[lit-ideas] sci-fi question & reality shows

Help!  I am trying to recapture something I read from the lost years of jr. 
high.  I was on a sci-fi rampage and I devoured so much it all kind of blurs 
together.  What I'm looking for was, I think, a short story and the feeling of 
it smacks of Clarke, though I can't be sure even of that.  The scenario was a 
future in which genetic engineering made possible very well defined class 
systems -- an elite intelligentsia, a work-force class.  The focal point of the 
story was a girl who was a genetic fluke, born into a working-class (farming, I 
think) family who was attractive and intelligent and didn't want to adhere to 
her place.  The solution was to have her sent to a "center" of some sort where 
she was remade physiologically (less attractive, stronger & sturdier for farm 
work), and reprogrammed psychologically to fit her given place in society, 
altering her personality significantly and erasing her memory.  Does this ring 
any bells with anyone??  My distant memory may have warped it out of all 
recognition.   (I keep thinking of it when the kids are flipping channels and 
"extreme makeover" comes on.  Does anyone else have a violently negative 
reaction to 
that show or is everyone pleased that these people can get this wonderful 
chance at a new life?  Does anyone else think the whole notion of a "reality 
show" 
is revolting to begin with?)
Julie Krueger


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