Making Them Feel Like a Natural Woman: Constructing Gender Performances on The Maury Povich Show :: Free Essays Online

Making Them Feel Like a Natural Woman Constructing Gender Performances on The Maury Povich ShowGoth teems flood in black become teeny-bopper darlings in pink dresses and platform sneakers. Male couch potatoes in flannel shirts become debonair gentlemen in tuxedos. Scantily garment women popping out of halter tops and leather mini-skirts become responsible women in business suits and subtle make-up. The make-over is a popular talk show beak used by everyone from Oprah to Jenny Jones. These transformations embody Lancasters argument in Gutos Performance by demonstrating how we are completely participating in one big blow show, presenting our gender through our dress, our play. We construct our genders, moment by moment, through our performance, fluidly moving from one to the next. On Oprah, an over-worked single mom in sweat pants who devotes all her time to working outside the home and raising her children (in a combination of constructed masculine and feminine gender roles) sit s slumped in her chair. Soon, lipstick and sequins transform her into a confident, sultry woman, strutting across the stage ready to take the arm of the handsome, well-dressed man chosen to take her out for an evening on the town (she now takes on a different, more feminine, gender role).But there is underlying tension in Lancasters argument and make-overs on talk shows. Instead of made-over guests choosing their type of dress and performance, they are usually shuffled into these roles by a team of television producers, make-up artists, stylists, family and friends, and audience members. Often, talk show make-overs reinforce our rigidly constructed ideas of what is masculine and feminine by highlighting the out(p) of stepping out of these roles and re-constructing a persons performance to fit the correct social mold.A recent episode of The Maury Povitch Show featured make-overs of women who worked in manly professions. There was a tow-truck driver, a car mechanic, a bike messenge r, an electrical repairperson, a firefighter, a pooper-scooper, a zoo-keeper, and a lumberjack. Each of the guests made there entrance dressed in their working clothes, some with appropriate props, strutting to the tune of She Works Hard for the Money. After each guest had the opportunity to talk about her job, she was whisked away by stylists with makes-up brushes and blow-dryers only to be returned in fancy ball gowns to work the runway for the approving audience, pausing for a brief moment to pose beside their before photo.