How to Look Good Naked

I watched the first episode on Lifetime's website and I must say that this is a very nice show and a welcome departure from the Extreme Makeover shows and their ilk. Rather than take a woman who is unhappy with herself and render her unrecognizable, host Carson Kressley provides pep talks and tips to merely flatter the woman's look rather than change it; the most dramatic change to the woman's look was a haircut and some highlights. The show also features interesting facts and statistics about women and body image in America at the bottom of the screen throughout the show. While it would be nice to not be so reliant on the male gaze - one of the show's features is having the woman's picture posted on the side of a building, and then Carson and the woman asking (often male) passers-by whether or not she looks good naked - it is a small criticism, and the woman seemed more confident in her appearance even without the aid of onlookers. All in all a nice show, one that is fun to watch and makes you feel good.

Carson shines in his role here. He is part stylist & part therapist. To say these women are dissatisfied with their looks before he works with them is a gross understatement. Many of these women are paralyzed by their misery over how they perceive themselves. Carson does not just get them into better clothes & hair styles, he makes tremendous progress with them in getting them to see the positives about their physicality. Although this is a remake of the English show of the same name & it seems I usually prefer the original to a show's remake, Carson's version is much better. He is so funny and warm and just loving toward these women. Many of these ladies are heavy and just about hate themselves because of that. In our society, that is no surprise. Somehow in the USA we all want to eat way more than need, but we all demand that we all look hot. Not usually possible. One of my favorite episodes was with the absolutely gorgeous woman who was so ashamed of her looks that she dressed only in black & wore sunglasses everyday all day. By the end of the show Carson had given away all her sunglasses, she was wearing beautiful colorful clothes, was smiling nonstop, and seemed so relaxed to have that burden off her back. I hope there are more episodes coming.

This comment is for the Swedish version of this show. I've never seen the British or American versions so I don't really know anything about those. But I guess that the formula is more or less the same.

I like the basic idea about making women feel better about themselves. But one thing really puzzles me. Do women really drop their clothes this easily? And in front of a camera? Sounds strange to me. Even if they do feel more beautiful than ever before. My guess is that these women were asked BEFORE doing the show, if they would consider getting naked.

Would the producers really waste all this time and money on a woman, and then just HOPE that she will agree to get naked after everything else has been done and paid for? Otherwise the episode has to stay in the archive together with film of 20 other women that didn't want to get naked on TV? But I guess a little cheating on TV isn't that unusual.

And the show does have a positive message, after all.