Resistance Against Normalization and Neoliberal Governmentality in Cosmetic Surgery Makeover TV A comparative discourse analysis between Make Me Beautiful and Say No to the Knife MA Thesis – Media Studies: Television and Cross-Media Culture By Annika Elschot Date: September 18, 2014 Graduate School of Humanities University of Amsterdam Thesis supervisor: dr. S.R. Amico Second reader: dr. J.W. Kooijman 1 2 Abstract Makeover TV belongs to a long history of a makeover culture that started to proliferate in the last quarter of the twentieth century in America, and it is directed to people who feel less worthy than others, because they are not conforming the norm. The makeover process therefore, attempts to normalize people and make them more homogeneous. This becomes especially clear with cosmetic surgery becoming a makeover technique; first working on the self consisted of losing weight, fashion styling, health advice redecorating the home, but with plastic surgery working on the self is turned directly at the body, by way of plastic surgery people are literally made more homogeneous. However, normalization is more complex than this, because it also makes it possible for people to differentiate themselves from others, by developing different capacities. In this thesis I will examine this complex normalization process and search for ways to resist the restricting homogenising effects. I will discuss two types of resistance, an ethical resistance that has been taken up by Cressida J. Heyes, who bases her theory on Michel Foucault’s ethical work, and I will discuss a resistance that turns against neoliberal governmentality, which is also a Foucauldian concept; neoliberal governmentality is a type of governmentality that turns subjects into “docile bodies” by way of disciplinary power. Subsequently, by way of a critical discourse analysis of the makeover program Make Me Beautiful I will show how this program is a vehicle for normalization and a neoliberal discourse, which turns subjects into docile, neoliberal subjects. This will make it possible for me to compare this program with a program that rejects plastic surgery; Say No to the Knife, and find out if this program is able to criticise normalization and neoliberal governmentality. Key words: Michel Foucault, normalization, disciplinary power, neoliberal governmentality, critical discourse analysis, gender, class, makeover television, cosmetic surgery. 3 4 Table of contents ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................................... 3 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................................... 7 1 - NORMALIZATION AND NEOLIBERAL GOVERNMENTALITY.........................................12 1.1 NORMALIZATION AND DISCIPLINARY POWER...............................................................................................13 1.2 AN ETHICAL RESISTANCE.....................................................................................................................................15 1.3 NEOLIBERAL GOVERNMENTALITY ...................................................................................................................17 1.3.1 Technologies of government ..........................................................................................................................20 1.3.2 The gendered neoliberal subject ..................................................................................................................21 1.3.3 The classed neoliberal subject ......................................................................................................................22 1.3.4 Resistance against neoliberalism.................................................................................................................24 2 - NEOLIBERAL DISCOURSE IN MAKE ME BEAUTIFUL..........................................................26 2.1 GENRE ........................................................................................................................................................................27 2.2 NARRATIVE STRUCTURE ......................................................................................................................................29 2.2.1 Fairy tale narrative structure........................................................................................................................29 2.2.2 Narratives of individual choice and responsibility ...............................................................................31 2.2.3 The medical gaze................................................................................................................................................33 2.3 GENDER & CLASS...................................................................................................................................................35 2.3.1 Stereotypical gender representations.........................................................................................................36 2.3.2 Social inequalities..............................................................................................................................................40 3 – EXPOSING NORMALIZATION AND A NEOLIBERAL DISCOURSE IN SNTTK............43 3.1 GENRE AND STYLE .................................................................................................................................................44 3.2 NARRATIVE STRUCTURE ......................................................................................................................................46 3.2.1 A narrative of transformation........................................................................................................................47 3.2.2 Narratives of individual choice.....................................................................................................................48 3.2.3 Narratives of responsibility and the function of the expert................................................................49 3.3 GENDER & CLASS...................................................................................................................................................52 3.3.1 Stereotypical gender representations?.......................................................................................................53 3.3.2 Social inequalities?............................................................................................................................................56 CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................................59 BIBLIOGRAPHY .........................................................................................................................................62 VIDEOGRAPHY...........................................................................................................................................65 5 6 Introduction Making over the self is not a new phenomenon, it did not start with the rise of makeover programs on television, instead these shows can be seen as the offspring of a self-help culture which expanded incredibly with the development of self-improvement literature in the last quarter of the twentieth century in America (McGee 2005, 11). Between 1972 and 2000 there had been a growth of self-help books, from 1,1 percent to 2,4 percent of the total number of books in print (Whelan in McGee 2005, 11). Between 1991 and 1996 self-help book sales rose by 96 percent (Allison in McGee 2005, 11), the reason for this expansion can be explained by the social and economic changes that were evolving in these times and the insecurity that it gave rise to. The economical crisis of the 1930’s resulted in a loss of faith in capitalism; in reaction to this a new economic system had been gradually introduced, first in Germany and later also in America, where after it expanded globally. The German Alexander Rüstow—who had been counsellor at the ministry of economic affairs in Germany—called this new system neoliberalism (Hartwitch & Razeen 2009, 16). Whereas the German neoliberalism was a combination between capitalism and a more regulated form of a market economy, the Americans did not want any interference of the state in the economy. According to American neoliberalism the human being is rational and therefore, can calculate himself what is the best choice in dealing on the economic market (Foucault 2008, 272-273). This led to a dismantling of the social welfare programs; the end of lifelong professions; the blurring of the public and private sphere, everything was placed under a market economy. The old tradition of a family where the husband is the wage earner and his wife takes care of the children, her husband and home, was not sacred anymore. Instead, women were entering the labour market and suddenly men and women were competing with each other for jobs; life changed and according to McGee: ‘the less predictable and controllable life course has become, the more individuals have been urged to chart their own courses, to “master” their destinies, and to make themselves over’ (2005, 12). Because competition increased, people had to constantly work on themselves to remain competitive. The self-help literature had to replace the social safety net, which led to an endless working on the self. The myth of the self-made