makeover-television
A television genre that combines entertainment and instruction to demonstrate techniques of personal transformation and self-improvement.
1 chapter across 1 book
Better Living through Reality TV: Television and Post-Welfare Citizenship (2008)Laurie Ouellette; James Hay
Chapter 3 of Better Living through Reality TV examines makeover television programs as cultural technologies that promote self-fashioning aligned with neoliberal economic demands. It analyzes how shows like What Not to Wear translate the flexible, insecure labor market into personal style and self-entrepreneurship, encouraging individuals to manage their identities and vocational futures as projects of continuous reinvention. The chapter situates makeover TV within broader shifts from stable employment to precarious work, showing how these programs govern conduct indirectly by normalizing self-improvement and strategic self-presentation as necessary for success.