Critics of the new reality show How To Look Good Naked will of course say that it is scripted; that not all of those men and women on the street types interviewed are really as impressed as they say they are when asked what they think of the image they see projected onto a building in a crowded city, usually the image a flawed overweight woman.
Fair enough. Like any reality show, How To Look Good Naked may not be entirely real. The premise is to convince women with body shame how hot they really are and I found myself both shocked and fascinated as the camera zoomed in to the breasts and back sides of women who were clearly not models while host Carson Kressley tugged at their bras and underwear to explain how a different fit would provide all the difference. Indeed it does. After women on the show are given a full makeover starting with the undergarments, they realize how body image is quite relative and they are not nearly as fat or unattractive as they thought.
In a recent review of the show The New York Times pointed out that the show might take the wonderful notion of body acceptance too far, never promoting diet and exercise, even when diet and exercise is needed. Still, I really like the show. One fascinating part is when they do a lineup of similarly shaped woman, arranged by ascending size, and ask the woman receiving the makeover to place herself where she thinks she fits in the line. Without fail, these women always overestimate their size, placing themselves further down the line than they belong.
How To Look Good Naked is a little bit like a fairly tale in which the actual body is never the problem, only the body image. Still, I found it to be a wonderful window into women's collective insecurities, with an added bonus of some great tips for dressing to hide your flaws, that make for some pretty good television, especially considering the sorry state of most of the other stuff on cable.
