views on Gok Wan?

Just read the blog tvmum - really great writing, hope you do some more!

"And there is one TV expert who has no equal in the Dark Arts of Empowerment"

Gok Wan VoldeWan

"I look absolutely fine naked, it's the clothes that are the bloody problem!"

That made me laugh :) It's true as well, in my sort of affordability bracket, the cut of clothes is laughable at best so lots of things just fit really 'odd' on me.

I used to absolutely adore HTLGN and was always fascinated by the comparisons and how we often think we're bigger than we are.

However, even after the first few programmes I used to think it defeated the point of loving yourself to have to still resort to hiding who you are with lots of 'control' wear.

My mind always boggles when women are squeezed into what is virtually a whole spanx type bodysuit and then get given a nice floaty summer dress. Surely you'd end up sweating like crazy in what is basically tights with stronger elastic all over you body?

Anyway, since I've been educationg myself in the feminist section I can't stand the programme anymore and really don't understand as well why the women are so keenly encouraged to get naked and be judged by perfect strangers.

He dresses them all to look like some Mad Men/50s/airhostess parody.

Or cross-dressed blokes.

He always seemed to dress up women as 1950's French prostitutes. He has no bloody idea bout clothes.

I remember one particular episode where his outfit for the school run included 5 inch heels. Completely ridiculous.

What really annoys me about Gok Wan, is that his advice to women who are not happy with the size of their body is,

"girlfriend just squeeze yourself into this thick-as-rubber control body suit and you will love yourself!"

when actually, IMHO the advice should be, everybody should be valued equally regardless of what they look like, but if you are unhappy with your body size, eat healthily and do some exercise!

the nadir of Gok for me was one episode where he squeezed a poor girl int a bandagevdress and high heels for work. She worked in an outside job where wells and jeans were more appropriate. He then sent her down to the pub to meet her boyfriend. The VoiceOver commented on how she never really had much male attention before. There was then a sequence of the victim girl being leered at by white van men, old vogues in the pub salivating, random blokes in the street gawping and generally a parade of sexual harassment to the approving VoiceOver of how much more attention she gets one.

I complained to Channel4 about it and even brought it up in the Gok web chat, though not surprisingly that particular question went unanswered.

I never liked the 'hey girlfriend' attitude and the parading naked - I'm pretty happy with my body but I wouldn't do a naked catwalk in my local shopping centre. Call me strange but I don't think it's necessary to do that to be confident.

I used to watch 'Queer Eye...', they would take a bloke who wanted to prepare for some sort of occasion, or to impress his girlfriend, and makeover him (no nakedness), his home and the food and drink he would serve. Although rather consumerist, it did seem to be a positive experience for the guys - I think most wanted to shake things up but just didn't know where to start.

TheFarSide - it is true they don't advocate plastic surgery ( although Trinny has horrendous trout pout and is a botox addict). However I think this only because of costs/insurance and the timescales. Plastic surgery can take some time to heal - on 10 years younger the budget was a lot bigger to cover the plastic surgery and teeth and the start and finish date of the production longer.It is cheaper and less complicated to have no surgery also its bad publicity is someone is unhappy with the result - I think someone wanted to sue the original dentist on 10 years and he had to be replaced.

I had my doubts as well, but the hosing naked women in the swimming pool confirmed for me that he is a bully.And a misogynist.

I haven't wanted to have anything to so with him or these sort of shows since.

One positive thing about Gok, and Trinny & Susannah too, is that they all advocate making the best of yourself without cosmetic surgery.

My DD2 wrote a piece about GOk and this show for her GCSE coursework a few months ago, making exactly the same objections as you Msrisotto! Everyone is told how to wear clothes - no matter what shape they have to squeeze into controlwear and have their waists cinched, a scarf tied round their neck and wear a pair of vertiginous heels (instantly slimming!) They are spray tanned, waxed and coiffed for the naked shoot and show.I find it disturbing and the bullying - however. all the women seem to love it (wonder how they feel a few years down the road?or how their kids feel about the bum reavel at the end) I also get annoyed that all women have to dress the same no matter what their personal style - the biker lady mayor was just made into a tory lady clone. My dd1 loves this programme, but the rest of us are outraged and rarely watch- although Gok is quite personable in many ways.

Years ago I saw Gok in a show for teens (career) on C4 school progs - I think it was called "make me a grown up" and took shy or attitudinal kids and got them interview ready with careers advice and work experience, help with confidence and speaking from a psychologist and styling help (from Gok). He was wonderful on this programme as he seemed genuinely sensitive to the teens and tried to find smart clothes which also reflected their personal style. I think he is a diva now.

Also I read an article about the one off series he did called Miss Naked beauty that said many women were left traumatised by it . They had not been told they would be being eliminated and judged and on one show all the women were put naked into an empty swimming pool and then sprayed by a laughing GOk with freezing cold water blasted from a firemans hose to wash off their fakery! many said they had felt bullied by the production staff into it and felt totally humiliated (one felt like she was about to be taken to a torture camp).

Not very empowering.

Don't mind him as such. Research has shown that if you tell women they look good naked or otherwise they will feel worse about their appearance because now they are self conscious. So if you want women to feel good about our bodies, best take the radical option of LEAVING US ALONE.

I've watched it a few times.

I find his shows preferable to the Trinny and Susannah ones in that they less confrontational towards the subjects, and less bossy.

As a gay man, he is both taking the role of honorary girlfriend (with whom you cannot be directly competing), but also tapping into the "Queer Eye for a Straight Guy" premise.

Has anyone seen the latter show (I haven't)? But I do remember it being around - were men treated differently when they were the subjects of a personal make-over show?

I don't think I've ever watched a whole episode but for some reason that doesn't stop me from having an opinion! :o

I've only seen it in passing a couple of times (no TV), but when I've seen it, it seems the women see getting naked as a big ordeal and don't really want to do it - I saw one of them in tears. Seems sad.

I also find the premise odd - I look absolutely fine naked, it's the clothes that are the bloody problem! It's a bit strange to imply it's harder to look good naked than clothed - ffs, I thought at least when I had my clothes off I didn't have to worry about whether or not I was in fashion, but no, it seems fashion has colonized this area too.

(good blog btw)

I just find it irritating that he is so grabby.

Trinny & Susannah did that grabbing thing too.

He never picks a normal size woman, she is always quite trim. Why don't he pick someone size 18 that is supposed to the average in Britain now.

I am not overly enamoured with him/her either.

I can believe it is empowering in the sense that doing anything difficult you thought you wouldn't be able to do is empowering - an exbf of mine had to do firewalking when he was a local newspaper reporter (twice! because the photographer didn't get the picture the first time) and he felt very empowered by that.
but how come it's women that have to get empowered by taking their clothes off, eh?

Can't stand the guy either and find his show creepy and disturbing. As you outline in your blog post, parading about naked is usually demeaning, not empowering. I can't see either what is empowering about having strangers see your naked body and comment on it, positively or otherwise. In fact, the whole premise of the show - by being solely for women - just reinforces the idea that women can't love themselves unless they "look good" according to public opinion. You can't get much more sexist than that, really.