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. First aired in 2011, Geordie Shore was the UK’s answer to sister-show Jersey Shore, about a group of eight young, drunk and oversexed Geordies (slang for people from the northern England city of Newcastle), following their summer working for a PR company and partying on a daily basis (MTV UK 2016). Jersey Shore’s overseas cousin out- shocked every aspect of the original, featuring more violence, drinking and sex than anyone thought possible and quickly became one of the network’s biggest hits. The show only served to affirm and push the already prevalent caricature of Geordies, a group of people already portrayed in the media as stupid, loud and loutish. Even though the show is considered reality, I will address the members of the cast as characters, as it is unclear how much of the show is scripted, with the members often playing defined roles and partaking in set-up situations.

The format of the programme has not changed much over the five years of air-time, with each episode usually featuring at least one drunken night out, followed by a fight and a hung-over reconciliation the next morning. However, despite the monotony of the programme itself, its characters’ appearances (particularly the female members of the cast) have changed markedly, with many undergoing diets and cosmetic surgery to achieve a look deemed suitable for a television personality. From naïve teenagers, the girls have transformed into media-savvy 20 year olds, with their own fashion ranges, books and workout DVDs, with their looks becoming more extreme along the way. Characters such as Charlotte, Holly and Marnie have openly admitted they have buckled to the pressure to look good. In my research, I aim to analyse and answer how the media and its surrounding environment have caused this pressure, transforming these characters physically into a hyperreal ideal, with the aim of staying relevant and likeable.

This topic is important due to the fact that Geordie Shore and other reality shows like it are so incredibly popular, with millions of viewers and a large influence on young people. The way these young women shape themselves leads to others to consider that their bodies consist of the same malleable stuff, which can be manipulated through any extreme measure possible to obtain the ‘perfect’ body. I will use sources such as Jean Baudrillard, Stuart Hall and my own first-hand investigation in order to come to the conclusion that the pressure to maintain a perfect physical appearance, due to unrealistic expectations placed on women in the media leads the characters of Geordie Shore to take extreme measures.

How the characters’ physical appearance is depicted

Originally, I had planned to look into how these characters’ behaviour influences the viewers of the show, as many of the viewers of these shows are teenagers, a particularly influential age, I had considered that brash behaviour would have some kind of negative affect on young girls. However, after conducting a survey into the opinions of viewers, mostly women aged 18-35, I discovered that although they are aware that these characters may have a bad affect on others, none of them actually considered them to be role models. After further research, I noticed that the female characters of the show have physically changed significantly over the few years the show has been on air. Most of them have undergone cosmetic procedures in order to attain a level of attractiveness considered desirable in Western society and have even spoken publicly about their reasoning behind it, with one character even releasing a video of her having her bandages taken off after a nose job on a social media account. I thought that it would be much more interesting to try and discover why these women are striving to change their physical appearances, to appear more perfect and why the exterior is considered so important, rather than altering their damaging, unhealthy behaviour of drinking, partying and fighting on a nightly basis.

A survey was conducted in order to discover people’s opinions on the characters featured in Geordie Shore and 59 results were collected, consisting of a range of interesting opinions. Most results confirmed my original theories, for example that people watch because they “like to see something stupid” and that it “makes me feel good about myself” (anon, 2016). Shows such as Geordie Shore act as a cathartic tool for viewers to consider themselves more well-adjusted and normal, which I also hope to mirror later with the Victorian freak shows. Many, although they acknowledged this was a concern for younger, more easily-influenced people, thought they were just there to be laughed at and “something you’d want to avoid ending up like” (anon, 2016), a sort of warning for the viewer. One comment that was unexpected was that their physical appearance, having ‘improved’ over time, makes them role models, as “all the girls are fit now” (anon, 2016). It is surprising to me how one aspect of a person can be so concentrated and seen to represent the entire person, forgetting all other aspects and only focusing on the most superficial. In further interviews, I hope to discover if the characters’ looks are considered their most valuable feature, further looking into how their appearances are scrutinised and influenced by the public.

I aim to begin my research by investigating if it is possible to compare the depiction of the characters in the programme to the unfortunate characters paraded in freak shows in the Victorian era, but with the ‘other’ shifting from a racial basis to that of a more complex class system. I believe the first step to understanding the motives of the show and the purpose it serves in contemporary culture is to look at similar examples from the past and see if they can somehow be compared, in order to understand it better. Stuart Hall argues that race is a construct, invented by the white European male in the time of colonialism, in order to consider some people the ‘other’, find differences between ‘us and them’ and de-humanise. I believe that Hall’s description of freak show characters such as Saartjie Baartman can be paralleled with Geordie Shore, such as the ogling of intimate body parts, seen as animalistic, the fascination of physical ‘beauty’, detached from any humanity and the perception of uncontrollable sexual urges within the characters (Hall, 1997). These characteristics act as a signifier that these people are not exactly the same as the rest of us and therefore, do not deserve the same type of privacy as us. However, Hall’s text only deals with the concept of race and all but one of the characters of Geordie Shore are white, but the survey conducted clearly shows that viewers clearly think of the characters in the same way, as a caricature of real life and a guilty pleasure to watch and secretly feel better about yourself. I think it would be interesting to find out how Hall’s theory can be related to Geordie Shore when such distinct divisions are no longer explicitly stated, but have to be discovered as they seem to be so unnoticeable now.

One way which may be a method of connected Hall’s theory with the characters of Geordie Shore could be discovering whether the divisions that used to be assigned to race have now been shifted to a subtler class system. Results from my survey stated that the characters were not considered to be from a lower class, but that they “don’t act in a classy way” (anon, 2016), showing how the concept of class has shifted from where you are born to something more complicated. The hierarchy of a traditional class system, although still prevalent in British culture (where Geordie Shore is based), has shifted “from class as an economic category to one based on cultural practices” (Biressi and Nunn, 2013). Biressi and Nunn’s theory is an interesting one, because it shows that one doesn’t have to be upper class to act in an upper class manner and vice versa. Geordies are already looked down upon because “ascriptions of taste and classlessness are attached to moral frameworks within which, for example, the working class are evaluated and often found wanting” (Biressi and Nunn, 2013). The behaviour of Geordie Shore’s characters is considered amoral and existing perceptions of Geordies only add to their de-humanisation.

After looking into how these women are considered lower than the rest of society and a commodity to be ogled at, it is also important to consider what aspects of the television show actually contributes to the objectification of their bodies. From watching one episode, it is already clear how the viewer is expected to react: a mix of fascination and horror. The most unflattering aspects of their bodies and personalities are thrust into the spotlight, with drunken nudity splashed across the screen and night-vision cameras capturing every angle of pulsating bed covers. Mikhail Bakhtin’s description of the grotesque is “exaggeration, hyperbolism and excessiveness” with the three types of grotesque consisting of “the clownish, the burlesque and the grotesque” (Bakhtin, 1984). All these elements can be seen in Geordie Shore and I think it would be useful to consider the show as a form of grotesque, rather than a true depiction of reality. Of course, the characters also have their human side, but the balance of rational behaviour with that driven by animalistic urges is certainly exaggerated and highlighted.

Moving on from Bakhtin’s original text, I would like to look into Mary Russo’s work: The Female Grotesque, to see how this specifically relates to Geordie Shore’s female characters. I don’t believe that the men are depicted in the same way, often they are aggressive but in control, whereas the women are vulnerable, clumsy and often overcome by emotion. Russo’s work will hopefully help me understand why it is that these women are depicted in that way that makes their bodies seem like grotesque objects and how over time, this has become an accepted form of representation. I hope this will also help me understand why these women are on a constant search for perfection and control over their own bodies, as they seem to be almost separate from the women as people.

Negative affect on the characters

After I have looked into how exactly the women of Geordie Shore are portrayed on their television programme and in general, I think the next important step to take would be to look into how this affects the women themselves. Their messy public image is sure to have some kind of affect on the mental wellbeing of the characters, seeing as their bodies are posted every day on news websites and magazines in the most unflattering way, with “public derision” and a “cruel, but usual punishment” (The Guardian, 2015). It has become normal for the physical appearance of women to be discussed publicly and with no care for how the person on the receiving end may feel. Characters on the show have openly admitted that they feel pressure from the public to change the way they look, stating that seeing themselves on the television made them insecure (OK!, 2015). Charlotte Crosby, arguable the most popular character in the cast has made money in selling her own weight loss plan, with every step scrutinised from her ‘disgusting’ old body in a bikini to the proud new slimmer version in sportswear. The characters constantly need to show the fact that they are working on making themselves look better, making themselves more perfect to please their ever-critical audience. Holly Hagan has stated that despite losing weight, having lip injections and undergoing other cosmetic procedures, she was happier before she decided to undergo all the changes (Beamly, 2015). Despite working so hard to attain a ‘perfect’ body, the characters are still not satisfied when they achieve the desired result. I need to research why this is.

In post-modern society, a world in which we now live, what is considered real can no longer satisfy what people want, leading to a state of hyperreality: where everything is exaggerated and amplified (Baudrillard, 1998). I believe that I can use Baudrillard’s theory of simulacra and simulation to explain why the women of Geordie Shore feel as if they need to physically change their bodies. The audience no longer have any idea of what ‘real’ actually is, basing our knowledge on representations that are unrealistic and constructed (Baudrillard, 1994). Through Photoshopped images in magazines, the Western ideal of perfection constantly being pushed down our throats and the characters therefore feel as if they have to live up to the expectations of a hyperreal body. Further, as seemingly lower class women, they do not have the social capital to hold their position in society and their bodies are consumer objects: their only form of capital (Baudrillard, 1998) and power. In this chain of thought, if their bodies are considered acceptable, they will gain a higher position in society and if they fail to maintain their bodies, they will lose popularity. To further this research, I would like to find out how women form reality shows are perceived if they do not somehow live up to this demand. Geordie Shore’s characters have not reached this point yet, as the show has only been on air for five years and they are all still relatively popular, but there must be other programmes where less ‘attractive’ women participated. It would be interesting to see how if they were shunned from the rest, as they would have no form of power if Baudrillard’s theory was correct.

Following on from Baudrillard’s hyperreality, I would then like to investigate more theories related to celebrity culture, as this is very important in order to analyse the Geordie Shore characters. Daniel Boorstin’s book The Image: A Guide to Pseudo Events in America moves on from Baudrillard’s work and relates it specifically to celebrity. I understand that it deals with American culture, but as the show is aired by US-based network MTV, I believe that it is also relevant for Geordie Shore. Boorstin states that people such as the Geordie Shore cast must constantly work to stay interesting, or they will lose the attention of the public, which backs up my theory of why they are obsessed with their physical appearance.

On the other hand, Boorstin also goes into how celebrities of the 19th century had some kind of heroic quality and now are only lauded because we see our own characteristics reflected in them. I tend to disagree with this theory, because if I return to the idea of the Victorian freak show and people such as Saartjie Baartman, it is clear that many celebrities of that time were not lauded for their talents, only ‘celebrated’ for distinguishing physical characteristics. Some may say that Baartman did not qualify as a celebrity, but her name was known the world over and therefore, I would class her as a celebrity. Also, according to the results of my survey, people watch Geordie Shore because they are fascinated that there are actually people out there who behave like that (anon, 2016), rather than because they recognise similar characteristics in the characters. These people are all famous because they are so different and then build their celebrity on this, becoming relatable later, when they need to sell something. I would be interested in finding out if there is some other way of describing 21st century celebrities, other than Boorstin’s view.

The characters of Geordie Shore seemingly work incredibly hard to halt any signs of ageing or deterioration in their physical appearance, clear when one 21-year-old cast member admitted to having anti-ageing treatments such as Botox (Daily Mail, 2016). It would be interesting to know whether there is in fact a way to remain relevant without having to make constant changes to their physical appearance. Becky Cowser argues that death and celebrity are very closely related, with Marilyn Monroe being the ultimate icon, due to the fact that she died young and her youthful image was forever preserved. This approach suggests that the only way for the characters of Geordie Shore to remain relevant would be to die young, before the ageing process takes hold, which I think goes to the extreme. I believe that there is certainly truth in this idea in icons such as actor James Dean or Princess Diana, however examples such as Audrey Hepburn demonstrate that one can live to an old age and still be remembered as a beauty of their time, as if beauty is the most important quality. In relation to attempting to halt time, I would also need to investigate what happens when these efforts go too far, for example American reality star Heidi Montag. At what point did people stop remarking that she looked good and instead commenting that she had ‘ruined her looks’. Despite extreme physical transformations, many of the survey results stated that people thought the cast of Geordie Shore looked much better now than when the show first started (anon, 2016). I wonder if there will be a point in which the cast’s efforts will turn from admiration to revulsion.

Continuing on from my theory, I aim to find more examples that confirm the theory that the female characters change their bodies because they feel forced to live up to an unattainable perfection. Relevance is the most important thing as without that, they would have no means to earn money and continue on in their celebrity lifestyle and Axel Honneth’s theory of the Struggle for Recognition can help me with this. Honneth states that there are three stages of the struggle: the demand for love, rights and recognition as a unique person encompassing needs such as confidence, respect and self esteem (Honneth, 1995), which can all be reflected in how Geordie Shore’s characters present themselves. Charlotte has admitted that her physical flaws “probably wouldn't bother me if I wasn't on TV, but because I am I've grown to hate it more over the years” (The Mirror, 2016), conveying how the scrutiny of the public eye damages their self-esteem and causes them to take extreme measures to improve their appearance. I agree with most of Honneth’s theory, but in relation to Geordie Shore, one part doesn’t seem to match up. It is claimed that the way people behave creates a new moral code, but considering many people do not aspire to behave in the same way, I’m not sure how much that aspect fits. However, many people do aspire to be like the characters physically, as they are considered very attractive since they have undergone cosmetic procedures, so I need to look into exactly what Honneth means by this or find some interpretation that makes more sense.

After having argued how exactly celebrity affects the physical appearance of these television characters, I hope to conclude with the fact that in giving themselves to the public, the cast of Geordie Shore ends up losing their true self, as nothing is private anymore. The obvious flaunting of what is considered some of the most private activities clearly demonstrates the disintegration of the divide between public and private. I would like to use Lilti’s analysis of celebrity culture to help understand this. Even though he looks at celebrities as far back as Marie Antoinette, it is still possible to see similarities with today’s celebrity culture. Through living this public persona, a huge number of people feel as if they know the celebrity, when in fact they do not and more and more of the persona is lost to the public, whilst damaging their own private self (Lilti, 2008). Of course, it would be difficult to know exactly how the characters of Geordie Shore themselves feel about this without interviewing them directly, so that it what I would aim to do in my research. If this would not be possible, I think there are plenty of similar examples that can back up this theory.

Conclusion

Overall, I hope to research into the world of reality television, in particular Geordie Shore and see how the culture of celebrity affects the physical appearances of the female members of the cast. Through using theories from Baudrillard, Honneth and others, accompanied by my own survey and evidence from the cast members themselves, I hope to conclude that they feel forced to alter their appearance to conform to the Western ideal, in order to stay relevant and remain popular in society. However, I do still have questions that may require deeper investigation or even another paper altogether. It would be useful to conduct real interviews with some of the participants of the survey, as well as one or two of the characters of the show themselves, as I believe this would help me get a real insight into exactly how they are influenced by societal pressure. Of course, they reveal quite a lot of information through their own social media channels and on the television, but one never knows exactly how much of this content is curated and controlled in order to satisfy demand.

Another issue I have with the television programme itself: although called reality, it is never clear how much is scripted or faked and how much just happened to occur and be caught by the cameras. Going further into this may entirely change my opinion of the show and how unaware I believe the characters to be. No matter how constructed the television show is, I believe my research will play an important role in discovering what motivates a young and attractive woman to go to the extreme and say “I love surgery and I’ll never stop. Next I want chin fillers and more filler in my cheeks. I’ll get more work done before I’m 21. I want my face to be like ‘woah’” (Daily Mail, 2016).

Bibliography

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