Dude looks like a lady: TBS's reality show He's a Lady will put 11 brawny straight guys in touch with their feminine sides.

"This is a lighthearted show. There is no twist, no mean spirit," says Douglas Ross, one of the executive producers of new TBS reality series He's a Lady. On the heels of Boy Meets Boy, Playing It Straight, and the never-aired Seriously, Dude, I'm Gay, Ross and his fellow executive producer, Tom Campbell, were certainly aware of the potential pitfalls that can hobble even well-meaning reality shows when they set about mounting He's a Lady, in which 11 macho men undergo complete feminine makeovers and compete for $250,000 by taking on weekly gender-specific, challenges.

Anxious not to offend transgendered people, Ross and Campbell approached the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation at the outset to get the organization's feedback on the concept. "We had heard about Seriously, Dude, I'm Gay [in which two straight guys had to convince their best friends and a jury of gay men that they were gay] and how it was controversial," explains Campbell. "We went to GLAAD to get their support and to show that this was a kind show. Through that meeting, we become more aware of transgender issues and the double standards of beauty."

In fact, during the course of the series, the contestants became more sensitive to the particular needs of women, according to the executive producers. "The show is first and foremost a fun show," says Campbell, "but the underlying message is that these men become better for having gone through the experience. It changed the way they will deal with women in the future."

The show takes the men away from their wives and girlfriends under the pretense that they are going to be on a reality program called All American Man, competing in punishing physical challenges. But when they arrive in Los Angeles, the contestants are told that they have to become "ladies." Each episode, they deal with the challenges of bras, jewelry, posture, and bridal showers, and one man gets voted off. The finalists must return to their hometowns to take on the tasks--and multitasking--that usually fall to their female partners.

"It's very emotional in parts," says Ross. "In the final episode, when he is explaining what he has learned as a 'lady' about being a man, one contestant breaks down in tears, and his wife is crying, and even our toughest judge, [sports commentator] John Salley, has tears in his eyes."

Another of the men discovers that his women's clothes are considered "plus-size." "As a big man, he was never subject to being evaluated on his looks," says Campbell, "so he really has to deal with the issues of outer beauty versus inner beauty."

Surprisingly, say both Ross and Campbell, the contestants don't equate the change of gender with a change of sexual orientation. "We wondered if they would joke about being gay, but they didn't," says Ross. "We were careful not to use the words 'in drag' and always said 'in character.' We wanted to take them out of their comfort zone, but they all embraced it wholeheartedly."

Goodridge is U.S. editor of Screen International.