My favorite reality show is ending this fall after 10 years on the air. Unlike most, this one teaches some important lessons.
I’m talking, of course, about TLC’s “What Not To Wear.”
Since 2003, the dynamic duo of Stacy London and Clinton Kelly have made over more than 350 women on the show. In return for a $5,000 shopping spree, their guests (people of all shapes and sizes from all walks of life) promise to throw out everything in their wardrobe that Stacy and Clinton disapprove of.
The guests then show Stacy and Clinton some of their clothes and explain why (in God’s name) they’d wear such an item out of the house.
The hosts show each woman alternative clothing that would look better on her. And in doing so — here’s where the lessons start — they emphasize over and over the importance of dressing appropriately: appropriately for your age, for the occasion and for the impression you are trying to make on others.
Stephanie Eno, the show’s executive producer for the past six years, says “What Not To Wear” is about more than clothes. “The clothes represent who you are and how you feel. They should help you bring out the best in yourself.”
On the one hand, she notes, “We’re taught to never judge a book by its cover, but truth of matter is you do . . . We are all judged — consciously or unconsciously.”
And that’s the big lesson.
A clever graphic’s going around Facebook now: The top is a photo of the men of Howard University medical school dressed in hoodies; below, they’re wearing their white medical coats. The caption reads: “Now do we look suspicious?”
The point, of course, is that you can’t judge a man by his hoodie. And just because Trayvon Martin was wearing one, doesn’t mean he was up to no good.
Then there are the “slut walks” of recent years (the latest was this month in DC). Here, women try to send the message that prancing around in provocative attire (fishnets and black bras, in some cases) doesn’t mean they’re willing to entertain sexual advances from strangers.
Yes, both groups are right — in a way. Wearing a hoodie or low-riding pants doesn’t make you a thug (though the look is certainly meant to mimic a kind of thug culture). And wearing short skirts and low-cut blouses doesn’t make you a woman of loose morals.
But does anyone really think that Facebook posts or street marches are going to change the fact that people do judge each other — at least initially — by their choice of clothing?
Of course not. That’s why, when those Howard men go to work at a hospital or in a medical office, they most definitely won’t be wearing hoodies; they’ll be wearing ties. And when those women marching through the streets want to be taken seriously in a boardroom, they’ll wear clothes that are a little more modest.
At least, most of them will. Some of them would benefit from a visit to “What Not To Wear,” where Stacy and Clinton could explain reality to them.
Reality meaning: Women who wear sweat pants every day look like they’ve given up. People who don’t know them may treat them with less respect as a result. Middle-aged women who dress like they’re in high school will not be taken seriously.
And women who dress like they know their way around a pole may not get asked on the kind of dates they’re looking for.
The hosts of “What Not to Wear” would never say it’s OK to judge people by their clothing. And they surely agree that it’s important to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, to get to know someone before you put them into a category.
But Stacy and Clinton have a decent understanding of human nature, too. The reason we put on one item of clothing instead of another each morning is because we want to convey a particular impression.
In the show’s final episode, Eno tells me, hundreds of past guests return to thank Stacy and Clinton for their help. They’ve gotten the confidence to leave “toxic relationships.” They’ve lost a significant amount of weight. They’ve gotten jobs they never thought possible.
You can bemoan our culture’s superficiality, but books with better covers are more likely to be read.