Media industries and media texts play an important role in the naturalization and reproduction of values and practices that support the dominant ideology. Especially reality television has been repeatedly labelled as neoliberal due to the naturalization of control and the individualization of responsibility that erase the social and historical causes of inequality. This work focuses on a subgenre of makeover shows where experts help transform ordinary people or their possessions, thereby improving their lives to become happy and successful individuals. The empirical part is based on an ideological approach to genre criticism of the show Revenge Body with Khloé Kardashian. The aim is to answer how the chosen show naturalizes and reproduces the values and practices that are crucial to the functioning of the neoliberal system. In the work, we find that the show reproduces the class structure and existing power relations, spreads narratives about self-control and the body, and ideas about the individualization of responsibility, thus concealing the social and historical causes of inequality. The key finding is that the show does not function as a democratic force sharing control of the means of media production with the middle class, as early development of reality television promised, but as a ritualized performance that helps legitimize neoliberal ideology.
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