Explain the genre and central themes of your chosen television show
Beauty and the Geek is a reality television show which has been based on the American version.
The show consists of eight “beautiful” women and eight “geeky” men. The female contestants on
the show reflect no intellect and they rely primarily on their looks. The males contestants are a huge
contrast as they possess not social skills, however, are academically gifted. The “beauties” are
paired up with a “geek” and they both play for a prize of $100,000. In order to win the grand prize
the contestants must participate and ultimately win the challenges set out for them.
Beauty and the Geek classify as a reality television show for many reasons. The show comprises of
“real life” people. All contestants are required to be themselves and the only scripted aspects of the
show are the challenges and what the host says. The environment of the show is controlled by the
producers, as are the contestants.
Beauty and the Geek is:
 Constantly changing and evolving as it has new characters each season and new challenges
each round.
 Developed from a local level to a national level and then ultimately a global level (America
Australia)
 Allows consumers to have widespread access to it i.e. internet, television, cable, free to air
television etc.
 Is associated with commercial products e.g. DVDs of the each season.
Not only is Beauty and the Geek a reality television show, it also adheres to the distinguishing
features of popular culture.
Justify the pattern consumption of your chosen television series.
-generally targeted at a younger age group because the participants are younger i.e. generation y
-female audience majority= * a dating show
* Contrasts in the women and men create entertainment
Beauty and the Geek can relate to the lives of many people. Living in a society where younger
generations are bombarded with expectations of the media, Beauty and the Geek attempts to
reassure people of their better qualities.
Analyse the role of heroes and mythology within the television series and their impact on
popular culture.
Within the reality television series, Beauty and the Geek, gender stereotypes is quite evident. The
show is a “social experiment,” that aims to break the norms and stereotypes in society about
masculinity and femininity. The gender stereotypes is reinforced through the voice-over of the show,
it is quoted that geeks are academically brilliant but,“..socially challenged guys”, and the beauties
are, “more looks then book,” outlining completely two different worlds. The “social experiment” of
the show combining these two worlds, is so that the contestants can learn through personal
experiences a whole new world and break the norm. It is aimed at turning the men into, “social
success stories” through their interaction with the highly self confident beauties, and for the women
to learn from the men to become, “more then just a pretty face.” This can be seen through the
contestant of Kate in Season One as she quote, “I make my living from being a beauty I just don't
have the brains.”
The show carries the themes of power and empowerment which is created though the qualities the
contestants adhere. In the show, the beauties appear to have more power than the geeks as their
high level of self confidence is outspoken. This is whilst the men are insecure and are intimidated
by such beauty because their overpowering process of socialisation thereby, allowing the women to
be dominant and more controlling. The power the women have on the men is overriding in that the
gender stereotypes is reinforced. A study conducted saw that many viewers saw numerous geeks
attempting to get their partners to read and study, but some beauties chose not to listen and did what
they pleased illustrating women dominance and power as the men focused on winning challenges.
The message the show is trying to teach the audience is that it is not right for these women to think
that simply because they are beautiful, they are entitled to get what they want. However it can be
seen that the role of women being beautiful and feminine gains the women much attention and
power, so much so that it is unnecessary for them to be intelligent or even nice reinforcing the
phrase, “more looks then books.”
The show fails to break follow through with its aim of breaking the norms and stereotypes in
society about masculinity and femininity. The show physically transforming the geeks, trying to
make them more attractive, defeats the purpose of the show. The goal is to make the men more
confident in themselves, and feeling more attractive on the outside can certainly increase self-
esteem, having some merit. Despite this, the message is deeply overridden as the men are supposed
to be teaching the women that looks are not everything and they should not value appearances as
highly as they do.
Analyse the ways your chosen television series has contributed to social change and continuities in relation to the relevant Society and Culture concepts.
Persons and Social environment: ‘Beauty and the Geek’ is a social experiment which examines
the interactions between the stereotypical “beautiful girl” and a “nerd”. This is interesting to watch
as it not socially “cool” and is unusual for such opposites to work together. Most of these stereotypes are present at workplaces and social settings across Australia and these groups usually would
not interact due to the differences in social norms and values. This series hopes to merge this gap
and cause change in the way society views these groups. It encourages interaction between various
sub cultures and individuals.
Culture: This series is a representation of Australian norms, social expectations and values. The
continuing stereotype that beautiful women are ditzy, dumb and uneducated is reinforced in this series. Also the idea that intelligent people are limited in social skills is a stereotype that is strengthened by this show.
A female contestant on the show states that she hopes that she doesn’t need a job and that she hopes
her looks will support her for the next 10-15years. This highlights how the idea that females still
rely on men to support and finance them and what is important for a woman is to maintain their appearance is not a concept that has remained during the 1950s of the picturesque “housewife”.
Technology: This show highlights the limitations of advancing telecommunication technology is
having on the way people interact. These devices which are created for communication are ironically creating anti social behaviour as evident by the tech-savvy geeks who are unable to speak to the
opposite sex, nervous in large crowds and do not know how to behave in irregular social environments.