views on Gok Wan?

[tvmum1976]

I know that many view him as some kind of 'saviour of modern womanhood'- personally I can't stand him or his shows and find them patronising and demeaning. I have written a blog post about it if anyone's interested (also talks about a couple of other programmes)

www.calmdowndear.wordpress.com

Would love to know if anyone agrees with me?

I can't stand him actually. Firstly the irony of 'How to look good naked' by wearing suffocatingly tight pants and high heels and secondly, the stereotypical way he dresses women, always the same and obviously, all about being uncomfortable to look 'good' for others in a very narrow way. And don't get me started on 'bangers'.

Haven't looked at your blog (sorry), on a personal level I like the fact that his series helped someone close to me enjoy clothes again after illness (she wasn't on it).

However, on a feminist level I hate that all the makeovers are so feminine...until he helps a woman find her inner fabulous butch self, I remain sceptical. Also not keen on men dressing women.

He gives out very mixed messages, I agree. I don't think he's qualified to tackle some of his subjects who have clear body dysmorphia. I also find some of his tactics quite bullying. I stopped watching after the aggressive 'my way or the highway' attitude with which he treated the male subject in the last series.

However, I caught 5 mins of a HTLGN repeat this morning where he proposed the instigation of body confidence classes in schools (for both sexes) that included dispelling the beauty myths in the media, which seems like a really positive idea.

I like your blog (even though you are shamelessly promoting it on here ). Write some more.

yes, those shows are pretty ghastly.

I quite like the Fashion Fix and roadshow programmes, not so keen on How to Look Good Naked.

However I find it hard to take sartorial advice seriously when it comes from a man in his late 30s who still wears his trouser waistband at a level below his arse cheeks, with the crotch nestling somewhere around his knees, in the manner of a hapless teenager.

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.

thanks for your comments- and sybil- yes you are obviously right. but thanks for being so generous about it!
It's a good point also about the way he makes women dress. hadn't really thought about that. Was too busy thinking about his making women undress...

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?

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.

but how come it's women that have to get empowered by taking their clothes off, eh?

EXACTLY. The idea of a man doing it is incredibly uncomfortable and that I think is because we are instinctively unhappy with the idea of men doing something that makes them look stupid- with women, that is so much a part of our culture that not only do we not even notice it, but we somehow think it's 'empowering.' As if the best a woman can hope to achieve is for people to think she looks ok in the buff.

I just find it irritating that he is so grabby.

Trinny & Susannah did that grabbing thing too.

(good blog btw)

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.

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 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?

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.

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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.