The series that transforms self-proclaimed ugly ducklings into plasticated beauty queens is returning for a second season. Just when it looked like reality television couldn’t get any worse, “The Swan” is back on Fox.
Monday night kicked off the second season, which will follow 16 new contestants through out their transformations. But first came a recap of last season.
Last season’s “swans” say they found themselves while participating in the show. All came onto the show with some sort of esteem issues, family trouble, job trouble or negative feelings toward their physical appearances.
A team of so-called experts assists the contestants by repairing their body image through surgeries, diet changes and exercise regiments and repairs their mental health through therapy. They claim to help the “swans” change their life outlook and overcome life-long obstacles.
But all this show serves to do is perpetuate America’s ideal of perfection.
“The Swan” lends poor advise to a society that already suffers from depression, poor self esteem and eating disorders. It leads people to believe that there is a quick fix to such issues, a quick fix that doesn’t exist for most people.
Are we really expected to believe that a mega make-over is the ultimate solution to self esteem issues and insecurities?
There is something to be said about the mental transformations some of these women achieve, however. But that just proves that therapy is the best aspect.
Many of the women would look just fine with a simple make-over. A change in hair and make up and a better exercise plan is a lot simpler than tummy tucks, fanny lifts, nose jobs, liposuction and breast augmentations.
Maybe a surgical procedure is the solution for some in certain situations, but this show takes it to the extreme. Last season on “The Swan,” some endured more than 10 surgical procedures.
Not only are these procedures unnecessary, aren’t these surgeries dangerous? Not to mention expensive. (Which leads me to ask who pays for this. Couldn’t this money go to a better use?)
Merlene Norman, a contestant from last season, said, “You get all of this done on the outside, but you’re still the same person on the inside.” Finally, something on the show I can agree with.
The swans spend months without mirrors while going through their transformations. When their new appearances are finally revealed, they all have the same flabbergasted reaction to their new self. Their appearances have completely changed.
“I don’t look anything like that girl” were the words of Rachel Love-Fraser, the eventual winner of the pageant at the end of the first series, upon her revealing.
They come out looking like Barbie – beyond perfect. What kind of message are we sending? Especially to impressionable youths. Whatever happened to being happy with the way God made you? Where has that theory gone?
These women claim to love themselves now, when essentially they are really no longer themselves.
I can’t deny what this does to the contestants’ self esteem. It’s a good result. But they say they end up feeling more confident and sexy and get more attention. Is this really the way they want to get that attention? So much for the theory that it’s what’s on the inside that matters.
To top it off, many go home and get engaged or break up with their significant others, even when they said their relationship was in jeopardy due to their own insecurities. Like all of a sudden they are too good for those who loved them even when they didn’t love themselves.
Host Amanda Byram called the group the most extraordinary group of beauty queens in the world and the pageant the most unique ever devised, like it was something to be proud of. I’m asking Fox to think again.
Chrissy Zehrbach, a senior journalism major, is editor in chief of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at sqweet@aol.com.
