The show “Beauty & The Nerd” shows plumped-up lips and a lack of intelligence in women – as well as unkissed nerds. Our author has taken a look at what prevails.
Over ten years ago, the first episode flickered “Beauty & The Nerd” on the German screens. Even back then, I avoided such formats like athlete’s foot. I am a real TV child and have seen all the reality formats on MTV. But I can’t get into shows when they are dripping with clichés – and their creators obviously despise the participants. Nevertheless, this evening I am sitting at my laptop and watching for the star for the first time in my life “Beauty & The Nerd” – the final broadcast. I want to give the show a chance.
The format is taken from the American version “Beauty and the Geek”, which was first broadcast in 2005. Let’s take a quick look back: At that time, the social network “MySpace” and Apple’s media program “iTunes” were among the most searched terms of the year in Google’s annual list.
Wikipedia outlines the concept of the show as follows: “The show follows groups of ‘beauties’ (people – almost always women – who rely on their attractiveness and outgoing personalities but who typically lack intellect) and ‘geeks’ (people – almost always men – who rely on their intellect but who typically lack in social skills) who must form pairs to compete against each other in competitions and avoid elimination. The last pair standing wins the grand prize of $250,000.” Oh well.
“Beauty & The Nerd”: Cliché after cliché
Not much has changed in the German version, except that ProSieben is not giving away 250,000 euros: in Germany, the winning couple has to make do with 50,000 euros. That’s not all that much, because the show often presents its candidates in the worst possible light. And the money has to be shared between the winners.
The nerds are assumed to be stupid, needy creatures. The makers of the show are certain that the way the nerds appear on set is wrong. But if you find out a little about the candidates, you’ll see that almost all of them are in their early twenties. An age at which very few are self-confident – and rarely know exactly who, what or how they want to be.
Nevertheless, ProSieben indoctrinates its protagonists that they are losers if they stay as they are. As if that wasn’t enough, the production company Endomol Shine gives the nerds a makeover. Then the viewers and the nerds are shown how much better they look now. But they don’t: They look like they’re in disguise. Because they’re trying to make them into other people. But a style has to be full of life, has to be authentic. That only works if you feel comfortable in your clothes.
Beautiful, more beautiful, beauty nerd
The beauties are the superior species in this universe. They don’t need to be made over. Only the makers of the show know why it was decided that they are not beauty nerds. Because knowing how much a breast operation costs, what a filler is or how contouring works is also a specialist knowledge. But even the beauties are not safe from the derogatory comments of the voice-over. Of course, the women who have had multiple surgeries, injections and make-up are totally superficial. And on top of that, they can be bitchy, rowdy, loud, trashy – or not very intelligent.
Take Shelly, the master hairdresser. While her team partner and ship nerd Sam is doing a parkour, the beauty is trapped in a cage. In the game, speed counts and Sam is much too slow for Shelly. He has to drag the heaviest objects possible over obstacles and place them on a seesaw so that Shelly’s cage tilts: Only then can Shelly fish for the right key.
After the two have lost the challenge, the voice-over jokes that not only was Sam slow, but Shelly also went at a snail’s pace. And that despite this – superficial, bitchy and arrogant like a beauty – she only sees her team partner’s mistakes and complains. Of course, as onlookers we don’t know whether these were all her reactions.
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The show doesn’t seem quite fresh anymore
The whole editing, the script, the condescending voice-over seem out of date. One of the low points of this almost two-hour final show was the moment when the beauties were made to look “ugly”. Body hair on women was shamed and spots were portrayed as ugly. As if people with skin diseases didn’t already have enough to deal with the disease itself…
And then the reaction of the candidates: There was Shelly, who had a bald head and a few spots painted on her face. And she was very humbled because she had to wear a fake bald head for five minutes. Or reality star Kim Virginia, who is convinced that she gets a lot of hate on social media just because of her beauty. And she thinks that people on social media would be nicer to her if she had a few spots and a mustache.
I suspect that she hasn’t looked at the comments columns under the bikini photo of the perfectly beautiful and pregnant actress Margot Robbie in the last few days. There, mainly men complained that Robbie’s breasts had not grown to the same size as her belly.
My summary: The show dragged on like chewing gum – and I was glad when it was over. In the end, Kim Virginia and Collin won the 50,000 euros. Kim wants to split the winnings between the nerds. At least Kim Virginia understood what the show was actually supposed to be about: “It doesn’t matter which direction we are geeks in, it’s the personality that counts!”