Core Response #3 - Lilla

 

While discussing the Random 1 in her article Reality Television: a Neoliberal Theater of Suffering, Anna McCarthy argues that instead of truly “helping traumatized others,” the reality show provides “an opportunity for middle-class liberals to experience ecstatic therapeutic growth” (32). While the premise of Random 1 is giving charity to those in need, instead, she continues, it is the subjects that donate their trauma to the show’s hosts “to help them advance their careers as philanthropist filmmakers” (32). This idea can be applied to several reality shows, from Extreme Makeover all the way to My Cat from Hell. These shows depict benevolent individuals committing lasting charitable acts to those in need. A new home, a new leg, a newly well-behaved cat. However, at the end of the day, Bruce from Random 1 might have a new leg, but he’s still unemployed and homeless. And while a family on Extreme Makeover might have their house rebuilt, they are often forced into having to sell the property later on, as they cannot afford the taxes, or because the renovations were done so cheaply that they need constant maintenance that proved unaffordable. 

These false happy endings speak to what McCarthy calls “messy implementation[s] of political ideals” in a world where trauma remains “ungovernable” (33). It implies that systemic issues such as poverty or homelessness can be resolved by random acts of kindness in a single day, and recipients of such benevolence should act grateful. “In taking away a reason for feeling bad,” McCarthy argues, they are placing pressure on the subject to feel good (35). Yet this idea oversimplifies and commodifies trauma, reducing it to a feel-good moment for the filmmakers and audience alike — it is all a spectacle at the expense of the most vulnerable. Therapeutic growth for middle-class liberals can only be experienced through exploitation of the working-class. 

We might also want to think about the audience here. These reality shows are heavily edited, staged, and inaccurate. Middle-class viewers might suspend their disbelief and just enjoy them in a self-congratulatory way, or as light entertainment. But viewers with less formal education, who are often the subjects of these makeovers, are more likely to take them at face value. And planting the idea that you, too, might experience these random acts of kindness creates a false sense of hope that deep-rooted social issues can be fixed within the snap of a finger.