How to look good naked!

I love that show, last year it was great and this year it's even better! It's such an antidote to the body fascism that the media is soaked in. In Ireland we have Off The Rails, which is true to the age old makeover show ethos of put the girl in a nice dress, get her hair done and put enough slap on her to make the pussy cat dolls blush and viola, why your beautiful Miss Jones. We should be grateful for the innocence of off the rails.

In America and the UK it's a totally different story, be it the Swan or Ten Years Younger, it's weeks of cosmetic surgery and teeth whitening and breaking the women down mentally before they put them in the dress and the new hair do. The moment of the big "reveal" when the women see themselves for the first time is always shocking, they can barely look at the stranger before them, there will always be tears and maybe screams. What happens to these women when they go home? What do their partners and children think of this strange woman with a different nose than mommy's nose and hard lumps where mummy's blooby boobies used to be, is her husband watching her every move around other men, after all if she was content in their relationship she wouldn't have had her ass lifted. How do these women maintain their new life?

I'm gonna say what every one thinks, if these women hated themselves before they had the "makeover" will they like themselves any more afterwards? If you look differently on the outside but what ever you have inside you that makes you feel ugly is still there it will slowly emerge until you are uglier than before. It's the hardest thing in the world to like yourself, and if you can't like everything then you have to accept that too. The media obviously works to prevent this cos there's no money in happiness! We all want our children to be happy with themselves, but as with most things in parenthood we have to lead by example.

Anyway back to "How to look good naked", it's a traditional make over show but with a refreshing positive attitude. Gok Wan who presents is all love and teeth, he is funny and upbeat but without the acidic putting down of the "ladies" that other shows rely on for laughs, as "Aunty Gok" helps each weeks chosen one to see herself as she really is ( how can she not see how beautiful her eyes are, or how great her legs look), he's talking to everyone of us sitting in our flannel pyjamas on the sofa, hiding our wobbly bits from our partners. He introduces us liberated women to the secret of underwear, good underwear that sucks it in and pushes it up, secrets your granny could have told you, and not a scalpel in sight. By the time she walks down the catwalk in her flimsy undies I want to throw off my towelling bath robe and walk down the aisle in my local debenhams in my best push up bra.

Another great aspect of the show is the naked vox pops where they talk about the things they like and dislike about their bodies, as my hubby said it's the only time you see real naked women on TV that haven't been airbrushed to death. I want more programmes like this on TV. It's uplifting( not just the underwear) and liberating to watch and anyone who hasn't seen it should, it's an education.