I’m not a huge fan of dating shows on TV and, when Channel 4’s Naked Attraction launched, it sounded kind of awful.
The premise is this: a fully dressed person who wants a partner is presented with six naked potential partners in booths. We see their bottom halves as the camera zooms into their genitals and the person doing the choosing discusses their genital preferences with the host.
The person doing the choosing then discards one of the people in the booths based on not fancying their genitals, feet and legs. Then, more of the contestants is revealed and we see their chests, complete with close-ups, just like with the genitals. The person discards someone on this basis. Then we see their faces… you get the idea.
In the end, when it is down to two, the person doing the choosing gets naked and picks their final choice. They go on a date (fully clothed) and, a few weeks later, come back to talk to the show about what happened next.
I was icked out by the prospect of rejecting people based solely on the appearance of their bodies, right down to the specifics of body hair or piercings or breast size. I understand having preferences, but saying “I don’t want to date her because her labia are not to my taste” is unthinkable. So I just didn’t watch.
Until one night when I did.
What I found, to my surprise, was actually a respectful show where weird choices have to be made but people treat each other well and with (lusty) kindness. There is diversity, too. I have seen disabled contestants and choosers, and trans people too. Sometimes people are choosing from men, sometimes women, and sometimes a combination of the two. Racial diversity could be better, though.
Anna Richardson, the host, asks careful questions and gets the contestants to praise each other, rather than creating a hostile and combative environment.
Let’s take a look at this week’s episode as an example.
The first half of the show has Amira, a trans woman, choosing from six cis men. They did present photos of her as a child, in her assigned gender, but beyond that she iss treated well and as a woman. She was looking for love but had had trouble meeting somebody and decided that a row of naked folks was the way forward. Why not, I guess?
In the first round, we find out Amira likes sucking toes; Richardson takes this in her stride. They discuss the penises of the men in front of her and Amira talks about the sex she has had since going through her physical transition, which has been an empowering and uplifting experience.
She lets the man in the pink booth go, based on how hairy his legs are. Matt, age 21, comes out and they have a hug.
Next, Amira sees the men’s chest areas. Tattoos, body hair, muscles and nipples are all praised or dissed, some are fondled, and we find out more of what Amira likes sexually. She rejects the man in the yellow booth on the basis of his height, and Cody, age 23, hugs her and leaves.
The show goes on until Amira takes off her own clothes and chooses Ste to go out on a date with. In the follow up, they flirt outrageously. As it should be. But Amira had met somebody else in the time since their date, leaving Ste “a bit gutted”.
In the second half of the show, Andy, a mechanic, picks between six women and I find myself feeling a little more critical of the show on this basis, as women are generally picked apart more often for their hair, size and shape in the rest of the world. But the show remains respectful, if NSFW (“could you see yourself having a tit wank?” “I mean, yeah I could, yeah”) and Andy goes on a date with Bianca. Three weeks later, they are planning a second date.
Overall, this is a show that – unexpectedly – makes me feel better about my body. Even though I cannot relate at all to choosing to date somebody on this basis, I get that it’s a novel idea for a show and some of the people paired together even meet up again after the show is over. Some people are more visually motivated than I am and, in the safe hands of Anna Richardson, this is a surprisingly courteous way of picking a partner. It’s fair to say I’m hooked.