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Article: Renovating The American Woman's Home: American domesticity in Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.(Critical essay)
- Article from:
- Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers
- Article date:
- January 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 University of Nebraska Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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While the popular ABC reality television program Extreme Makeover: Home Edition may initially strike us as thoroughly modern in its execution and technology, its rhetoric and ideology actually hold much in common with nineteenth-century domestic texts. For example, Extreme Makeover is unabashedly sentimental, focusing on destitute but virtuous protagonists in search of stable, safe homes. The familiar scenes of a search for home and acts of Christian charity echo those found in novels such as The Wide, Wide World and Little Women. Throughout the program, tears flow freely among the family members, the design crew, the volunteers, and the show's viewers. One viewer admits, ...