This paper examines the TLC reality show Dr. Pimple Popper, which follows Dr. Sandra Lee, a California-based dermatologist, who became a viral sensation after posting a series of dermatological procedures she performed on her YouTube channel and Instagram feed. The TLC show has given Dr. Lee a wider platform for her celebrity and amplifies her self-marketed persona as a feminine physician who stomachs “gross” excisions and extractions. This paper limits its analysis of the show by approaching it as a reiteration of the freak show, where persons with bodily differences were showcased for public, normate spectacle. By understanding Dr. Pimple Popper as a site of freak show exhibitionism, this paper also recognizes the implicit evocation of the abject, entangled with a medicalized narrative of cure, as the show scripts its subjects’ trajectory from a working class location to Dr. Lee’s manicured office space in Upland, California. This analysis uses research on cosmetic surgery and body modification to think through the ways that the show’s participants become objects of the gaze through the opening up of their bodies on screen. It also considers the historical context of the freak show and its juxtaposition with the invisibility of disabled bodies in public spaces to understand Dr. Pimple Popper’s contribution to popular beliefs about disability.
About the presenterKaitlyn Wauthier
Kaitlyn is a PhD student at Bowling Green State University, American Culture Studies Program. She is interested in the intersections of disability and tourism. Her proposed dissertation investigates the Make-A-Wish Foundation as a site of knowledge production about disability.