A "Whose Reality?" Take on Beauty and the Geek

So I sat down and watched some reality TV yesterday. Called Beauty and the Geek. Go on, judge me (I’ve certainly already judged myself). And so to make up for my lapse in taste I watched Q and A on ABC – “the unpredictable show where you get to ask the questions”, as Tony Jones informs the audience every twenty minutes.

But to make my earlier transgression excusable, I turned a critical eye to the show. I don’t mean the sort of TV critic eye, where I’ll make some cheap shots, a wanky joke, throw in a quote, and end with a little pun. I mean I took a serious look at it, from a Whose Reality? perspective. So without further ado, I present my musings.

Of course, reality TV presents a distorted view of reality for our entertainment. And so to begin, I feel it is necessary to analyse the layers of reality within the television show Beauty and the Geek:

Firstly, we have the title itself, which juxtaposes two disparate identities which would supposedly share very different ‘realities’:

• ‘Beauty’ – a term which is used to label all the female contestants. This labels the women as ladies from a world of cosmetics, fashion, partying, and so on. Of course, the complexities of the connotations associated with the term ‘beauty’ can offer other readings to this specific vocabulary choice. It could be construed as ironic, as many of the women are presented (we will get to this) as vapid and superficial. But most likely it was chosen to give a ‘Beauty and the Beast’ type ring to the title.

• ‘Geek’ – when compared to its counterpart ‘nerd’, the nuances of the word ‘geek’ become clearer. This clearly suggests that the ‘geeks’ are socially inept, and withdrawn. It also credits them with a large intellect. These contestants, as with the ‘Beauties’ are initially presented as breathing, living stereotypes.

Having established through their title that the focus will be a clashing of realities, the show needs to create an atmosphere within the ‘house’. Naturally, this is one of fear and competition. The very language of the host, such as announcing to the team which ‘survived’ the elimination round, “you live to fight another day”, is suffused with conflict and competition. Contestants are forced to vote each other out, even though apparently everyone, including the host, agrees that it’s not easy or pleasant. This creates conflict within self, as some individuals struggle to choose a team to nominate. In these cases these choices are inevitably going to be made by impressions, or their reality of the others, as shaped by their interactions with and observations of them.
The atmosphere during elimination rounds is one of fear, which is added in an attempt to push contestants to the extremes of their personalities and aggression. In a way, the emotional space inhabited by the Beauties and Geeks is manipulated, altering and distorting their ‘reality’, if you will (and I will), in order to entertain.

Lastly, of course, is the representation of these realities by the editors and producers, which deserves equal discussion. How are these people represented, how can we know what is and isn’t taken out of context? It can be easy to throw back your head and let loose a full-bellied laugh at the contestants from your couch, thinking “at least I’m not as stupid/socially awkward/maladroit as that person”. Indeed, I think that a large part of these types of shows appeal is just that. And in presenting stereotypes to us, the show can sometimes lead us to forget they are complex human beings. Reality is distorted and simplified for our viewing pleasure.

So I think we can agree that there are three layers of reality within the show; the people’s realities (‘Beauty’ or ‘Geek’), their emotional/psychological reality as shaped by the fear and competition the whole show is saturated in, and the representation of these realities.

Frequently, perception of others and self perception are what really drive the conflict. The challenge for the Geeks this week was speed dating – the Geek with the highest totalled score from the women the winner. Upon hearing of the task, one Geek noted, “The calibre of a woman who would go on speed dating rather concerns me; they’re either really desperate, or really busy.” This quote is interesting for a few reasons. He has never actually been speed dating, but has already made his mind up about what sorts of people would go, and has decided, more or less, that it’s stupid. The origin of this constructed perception of speed dating, it could be postulated, may be the fact that he has never been speed dating – or any other dating, for that matter. So now he must admit to himself either that he is missing out and is ‘desperate’, or that the speed daters are the ‘desperate’ ones and he himself is above the whole thing. A reality must be constructed in order to validate his own perception of self.

One Geek later noted, “I always try not to get frustrated with my students because I appreciate that some people have differences in the way they think.” This quote was given as he attempted to teach space science to the Beauty he was paired with. His carefully tactful wording of his frustration shows both his ability to empathise with the Beauty, and his careful representation of his own reality.

The Beauties, too, offered some insights into individual realities. One Beauty mused upon the relativity of time, as she exclaimed “An hour – that’s not even long!” when told that she had an hour to prepare for her challenge. And another Beauties observation, as she watched her Geek partner dancing – “He looked like he needed to go to the toilet or something,” is clearly anchored by past experiences, when perhaps she has seen people acting in a similar manner before needing to “go to the toilet”. Thus her memories have a significant impact on the way in which she interprets, processes, and analyses the stimuli around her.

The clash of realities may not end in tragedy as in A Streetcar Named Desire or Enduring Love, but it certainly creates an interesting psychological study. The reality we are left with at the end of Beauty and the Geek is one which cannot be taken at face value, but which must rather be analysed carefully, so that we might be able to form our own individual interpretations, based on our own experiences and memories.

Well, there’s just one way to waste time. I hope it was mildly diverting.