“Reality TV…” Article by Joanne Morreale Essay

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Joanne Morreale’s (2005) “Reality TV, Faking It, and the transformation of personal identity” discusses reality shows on YV as a manifestation of self-commodification characteristic for contemporary corporate capitalism. The article’s focus of the show Faking It, which revolves around a transformation to mimic a person from another social group convincingly enough for a team of experts. As Morreale (2005) explains, the premise of the show is that transformation is synonymous with improvement and brings fulfillment. The author discusses different aspects of this supposed self-improvement, such as the authoritative guidance of coaches or the formative experience of seeing oneself in the mirror in the new quality and being seen (Morreale, 2005). By doing so, the article demonstrates how Faking It deconstructs the identity to a list of alterable external signs with no inherent, deep core to the social self.

According to the article, this result is the direct fruit of the logic of consumerism and corporate capitalism taken to its conclusion. As Morreale (2005) shows, associating consumption with fulfillment necessarily leads to the commodification of self. If consuming is the main way to feel better, people need to consume continuously and in greater numbers in order to self-actualize and reinvent themselves. From the author’s perspective, Faking It takes the premise of identity as a fruit of consumption and develops it further. It represents selfhood not even as a consumption pattern but as a commodity to be consumed (Morreale, 2005). Moreover, the show’s often-directed nature does not prevent marketing it as reality, which implies that becoming a commodity to be reshaped and market-tested offers greater fulfillment rather than having one (Morreale, 2005). The author concludes that reality shows, such as Faking It, offer a mass-produced simulacrum of self-fulfillment for a contemporary society where the shifting patterns of consumption are perceived and represented as the essence of self.

References

Morreale, J. (2005). CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, 7(2), 1-7.

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