Do You Still Have Love For New York? (Episode 7)
I just finished watching the latest episode of I Love New York 2; its episode 7. In this episode the x-girlfriends of the male contestants come onto the show to talk about their ex-boyfriend/contestant. It airs at 8pm on Mondays on VH1. In this show, Tiffany Patterson, known as New York on the show, is looking for a man to love and who loves her back. This is the second season of the show because in the end, the first man she chose, “Tango,� did not have love for New York.
The producers of the show are Chris Abrego and Mark Cronin. Together their company has produced “The Surreal Life,� “Flavor of Love,� “Rock of Love,� and “Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School.� These shows are directed at a younger audience: teenagers and young adults. The commercials during the show include other VH1 shows, Xbox 360, Ipod touch, teen movies, and Rap/R&B CDs.
New York is portrayed as sex symbol on the show. She is always wearing tight clothes, high heals, belly shirts, or a bikini. She loves to hear the men on the show tell her how sexy they think she is. Even though this show is about her finding “love,� it furthers objectification of women and the idea that women are simply sexual objects to men. Similarly, New York mainly judges the men based upon their looks. She continually suggests that her “love� for one contestant, Buddah, is based mostly on her sexual attraction to him. The article Gender Trouble in Paradise (Hotel), or a Good Women is Hard to Find, Marla Harris says, “Programs like The Bachelorette claim to be feminist, but, in turn, only risk revealing the women to be as superficial as the bachelors who spurred them.�
A definite “scaling of bodies� occurs during this episode, for New York analyzes each ex-girlfriend based upon her looks. She doesn’t say anything negative about the beautiful thin girls that walked in the door, but the minute that a “thicker� girl walks in she makes negative comments. She says that the Entertainer’s girlfriend looks “big� and “she looks like she likes to eat in her spare time.� Furthermore, she was “shocked� to see that Tailor Made’s wife was a “big woman� and commented that she was also ugly, nothing like the “Beyonce or Ciara� she “expected to see.� Her comments are obviously derogatory to all women because they further the notion that to be beautiful and accepted, a woman needs to be thin and physically attractive. It also proves that she is shocked that these men would date anyone outside society’s image of “beautiful.� Her mother, Sister Patterson, even comments on whomever ends up with New York will surely get an “upgrade.� This issue is addressed in the essay Woman is Not Born But Becomes Woman, which says, “culture is so saturated with male bias that women almost never get to see themselves culturally through their own eyes.�
Firstly, most of the focus/gaze is upon New York. We see her, along with her commentary the most while watching the show. The lighting on New York usually comes from above and the shots are either of her whole body, just cut off right under her breasts, or of her backside as she is walking. The music during elimination is dramatic and the lighting is darker than it is during the rest of the show. Also, there is are direct face shots of each contestant commenting on what is going on during the show, so the audience can feel like they know what exactly each person is thinking at that moment.
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