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| © 2010 Keith Ramsey, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio |
Television is a medium which affirms a dissonance in worth and value. An actor generally speaking must be considered attractive, as well as have the ability to act to be considered valued. So not only do we get a false representation of what society generally looks like, we have a standard which is absolutely unattainable for the average person. Celebrities are in the business of looking good at all times because it is a requirement of the job. Certainly you can argue that character actors manage to avoid this as a job requirement; however these same character actors very rarely end up in leading roles.
When we examine shows like The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, The Originals, Beauty and the Beast, (or, indeed, anything on the CW) and Dominion to name a few, what we have is a false world in which most are beyond conventionally attractive. The women are incredibly slim (Nina Dobrev, Peyton List, Anna Paquin for example) and the men are muscular and fit (Joe Manganiello, Ryan Kwanten, Charles Michael Davis, Jensen Ackles). Yes, we are indeed looking at a fantasy world but the characters themselves are meant to be relatable and not necessarily part of the fantasy itself. Not only does it set up an unrealistic standard, it creates a world in which appearance becomes primary to how we value people.
These images then become not only naturalized but something to actively be sought after. Of course because these standards are unattainable to the average person it makes this a quixotic dream. If to be seen as likeable, attractive, valuable and talented one must necessarily conform to an idealistic vision, shows which continually highlight the beautiful quite unintentionally cause recognizable harm. In the normal course of events this small percentage could integrate with the rest of society and simply exist. It is the medium of media that elevates their existence and creates a hierarchy. These body types become overly presented and set up as something we should all be trying to achieve - and therefore something most of us are falling short of
There’s a lot to unpack about television constantly depicting one standard of physical beauty which could take a ream of posts alone to touch. But one thing that creeps in (in both books and on TV) is the depiction of these body types as effortless and normal.
There are probably people who have managed to luck out on the genetic lottery and manage to be predisposed towards a body type that fits our societal ideal of what is attractive or even super-attractive. But they’re not common and, frankly, even with kind genes, so many of these actors manage these physiques by at least some level of conscious effort - and it is that effort that is so often missing.
Take a recent episode of True Blood where Jason Stackhouse identifies the age of stale pizza by tasting it - implying that Jason orders take away pizza an awful lot. Jason Stackhouse can live off unhealthy take aways, but I doubt very much that Ryan Kwanten eats like that to produce his stunning physique and 1% body fat. I can’t imagine that Ryan Kwanten does anything but work extremely hard for that body - yes, there’s a lot of genetic advantage there, but there’s also a lot of very hard work.
