The Hills, Season Three, Episode 15
“The Hills” is a spin off of “Laguna Beach” and based on the life of narrator Lauren Conrad. “The Hills” is produced by Adam Devillo and currently airs on MTV weekly, but I watched this episode on mtv.com. I would say that this show targets younger female audiences but is probably on the televisions of many college students today. The content of the show is Lauren and a number of her friend’s lives. The camera follows them through all of their drama at work; school, home, parties, etc. Lauren’s ex-best friend Heidi and her fiancé, Spencer, are a large part of the drama that takes up this show. Lauren is mad at the pair for a number of reasons such betraying her friendship with Heidi and her rumors involving her past romance. Lauren cannot escape from Heidi’s life because Heidi feels as though she has done no damage and wants to reconcile with Lauren. The two seem to run into each other, because of their similar jobs at large Los Angel’s companies, at a number of parties and events where the drama unfolds. Heidi’s drama does not stop with Lauren, she is continuously arguing with Spencer about a wide range of things but most recently planning their wedding.
In this episode of “The Hills,” Heidi and Spencer cannot agree on anything regarding their wedding. Heidi wants to get married in a church, but Spencer hasn’t even told his parents about the proposal and simply wants to elope in Cabo. While they are discussing this, Heidi says, “I thought boys didn’t care about this stuff.” This relates back to what Yep and Camacho say in “The Normalization of Heterogendered Relations in The Bachelor,” to quote what Audre Lorde states as a “mythical norm” in our society. This phrase is a stereotype that is allowing the viewer to see men as careless bodies. Later in the episode, Lauren, Audrina (Lauren’s good friend and roommate) and Whitney (Lauren’s coworker at Teen Vogue, her internship) are at the gym where a trainer is leading them in exercises. The girls are maintaining a feminine balance between their working out and looking good for the handsome trainer. Lauren suggests that the four of them go to a sports bar called Big Wang’s. This made me chuckle, a sports bar named Big Wang’s? This name for a bar places a ranking of body size on the male organ. With that being said, it is also a sports bar, which means that it is stereotypically predominately male dominated. Throughout the show, the gaze is on the looks of the women who are the main characters. There is a constant gaze on what they are wearing and their outer appearance. They even mention that because they are going to a “sports” bar it isn’t considered one of the places they go out to look their best. The girls dress down for themselves, but to the majority of the public they would look great (while also looking a bit shallow, ahem!).
I have to admit that I actually did enjoy watching this episode of “The Hills” and I can totally see how the male producer is able to make this an entertaining show for young women. Because, hey, women love drama!