseves, like this guy who says
Being fat isn't a moral failing, but it is a failing. It's just like not fastening your seatbelt or not washing your hands. It's just like being disorganized or chronically late. It's okay to say it.And since being fat is just like not fastening your seatbelt, which is bad, we can't let the bad people feel ok, because then they'll never change!
It's just like the people who argue that the wide array of clothes sizes in the United States is making people fat, because if you couldn't buy any cute clothes in your size, you'd just have to lose weight. Let's make the fatties feel bad! Then they'll change! 'Cause that's so worked thus far.
You know what I realized yesterday, after some really hot sex? I don't even want to be thin. If I could tap a magic wand and be 5'8" and 120 lbs., I wouldn't. I want to be fit, yes, and have lots of energy, yes, and look hot, yes, but only the cultural trope that being all those things requires being thin makes me think about thinness at all. I like my body. It's the one I've had for twenty-five years. I like walking around with this body, I like having sex with this body. It's part of my personality, and people's conception of me, and it's the body that's strong like my dad and olive-skinned like a cross between my mom and my dad and has a powerful singing voice like my mother. This body is my genealogy, and my history, and my vehicle for living, and I'm very, very attached to it.
Posted at 6:34 PM
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