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

Making Them Feel Like a Natural char Constructing Gender transactions on The Maury Povich ShowGoth teems drenched in gloomy become teeny-bopper darlings in pink dresses and platform sneakers. Male couch potatoes in flannel shirts become debonair gentlemen in tuxedos. Scantily clad women pop music divulge 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 woodpecker used by everyone from Oprah to Jenny Jones. These transformations embody Lancasters argument in Gutos Performance by demonstrating how we are all participating in one liberal drag show, presenting our gender through and 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- determineed single mom in key pattern pants who devotes all her time to working outside the home and pinnacle her children (in a combination of constructed ma sculine and feminine gender roles) sits slumped in her chair. Soon, limn and sequins transform her into a confident, sensual woman, strutting across the stage ready to determine the arm of the handsome, well- get dressed man chosen to take her out for an evening on the town (she now takes on a different, more feminine, gender role). however 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 beef up our rigidly constructed ideas of what is masculine and feminine by highlighting the taboo of stepping out of these roles and re-constructing a persons performance to fit the correct social mold.A late 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 messenger, 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 unmanageable for the Money. After each guest had the opportunity to talk about her job, she was whisked forward 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 to begin with photo.