by Hilde van den Berg
If you are Dutch, you may have heard of a show on the channel RTL5 called Adam Zkt. Eva [Adam seeks Eve]. It is similar to a show in the US, called Naked and Afraid, where participants (one male, one female) are sent to a rough natural area and have to survive there. However, as the title may suggest, there is a catch: both participants are completely and utterly naked from their very first meeting onwards. While the goal of Naked and Afraid involves surviving nature, Adam Zkt. Eva is literally described by the channel as being a dating show.
From what I have seen and heard, the participants are sent to an uninhabited island, which is set up for them by the show’s crew. Since this is a dating show at heart, the island does seem quite idyllic. Dutch TV took away the survival element completely. Things I have seen pop up are a guitar, food, nice decorations for the hut, and, of course, a bowl of condoms. It is a dating show, after all.
As with all dating shows, it would not do to just have one “Adam” and one “Eve”. A bit of competition is needed, and Adam Zkt. Eva also provides that. After the two main contestants have gotten to know each other a little bit, a third and sometimes even a fourth person is introduced. They are also naked, which, of course, adds another element of competition. Despite the introduction of other people, however, I think that the show is intended to stay completely heterosexual. If more men show up, then the woman is supposed to pick one of them, and the other way around. I have only watched one episode, though, so who knows what has happened and can still happen.
The amazing (or interesting, whatever you want to call it) thing about this show is that Dutch TV does not censor a thing. In the beginning of the episode, there is some strategic placement in order to not “reveal” everything yet, but after that the viewers are free to see absolutely everything of the candidates’ bodies. Due to the fact that TV often mainly consists of torso-shots, we see more chests than anything else, but I feel like the show definitely tries to show as much of the genital areas as it can.
Now we can ask ourselves the question: why does a show like this exist? And, why is it popular enough to stay on TV and have a second season? The intro to Adam Zkt. Eva suggests that it is also a social experiment, to see how a relationship could go if you can not hide anything about yourself in the physical sense; to see whether the participants would be more prepared to tell the other their personal stories. Is that what would lure the viewers, though? Perhaps the general fact that these people are stark naked would make people curious, not necessarily the philosophical thoughts behind it.
Either way, if you are not uncomfortable with watching naked people walking around casually, I would encourage you to just watch an episode and see what you think. I think it is interesting to watch, anthropologically speaking. It also sparks a question, of course: would you participate in such a TV show yourself?
Hilde van den Berg, Class of 2016, is a Psychology and Law major from Doetinchem, the Netherlands.
