(no subject)

[whispercricket]

I currently am fascinated in a horrified way by an episode of the show "What Not to Wear". I should have known better than to switch to it, but Iron Chef had ended (and I don't like Emeril, who was on next), and I was still doing stuff and wanted background noise. I've seen this show before, and it was okay - it had some nice points about cut and color and making things go together (which I'm sure I could try and use if I was given $5000 just to spend on clothes :) ). But this episode...it could be used as a case study in peer pressure and enforced conformity.


The first personal outfit of the subject (woman being brainwashed) was a standard woman's cut t-shirt and jeans, with a blocky shoe - a little casual for work, and the slogan on the t-shirt was rather stupid, but perfectly fine for the weekend or going out to the store. Or so I mistakenly thought... First, it seems that comfortable shoes with round toes are not acceptible ("ladylike" - who uses that sort of language these days? - apparently, round toed shoes belong at truck stops), and what is appropriate to wear to the grocery store is a sweater + tweed jacket + skirt + tights + knee-high leather boots (I thought the boots were neat, actually, except for the 2 inch heel). It completely deserved the test subject's incredulous laughter ("...to the store?!?").

The second personal outfit was a little off, but again they went after the slightly clunky shoes (which she said were comfortable, and I thought looked fine), calling them "Bride of Chucky" shoes. Poor shoes! When they showed "better" shoes (with toes so pointed that they could be weapons - I guess that could be practical), the subject asked if it was possible to run in them, to which the answers were, "Where would you need to go?" and "You can walk briskly".

...

What is this, a conspiracy to put women into shoes in which they are not able to run from burning buildings? It's like in King's Quest 4 where the princess wouldn't climb rocks. It's frightening, and I can't stop watching (an entire cultural psychology paper could be written using this as material).


[ETA: They just insulted the woman's wedding dress. That's not nice!]

Comments

[frozencapybara.livejournal.com]

I assume this was the american version of the show?

I actually kind of like the british version. The hosts concentrate on what looks good on the woman they're working with, and not necessarily what's super-fashionable (shock!). They will also take into account lifestyle, like not forcing spike heels on a woman who has to walk all day. Fashion is just not my thing in general, but that show isn't bad within that context. The hosts are honest, but they're realistic and not mean.

The american version is just horrid, though. They're rude, obnoxious, downright mean, and waste perfectly good clothing. I think the worst one I saw was someone who had a reindeer sweater. Granted, this was not the most fashionable garment ever - in fact, it was pretty ugly. But it looked like it might be handmade. And if that was the case, the subject's grandmother probably spent hundreds of hours making this sweater for her granddaughter as a gesture of love... and the idiots threw it in the trash. They might have even taken scissors to it. It was horrible.

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

Yeah, everything I've heard about this show leads me to believe that it's pretty wretched. I rank it alongside "makeover" episodes of talk shows, in which they start with a variety of individuals and churn out a lineup of suited, short-haired drones. *shudder*