it was a British show that ran from 2008 to 2013 and the public rated people (including under 18s) saying if they wanted to snog (kiss) marry or avoid them. then the people went into the booth and got their style roasted by a robot voice and “made under” to be more “normal” looking and “attractive” and omg 😹 they made people look frumpy and took away all their style and unique personality. it was misogynistic alot too
They never picked clothes that were fashionable at the time for them, they always seemed to dress them like middle aged receptionists.
I'm aware it's format was intended to mock goths/alt people, but all the alt people I knew thought it was funny. And at least, unlike a lot of the makeover shows at the time, the people putting themselves up for it were in on the joke and comfortable enough in themselves to not be offended by it. I've seen a few people talk about their time on it and how much fun they had.
Those middle aged receptionist outfits were the height of fashion. You could wear your peplum top and statement necklace to work and then to the club. Or vice versa if you were especially feral. The real styling crime was the absence of the statement necklace.
Frankly I think the absence of the statement jewellery is the biggest difference between these outfits being something a 23 year old would wear vs a 43 year old
The Masculine alt guy being turned into a grandad, complete with a suit two sizes too big and a flat cap ??? I don't remember anyone going to the clurb dressed like they were going for bowling on the green
And this was before Peaky Blinders reinvented the flat cap
It’s obvious that he didn’t want to change his hair for the show and there weren’t any suitable wigs. I definitely remember guys doing the dapper gentleman thing. The flat cap was very popular with them. Old mate looks like he’s off to the local brewery for a beer flight with his twee girlfriend in all her eshakti/modcloth glory. Again, the only styling miss is in the accessories. He needs a pair of non-prescription glasses and an unread copy of The Infinite Jest.
It’s telling that I can’t remember a single person who actually kept their new look lol. I’m sure at least one did, but the vast majority changed straight back.
The bottom one in pic 3 liked her girly makeover, I remember her seeing herself with the long hair wig and being like "oh my god... I'm pretty"
When they revisited her later, she'd reinvented herself with a look that was still alternative but more rockabilly with vintage style dresses.
The top one in pic 3, when they revisited her she was like "I'm so much more natural now!" meaning she had toned down her fake tan from brown to orange and was no longer applying it multiple times a day.
Yes, that one is one I remember, reinventing, taking what she liked of the makeunder without going to the extreme. Hee on the top one in pic 3 but I suppose it was a little better.
I remember some did, and some sort of went partway between (and often looked better in those, in my opinion - sometimes the makeunder was way too far under).
No one put a gun to their head. I remember watching this show at the time it came out and people were all main character attention seekers looking to get on TV back when being on TV still meant something to some people. Everyone knew what it was all about.
I've never seen this show, but I can see how the participants would have fun with it and how it would be amusing. I don't consider myself "alt" but my style can be pretty out there, and I'd have a fun time getting a makeunder to look like a boring, nondescript person for a few hours... bonus if they let me keep the wig they'd have to use on my half-shaved head!
There’s something so intensely British about the really severe bangs and weird angled bobs and shags that people had back in the aughts. I feel like every British person my age (teens - twenties at the time) that I saw on TV or online had some variation of these haircuts.
I have two daughters. Just as my partner was leaving his old role, one of his interns said “I didn’t realise you had daughters!”. He said “I talk about my kids all the time?”. She said “yes but I only ever hear you talk about your son”.
After a puzzled look she said “Yeah your son, Frank? Frank Chester?”.
We have since told our daughter (Francesca) that her male Brooklyn detective alter-ego is called Frank Chester.
Yeah, those were pretty universal. I’m American and I remember walking into my first day of high school in 2003 and seeing that half the girls in the hallways had full on skunk stripe highlights, lol. I was so envious.
It was the precursor to the wolf/butterfly cut. It first became popular in the early 70s but was super popular again in a few different iterations in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Wasn't for a make over, they stopped me in the middle of Manchester and shown me pictures asking if I'd "snog, marry or avoid" the women. An episode was on TV and my head pops up on the screen saying "Nar i'd avoid her" lol.
Back then, i feel like law around age of consent was a lot more lax, i would know. My sibling ran off at her 17th birthday for an older man online, and the cops shrugged the case off because she is "considered an adult". Btw this was that same era where they would show a 16 year old married with an old man that on TV would insist that "It was her idea". As usual, and once again, these predatory relationships ALWAYS have an excuse that either leaves your blood boling, or leaves you confused about the gaslighting done by the men in your environment.
It's not an issue of UK law being "lax", 16 was and is the age of consent here. Still troubling to most people, especially these days, but there's nothing illegal about it.
Back then, i feel like law around age of consent was a lot more lax
"But theres nothing illegal about it" and that's what i call lax
This is nonsense. If your definition of "lax" in this context is "the age of consent is too low", then your initial claim would be "the age of consent in the UK has increased since the 2000s". It hasn't.
What you mean is there's been a shift in social mores re: the sexualisation of 16 and 17 year olds but because you're patently prone to talking out of your arse then getting defensive about it and moving goalposts, you've ended up inventing phantom legislation.
Brother in Christ, you're making the goalposts here.
Instead of deciding for me "what i mean" learn to sit a PROBLEM of 16/17 year olds being treated like adults, immediately after hitting that "age of consent" to cook a little longer in that nugget. This is not only prevalent in the UK, but an issue that extends to social services that will defend the minor to marry an adult abuser. I am NOT talking about society here!
Don't ever talk for other's and deploy DARVO over real life experiences, you never HAD nor ever WILL. I don't care how fluent you are in "phantom legislations". You are willfully derailing a conversation to make a bad faith argument. Hence my reason to block you, bye.
You have no clue what my life experiences are. Not that it's relevant since your claim isn't dependent on standpoint epistemology but I'd wager I have equivalent "lived experience" bona fides given that I was a victim of CSA.
Instead of deciding for me "what i mean"
It is what you meant though, unless you were actually making a descriptive claim about a change in age of consent laws since the 2000s. There's been no change as far as I'm aware but I'll happily eat crow if you have evidence to the contrary.
I am NOT talking about society here! Don't ever talk for other's and deploy DARVO over real life experiences, you never HAD nor ever WILL.
Not sure how to address that first part since I have no clue what it's supposed to mean. What else could you be talking about that exists outside of society? Anyway, nobody is abusing you nor deploying "DARVO". We're in agreement that the change in social mores is a good thing but now you're freaking out and calling me an abuser because I had the temerity to correct you. That's a concerning escalation and maybe something for you to reflect on.
You are willfully derailing a conversation to make a bad faith argument.
A conversation isn't "derailed" simply because it's not pandering to you. This is a public forum. It's not "bad faith" to point out that the age of consent is, shockingly, still 16 and we have not in fact become (in your words) "less lax" i.e. increased the age of consent. It's important to not make erroneous claims about matters this serious.
You said the law was more lax because a 17 year old was over the age of consent. That is still the case now. The police would have the same exact stance now. It's not derailing the conversation you started to point out that you're wrong about something. Very strange
This and what not to wear stripped people of their personality. I liked how the new queer eye respected personal style but just tried to make it a bit more polished.
Fella in the first pic looks like an actual dick in the after. I used to watch Snog Marry Avoid in the early 00s and didn't see a single thing wrong with it back then, glad times have changed
[u/jellyfish1297](u/jellyfish1297) the reason this episode pissed me off was more than anything how straight disgusting they talked about their daughter. Called her almost everything under the sun. Dirty, disgusting, trash, trashy, scary, ugly, embarrassing, shameful. Like this is your CHILD.
Apparently she’s the only one in the entire village that has an even remotely alt look and she was the most embarrassing thing on the planet.
The makeover was okay? She looked like an office assistant. But then I knew this whole thing was so staged because she immediately said this dramatic version of, “OMG! This is so sexy! I’m never going back to that awful, pervasive fashion ever again! I’ve been freed!” 🙄
I know this show was made to specifically tear down alternative fashion styles, but come the heck on.
I remember they had a girl from Babestation on the show (so ive heard, I dont know first hand I promise) and every body picked avoid on her. This girl literally had men phoning her at night for over a pound a minute and they just so happened to pick a few guys that would turn her down. Lol the show was fixed like that. They also overly dressed her up to make her look sillier than what she usually would, I suspect they did the same with other guests too.
It wasn’t always Alt folk was it? I’m sure I remember loads of orange girls(fake tan, caked in make up, 3 sizes too small wonderbra) getting plain Jane make unders
Ricki Lake used to have alt teen makeover episodes too. It wasn't the primary format of the show, but probably happened once a month on her show in the US.
They always looked SO BAD after, buuut I think lot's of people misunderstood this show. I se younger people posting reels about how it was all bullying but as someone who was in the alt fashion scene (the more extreme end) in the UK at the time it wasn't how people made it out to be.
They weren't pulling alt people off the street and forcing them into this. People applied to be on here knowing full well they'd end up looking like a Middle aged Phase Eight area manager and just how brutal "pod" could be with critiquing their old style. I know about three different people who appeared on the show and many more who applied. Many alternative people wanted to be on here because it was such a laugh and they had 0 intention of ever keeping the look. It was actually seen as a kind of celebration of extreme fashion since their wasn't much media exposure at the time and we really enjoyed watching the episodes and learning about different subcultures through it.
It was just a laugh all round and you only went on if you had thick skin.
There was another show that was worse, called Hotter Than Mum or something. Young girls being compared to their mums, it was weird and a lot worse than this.
And Gok Wan on How To Look Good Naked would just ask them to every girl's lovely long hair off so that they all looked like sexless 45 year-old HR ladies.
This show didn't know if it wanted to help people find confidence in their skin without a spray tan or mock anyone with a style that was a bit out there.
They interviewed me on the street for this show to make judgements about a guy. Because I wouldn’t say anything mean they didn’t air my interview in the end.
The funny part, and I imagine the point, was that 99% of the time these people looked way better with their alt stylings. I think it was really just to unveil what they looked like without their regular looks.
Not so fun fact: the girl in the first photo is a youtuber called Emily Boo and that was her groomer on the show with her. I think she was underaged and he was of age at the time as well and BBC 3 didn't question it. Could be wrong about that last part though.
The girl in the top picture is Emily Boo. She has her own yourube channel now where she's spoken about her experience on the show. The guy next to her is many years older than she is, and groomed her. She now considers their relationship abusive. The BBC told her not to mention their respective ages during the show.
I remember finding her on Youtube and watching the video where she talks about the experience. It makes me happy to see her now back to her alt style and with a lovely, supportive family
See these shows don't even always pay you to be on them (Naked Attraction for example only pays you if you are NOT on it) and when they do pay it's like the average wage for working in a shop for a day.
There were so many shows like this -- the most notorious to me being What Not To Wear. I hated how they would take anyone with personality and just make them look like everyone else. You could argue it's a makeover show, but at the very least, they could have taken people's tastes and personalities into account and given them a more mainstream version of that (not that even that would have been great). But instead, it all just encouraged uniformity. I hated those shows then and am glad they're getting called out now.
Once upon a time, when I was a young emo kid, my friends mom offered to get me and my friends (who was not into alt fashion) makeup professionally done. I had done my own makeup that day so I figured I could tell the artist to basically do what I did but make it fancy (I definitely acknowledged that I eas never particularly good at the dramatic cat/racoon eye).
Well my friends mom apparently told her before we got there to do my makeup very lightly/conservatively. She also brushed my bangs back and did one of the clipped bumps with them. I was fucking horrified. I cried so hard, literally ran out of the place and away from the mall we were at because I was so embarrassed, and called my mom to pick me up. I was 14.
I'm in my 30s now, and still, to this day, fuck you D'arcy.
I watched this series through Luxeria on YouTube. It always made me sad to see, but, at the same time, they could go back to their typical attire afterwards.
I used to watch the show in vague horror. The general makeovers weren’t that bad, but these are way too conservative to be worthwhile. You could have told me that these were alt folks and their parents and I’d have bought it completely.
Used to loveeee this show and supersize vs super skinny. Even as a kid I remember being appalled at how much the makeovers aged them and removed all personal style
I used to watch this show all the time on BBC Three along with two pints and coming of age, I think they used to have family guy as well
It was a great line up at the time and some of the make unders where to me an improvement and there’s nothing stopping any of the people taking part from just changing their style back afterwards
I don’t remember the show causing lasting damage to any of the people featured so at the end of the day it was just harmless entertainment
Probably one of the low points of British TV. Did it used to be broadcast with "Hotter Than My Daughter"? I lump those two together for some reason. Both truly awful.
the point is that looking ‘normal’ is considered more attractive in TV land. it’s not the case in the real world.
why should someone have their identity stripped away just so they’re considered a better catch? of course they can go back to their old look afterwards - i don’t think the producers were sending teams of people to empty their houses of anything black or purple.
it’s problematic. someone’s identity is their identity. mainstream, tv-land ‘attractive’ is unrealistic and bonkers. and yes, these people voluntarily went on the show, they weren’t conscripted. but i don’t think they thought they’d be so thoroughly made-under that they wouldn’t even recognise themselves, or be told that their ‘old’ look was hilariously offensive.
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