Cool body image shows on BBCAmerica

If you're looking for something less mind-numbing to watch than A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila (not that I don't watch that. Sometimes.)...

BBC AMERICA is going to be showing a number of really fascinating-looking documentaries in December (all on Sundays) as part of the channel's "Body Image Month." The topics will cover crash diets, breast size, being overweight, and feeling you were born in the wrong body. Check them out:

SUPER SKINNY ME
Sunday, December 2, 10:00 p.m. ET/PT. **TODAY

Female celebrities seem to be vanishing before our very eyes. Ellen Pompeo, Kate Bosworth, pre-pregnancy Nicole Ritchie, Keira Knightly and other stars seem to be in a race to size zero (and beyond). But what are the costs of such extreme weight loss, and how can you possibly maintain such an unnatural state?

Super Skinny Me is a shocking, reverse version of Super Size Me. In this graphic account of extreme dieting, two journalists, Kate Spicer, 37, and Louise Burke, 28, are followed as they adopt extreme weight-loss methods used by celebrities and models—everything from colonics to protein shakes—with the goal of dropping five dress sizes in five weeks, plummeting from the average size 8 to a catwalk size 0. Along the way, the journalists—and the audience—are forced to confront the serious mental and physical side effects of such an experiment, revealing the true cost of the Hollywood look. Said Louise of her experience, “The last thing I want to do is show people how to lose the weight. The aim of the experiment is to show and highlight all the horrible, nasty side effects. I don’t think I’ve ever been so unhappy in my life.”

476-LB. TEENAGER
Sunday, December 9, 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Teenagers often feel awkward and self-conscious, but at four times the size of the average teen, Bethany Walton has never felt pretty. At the start of 2006, Bethany was Britain’s fattest teenager, weighing in at 476 pounds. When she was told she would not make to adulthood, she opted for radical stomach-reducing surgery.

She’s since lost 96 pounds, but surgery hasn’t stopped her life-long habit of comfort eating. Even worse, with her new, smaller stomach, she finds eating certain fibrous, healthy foods difficult. The surgery also doesn’t shelter her from stares and hurtful comments. Bethany said of her experience, “People stare at you, children say, ‘Mummy, why’s she like that?’ If someone had been particularly horrible to me, like a drunken person across the street shouting, ‘Oi, you fat b*tch!’ I’d feel so low.”

Obese for almost a decade, her biggest battle is ahead. In order to get to the root of her problem, she decides to see a therapist. Even though she desperately wants to change her ways, she sometimes worries she’ll be a different person, and may even lose her friends. Bethany hopes to focus on the things she is proud of, like her studies. Will she learn to overcome the psychological effects of being obese? Will she ever wean herself from an emotional attachment to food?

MY SMALL BREASTS AND I
Sunday, December 16, 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

This documentary uncovers the complex, poignant and sometimes amusing relationship women have with their breasts. Speaking candidly, three women reveal how they feel about their small chest size.

Kate Bailey’s self-esteem is so impaired, she barely goes out. A mother of two, Kate worries that her negative body image will affect her children as they grow up. She travels all the way to New York to see an innovative photo therapist, who, through photography, gives her clients a different perspective on their bodies.

Laura Taylor has wanted breast implants since she was fourteen. She’s so desperate for funding, she’s logged on to an innovative website that allows men to donate money to women for breast implants. She even visits with one of the lucky recipients to talk about her online experience.

Sharon Tan could easily afford breast implants, but she doesn’t want to go under the knife. Instead, she’s trying her own DIY method to increase her chest size. She takes herbal supplements and she’s also invested in a breast enhancement machine—that’s getting in the way of her love life.

Through visits to bra makers, psychologists, photographers and surgeons, three women try to make their own breasts look bigger and also hope to accept what they’ve got.

MY BIG BREASTS AND ME
Sunday, December 23, 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

The average chest size of a teenager has grown dramatically over the past ten years. Find out what it’s really like to have a cup size at the far end of the alphabet in this documentary tracking the experiences of three large-breasted women. Some may think large breasts are a blessing—but at least for these three, they’re a curse.

Music student Jodie Oliver, 23, is petite. Her feet are a size one, but her chest is a 28K—and still growing. Coming from a family where the women have relatively small breasts, Jody sets out to find out why her breasts are growing. In order to make her friends understand, she takes them shopping, fitted with size K prosthetic breasts. Will they love having large breasts enough to cope with the physical effort of lugging them around? Will they like the kind of attention large breasts command?

Maddie Barlow, 19, dreams of working the fashion industry, but she feels that her F cups are holding her back. She pops out of the latest fashions, never quite looking anything like what comes down the runway. For example, supermodel Giselle is portrayed as curvy, but Maddie’s three full cup sizes larger. Afraid that her look is holding her back, the camera follows Maddie as she tries to find a place for big breasts in the fashion world.

Now in her thirties, Vicky Scarfield has finally had enough of her 34H breasts. She’s sick of hiding them, always dressing in black, always standing with her shoulders hunched to make them look smaller. She’s fed-up with avoiding unwanted attention to herself and her breasts. Concerned that surgery is too expensive and would leave her scarred, we follow Vicky has she embarks on a regime of exercise and herbal remedies in order to reduce her breasts naturally.

TEEN TRANSSEXUAL
Sunday, December 30, 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

When Lucy Parker celebrated her 18th birthday, all she wanted was to become a woman. An especially daunting wish, considering Lucy was born a boy named Richard. Teen Transsexual documents the voyage from Richard to Lucy—one that's complicated by her young age. As a minor, gender reassignment was impossible—illegal, even. But Lucy started her journey in her early teens with her family's blessing and hormone therapy.

It’s been a long voyage from Richard to Lucy. Lucy admits knowing she was different, even as a small child, “At about eight years old, I realized, for sure, that my body was wrong. I always thought to myself, ‘I wish I could become a girl, I wish I could.’ and I didn’t think there was a possible way.”

After confessing to a therapist, Richard had to come out to his family. He admits he was terrified he’d be insulted, hurt, maybe even disowned. Since age 16, Richard’s been living full time as Lucy—classified by the medical profession as a pre-operative transsexual, which means her body is still male.

Now that she's 18, there's another hurdle in her way. At an age where few people solidly know who they are, she has to prove that she's ready for this irreversible surgery, and that it will allow her to function better, psychologically and socially. With the support of her family, her therapist and surgeons, will she finally be able to leave her former gender behind?

WG readers:
Please note that the above wording is from BBC AMERICA - I have not been able to preview these shows and am simply passing along the info because, quite frankly, I think they sound intensely interesting. Unfortunately, I don't get BBC AMERICA but if anyone out there does and has a chance to watch, please fill us in. I'm going to try to obtain a copy of the first one, which involves purposefully extreme weight loss and if I do, will review it - in a heartbeat - so we can discuss the tactics used by the documentary-makers.

Comments

I'm definitely watching those. Thanks for posting that!

Okay, I'm dying to see the first one! But I don't get BBC America either (don't have cable). I wonder if they'll post it online anywhere? I feel like I simply *must* see it. I hope you get a chance to review it Leslie!! Don't you have friends with that channel? I'm going to start calling around... Tell us how it is, Jamie??

Leslie - I found this article that talks about the Skinny Me show in greater detail. It's written by one of the women who did the experiment. Very interesting in so many ways!! Anyhow, if any of you can't watch the show (like me, probably) here's a good read about it: http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/diet_and_fitness/article1625715.ece

I just watched it, and it's pretty amazing. I'm guessing it may show up on YouTube at some point, and perhaps will be available on Netflix at some point?
The good news is that, after getting caught up in all the dieting crap, both women were able to return to a healthy mentality once the experiment was over. One even said, after fitting in to a pair of size 00 jeans, that she didn't like it, and wanted her old body, and her life back. But it was frightening how easily they fell into the diet mentality. (One of them had never been on a diet in her life.)

I caught it too! Apparently I do get the BBC...will write about it tomorrow...
night!

Bah time differences! Here in California I'm watching it right now. Kate is kind of scaring me right now. "I ate under 1000 calories today, but I feel guilty." "A raisin and a nut. That's a treat for me." And then there's an ad for the 476 lb. teenager special. Bah, extremes!