10 years younger

Ten years younger is a makeover show that airs on TLC. As its title suggests it is about making the participants look about ten years younger. In each episode, there is either a woman or, at much fewer rates, a man who wishes to change her/his appearance. The host and his Glam Squad composed of a makeup artist, hair stylist and a fashion advisor help the participant go through the metamorphosis. All the episodes have a similar pattern. First, the participant is introduced, it is usually a person that had some hard luck and as result gave up on their looks. After the little biographical introduction the participants are put in a soundproof glass box that is set up in the middle of a crowded street. The host questions people walking by about their impression of the participant’s age and the reason they attribute that particular age to the person in the box. Most of the time the participants look overtired, have frumpy unisex clothes, their hair is out of style, and the women don’t wear makeup. The host then calculates the average age told by the crowd, and informs the result to the participant, who in return has to tell his/her real age. The difference between the individual’s estimated and real age gives the number of years that the show will attempt to remove from the person. At that point the Glam Squad is ready to take over. The episode I watched was about Stacey, a recent mom to a five month old. She had had hard time taking care of both her ill mother and her newborn daughter, and was left physically and emotionally drained. Stacey admits that she used to look almost perfect ten tears ago, but now with the strain of her mother’s sickness and her recent birthing has lost control on her appearance. She just gave up, because whatever she attempted seemed useless. She used to be a model, but now she dressed in long baggy clothes. When put in the box people assumed she was on average 43 years old, it was a shocker because she is in reality only 27. The Glam Squad does what they are paid to do, gender. Stacey is advised to wear very feminine clothes that emphasize her waistline and show off her legs. She is further counseled to sport more items that have lace or other additives that make it more delicate, thus feminine. She is given a sexy modern haircut and instructions on how to put more volume in them. After the makeup, it is the emotional moment, she is unveiled to herself. She is completely transformed from the frumpy looking person to a very gender normative woman. She is of course very happy to look so good for her husband, who in return seems very proud to see her transformation. She is put again in the box and the public is enthusiastic about her appearance and, this time, estimates her age as 29.
There are a couple of themes that appear in this episode and are also often recurring in the other ones. Stacey feels powerless about her appearance, because her body had changed in result of her pregnancy (in other cases due to another event), and she was unable yet to get back to her previous shape. The majority of women including Stacey are hunted by the high standards of beauty set for women by the society. We are brainwashed to think that to keep our privileges, even the most fundamental ones, like the respect and love of our partners we have to stay young and often thin. Through every form, media tells us how to be women, how to dress and behave to be more like one. With the underlying threat that if we don’t follow these guidelines, we can only live like outcasts, unsuccessful socially. Stacey is happy to please her husband again and receive approval from the crowd. When there are such strong forces that hold an individual in check, within the boundaries of social and gender norms, it is very hard indeed to break apart from them and simply stop caring for them.
Last year, when I still had cable TV I used to watch this show and “What not to Wear” on a regular basis. After each episode I used to think to myself I have to start dressing more feminine, putting more make up and taking better care of my hair, because it is obvious that the public response is much more favorable when following these guidelines. Although, it is very nice to see shows like these that are helping people to get a grip on their appearances and possibly their lives it is still bad in the sense that by doing what they are doing they are only enforcing gender norms. It is also bad, because it gives too much attention to the physical appearance, not all problems are fixed by improving the outer shell. In the case of Stacey, the producers of the show could have offered some help in caring for her ill mother and baby, or thought her husband how to help around the house. Obviously he wasn’t helping her much if she gets completely drained of energy to give herself a five minute pampering. Michelle