Naked Attraction Is a Brave and Bright Celebration of Body Neutrality
Brits bare all in this controversial series that has undeservedly become the Internet's punching bag
Photo Courtesy of Channel 4
When all six seasons of the British reality TV show Naked Attraction arrived on Max, America was aghast. Amidst mixed responses from the too-quick-to-judge TV-watching population, I find it a refreshingly honest, albeit discomforting, approach to body neutrality, as well as what counts as “good” TV.
Tonally speaking, the show veers into a territory more akin to car shopping, while still singing overtly sexual tunes. With naked bodies revealed, bit by bit (from the lower portion, to the torso, and finally the full body and face), we viewers at home are left just as riveted as the person picking their future date on screen.
Naked Attraction follows one person charged with selecting a mate based on “naked attraction alone.” The premise is simple and straightforward and, like good sex, filled with laughter about what our bodies are capable of, and yet explicitly devoid of gross shame. However, the response to such public displays of our inherent sexuality have warranted outcries of pornographic intent levied at the show’s creators from groups like the Parents Television Council, most notably.
The media watchdog group has even gone so far as to criticize all of HBO, a legacy network known for pushing the envelope of groundbreaking entertainment. (And yes, sometimes that means nudity.) It’s no secret that America remains harmfully and boringly prudish (shoutout Puritanism), but if Naked Attraction is wrong, then I don’t want to be right.
A main criticism of the show is its focus on what people look like, which is, of course, the point. What neigh-sayers seem to miss is how wide and varied the tastes of people on the show are. For a little bit of background, the person picking from the selection of “bods in pods” indicates the physical attributes they prefer prior to the taping, and the producers provide them with options as close to that description as possible. While still adhering to what makes “good” TV, in that no bodies are carbon copies of one another in any single round, the show’s producers curate the options to match what the “picker” is looking for. When bigger bodies are rejected for their size, while saddening to witness, it’s handled with social graces and care. It’s also not unheard of on the show to reject someone for being too small-framed, a preference expressed from both men and women alike. One booted singleton coped with the difficulty of elimination by stating that the person choosing “prefers curvy women,” and “curvy is one thing [they’re] not.” How each person handles their bruised ego differs, but the general message of “oh, well” acts as a good enough balm for most unlucky contestants, and demonstrates the proactive thought the show’s creators put into tending to the self-esteem and spirit of those bearing all on air.