Clemency Newman Looking Into the Popular Reality Show Geordie Shore
From reality television to the hyperreal: How do the pressures of reality shows such as Geordie Shore cause their characters to change their physical appearance? Clemency Newman Abstract Looking into the popular reality show Geordie Shore, I will undertake research to answer why it is that the women who appear on the show change their physical appearance and what connection this has to their celebrity status. I hope to argue that because the women are considered lower class, they have no other power than their perceived attractiveness and are therefore pressured into trying to achieve a hyperreal body, relating to Baudrillard’s theory of Simulacra and Simulation. Introduction Reality television is big business, with over 300 reality format shows on air in the US alone (Washington Post, 2015) from Idol to Big Brother, they rake in millions of viewers every night and have a significant impact on popular culture. These shows present a concentrated, edited and scandalised version of everyday life, wrapped in the guise of being true to the viewer, only more dramatic. Television has the ability to shape our view of the world and now with the ever pervasive aspects of social media, networks such as Bravo can imprint an everlasting impression of what we consider normal. However, even when know what we are watching is completely unreal, we accept it as ‘reality’ and accept the characters into our lives, until they become overthrown by a younger, prettier and more outrageous model. Geordie Shore is one such television show which presents an exaggerated, hyperbolic version of reality, with the cast members performing ridiculous, violent and carnal acts in front of a worldwide audience and being celebrated in the process.
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