Much previous research has been done on the effects of watching reality television about weight loss and cosmetic surgery on women’s body image. The general consensus is that these shows provoke body insecurity in women and make them feel a desire to change their own bodies and conform to ideal Eurocentric perceptions of beauty. It has been well documented how social media and reality television can have a negative effect on female viewers due to an overemphasis on perceived norms of being thin, white, and conventionally attractive. Reality television as well as other media like social media have been shown in the research literature to cause body image issues in viewers, especially female viewers, due to a lack of representation of diverse body types as well as the common idea that fat women must lose weight in order to be seen as worthy in society. There has been little diversity on reality shows for the most part in terms of body type and if such diversity is portrayed, it’s usually in a negative light and as something that a person should change about themselves rather than celebrate.
I’m personally interested in this topic because although I have not watched much reality television in the past, what I have watched has been extremely monotone and helps to reinforce existing beauty ideals of thinness, whiteness, and cisness. Through looking at how shows centered on weight, whether it’s weight loss shows or shows about heavier people as well as cosmetic surgery shows, I aim to show how those with larger body types are negatively represented and how Eurocentric body ideals are perpetuated.
The research question that I developed that my content analysis is focused on is:
What is the effect of the portrayal of how beauty is achieved on the construction of the female body type among transformation-based reality TV shows focused on weight-loss and cosmetic surgery?
For the purpose of my study, the independent variable is “portrayals of beauty” and the dependent variable is “the construction of the ideal female body type.” When I look at portrayals of how beauty is achieved in reality TV shows centered around weight, I measured how participants talk about their goals of weight loss or how they perceive themselves in a larger body as well as how trainers discuss their own views of what it means to be beautiful. For shows centered on cosmetic surgery, I measured portrayals of beauty in terms of how participants talk about their goals of cosmetic surgery and what they hope their end result will look like as well as how plastic surgeons discuss their own views of what it means to be beautiful. In order to measure my dependent variable- the construction of the ideal female body type- I measured the differences between the “before” pictures and “after” pictures since the “after” is usually more in line with what is viewed as beautiful in society.
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