November 29, 2007
November 28, 2007
Mind Games: I Love New York 2
WORK OUT! on Bravo
I watched an episode of Bravo’s Work Out online. I purchased it through ITunes. I chose to analyze Episode 204 of season 2. Work Out is a reality TV show based around Jackie, a personal trainer who has her own gym and spa, named Sky Sport & Spa, in the wealthy area of Beverly Hills. She employs a staff to train at her gym, all of whom she considers to have close personal relationships with. The main focus of the show is Jackie’s gym and the business she has with her clients and employees. The show also takes a look into Jackie’s personal life, as well as the lives of her employees.
Jackie happens to be a lesbian, and a number of her employees are also gay and bisexual. This show targets a more mature audience, with an emphasis on a gay audience. However, I feel that most anyone would appreciate this show because of it looks at the work ethic that running a business entails and how to balance a career with your personal life.
There are several feminist concepts within Work Out. The trainers are all very attractive, young people. They wear stylish workout clothes that often reveal their toned and tan bodies. Both the women and the men who train and work at Sky Sport & Spa are essentially obsessed with their bodies. This is shown by the religious workouts and the camera shots of them often looking in the mirrors to examine their bodies. There are various races and ethnicities in the show. Most of the employees seem to get along, with the exception of a few quarrels here and there. The background and lighting for the shots in the show are set behind a beautiful skyline with bright lighting that emphasizes the attractive bodies of the employees, and also highlights the problem areas with the client’s bodies.
I chose to watch the episode that analyzes several issues within the team at Sky. Jackie is known to be a compulsive dater, often dating several women at once and has a hard time defining her feelings about all of them. In this episode, her love life is a source of gossip for her employees, who feel that she is getting a little excessive. Jackie visits a therapist to try to explore her issues. There are other issues of attraction between heterosexual and homosexual individuals. There is also often an overlaying theme of the Alpha Male, which is ironic because Jackie often assumes that role. The representations of roles are often intermixed within all aspects of the show. Someone is always assuming a role that is not stereotypical of them. I particularly like the fact that there are not always defined lines between homosexual and heterosexual. People are accepted for who they are, unless they are out of shape that is!
For most of the episode, I notice how much Mulvey’s “gaze” concept is employed. This is a workout center, with hot employees that are highly sexualized and to some point, objectified. Narcissism plays a role throughout. People, both clients and employees are being looked at and critiqued at all times. They look at themselves and are verbally critiqued by others in the show (it is their job after all). I do like, however, that this episode and whole season for that matter is showing a woman who is in charge of her life. Yes she is beautiful and strong (both physically and mentally!) and she hope to make others just as beautiful and strong as she is, inside and out. She is as real as real can be, and those she has been called (jokingly) "that exercise obsessed hottie lesbian!" she still has problems and issues as a successful and accomplished business woman.
The Bachelor: everything so so problematic to me these days
I located the Bachelor on ABC.com. It was easy to find because it’s the website on which ABC puts “just aired” episodes of all of there current TV shows. ABC studios is part of the Disney television production company.
I am so disturbed by the depictions of heterosexual love upheld by dating shows such as the Bachelor.
Personally, my “fairy tale” ending does not include competing and selling myself as a desirable commodity for some random man I didn’t choose.
This type of show seems so so dangerous to me. One man, 25 women. The suggestion for me is that women are disposable in relationships, there are always many to choose from. It upholds male control in male female relations. He is the one with agency; he has the absurd power of the rose ceremony, the power to reject.
This is also upheld through the way in which the show is shot. I counted several low angle upward shots of Brad, (this seasons bachelor). As the viewer, you were looking upward at him as though he was a giant. In his interactions with the women, many are of him embracing and lifting them; into a hug, into a pool, into a boat. Efforts are taken to present him as masculine, powerful, and benevolent.
Of all the shots they have to choose from, they make sure to include ample, unnecessary footage of the women stripping down into their bikini and either showering, or jumping into water. Doesn’t matter who they are right? Nope, not as long as they look sexy almost naked. I mean, that’s what’s really important right?
Hmm. I couldn’t help but notice that of the 3 final women, one girl differed in body type from the other two. She had a larger chest and was a little thicker around the hip region. I never would have noticed it had it on been for the way the camera filmed her. The other women were shown repeatedly in their swim suits, from multiple angles. Dianna, the woman with hips was only shown from the chest up immersed in water in her swim suit, and one very quick shot with the Bachelors arms around her, thereby hiding most of her body.
“If I don’t see the true women in her today then I never will.”
-Brad, the Bachelor
Ok…can we talk about the commercials shown during the show?
Please?
“Boys, lets face it, they’re just built different”
-Toy commercial
I think this next one speaks for itself. Can we please gender our children a little more? Yeah, that'd be great.
Rose Petal Cottage
Continue reading "The Bachelor: everything so so problematic to me these days" »
Every rose has its thorn, every show has its faults
ROCK OF LOVE
![1001_bret_jess_heather_fm_myspace[1].jpg](http://blog.lib.umn.edu/raim0007/gwss3307_fall2007/1001_bret_jess_heather_fm_myspace%5B1%5D.jpg)
The ROCK OF LOVE is a dating show to win the heart of Bret Michaels; former lead singer of Poison. Contestants are asked to do stuff that only a rocker would request such as dumpster dive and hook up an electric guitar to an amp.
Continue reading "Every rose has its thorn, every show has its faults" »
Project Runway...you're either IN or you're OUT!
I watched a new episode of the fourth season of Project Runway. The show aired on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 9:00pm. Project Runway is shown on cable television on Bravo. The premise of the show is that a group of fashion designers are chosen to compete each week with a new challenge that incorporates designing and sewing an outfit. Each week, one contestant is eliminated based on the judge’s decisions. The show’s main host is supermodel Heidi Klum and the co-host is Tim Gunn, who now has another show on Bravo called Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style. Regular judges are Michael Kors, who is described as a “notable fashion designer” and Nina Garcia, who is the fashion editor of Elle magazine. This week’s show in particular featured a surprise guest judge, Sarah Jessica Parker, well known from the show Sex and the City. The lineup of judges is a familiar formula that several other reality TV shows have, for example America’s Next Top Model and American Idol. The judges are supposed to be experts in the field and typically are brutally honest and harsh when critiquing the contestants. This formula creates the humiliation element that Mendible argues is “an essential of the success of sub-genre “survival” shows.” The contestants pour all of their energy and personal creativity into designing and creating an outfit for the judges to cut them down without any personal regard, all for our entertainment. In the episode I watched, the judges told one of the contestants that his outfit looked like an “80’s nightmare,” which made the contestant cried in front of everyone.
The show seemed to be aimed mostly at women, and middle to upper-class people who are interested in fashion and beauty products. The advertising within the show was pretty blatant. Heidi recited to the contestants what they could win, “a Saturn, a spread in Elle magazine, $100,000 from TRESemme Professional Hairline, and a chance to sell your line on Bluefly.com.” The brand names for these prizes were shown in various ways, Tim Gunn mentioned that the models would get ready in the “TRESemme salon” and there were shots of the hair products being used, the brands were also painted on the walls of the studio in which the contestants were filmed working. During the commercial breaks there were more advertisements for these same products in addition to other things like a bridal collection.
These advertisements and the judges all seemed to reinforce that there is one way to be beautiful and hip. One of Heidi’s lines that she says every show is, “in fashion you’re either in or you’re out,” suggesting that if you don’t present something that the judges like (judges who create fashion and edit magazines catering only to thin, “perfect” looking women), you are not going to make it. One thing I found interesting is that the clothing models this season, although are still very slim, are not as skinny as the last season’s. So, perhaps the show is trying to represent women better (although the models are still very thin).
Newport Harbor
I watched Newport Harbor, episode 8 online at MTV.ca.
The show, Newport Harbor, is considered the fourth season of the original Laguna Beach, both titled “The Real Orange Country” playing off of the popular television show The O.C.. The show was created by the same woman, Liz Gately, as The Hills. Newport Harbor is targeted at teenagers as it focuses on a group of privileged teens living in California. This can also be seen by the fact that the show airs on MTV which attends to a primarily younger audience.
This episode follows the teens as they prepare for some of them to go off to college, or in one case, Europe. One couple, Chrissy and Clay, have to face leaving each other as Chrissy leaves for college and Clay stays in high school. Meanwhile, Allie and her friend Samantha prepare to go to Europe for the summer. The entire show, no matter whether they discuss college or Europe, has to do with the boy-girl relationships occurring or not occurring. As Allie prepares to go to Europe, she has an awkward goodbye with an ex, Chase, who left her for another bleach blonde Newport Beach girl.
Tila Tequila, episode 8, aired Tuesday night at 9 pm
Content-The show I chose to watch was “A shot at Love with Tila Tequila”, episode eight: Welcome to the family-Tila meets the parents. This is a show about a bisexual bachelorette looking for love. She started with 16 men and 16 women and is now down to the final four. She has the men and women competing against each other for individual one-on-one time with her. At the end of every show, Tila usually eliminates one man and one woman until she gets down to one. The specific episode I watched was episode eight, at two in the morning on Wednesday, today. Tila visited her last four contestants’ families. She went all across the country to visit Bobby, Amanda, Dani, and Ryan’s families. All of the visits went well, even though a couple of families were taken back and downright shocked that Tila is bisexual. After meeting the parents, and hanging out, Tila went back to California to the elimination. In the end, she decided to eliminate Ryan because his family was the least comfortable with Tila being bisexual since his family is more conservative.
Context-MTV is the network that airs this series. There are a number of producers, but the executive producer is Sally Ann Salsano. This show is aimed at an audience of young women who are sucked in by the theme of looking for love and men who want to drool over hot women getting physical.
Form-The episode consisted of lighting on the hair during individual interviews made their hair shiny and silky looking, especially the tall pretty blonde, Amanda. The sun always seemed to capture the right spot of the bodies of the women to make them look like they are glowing. And the men’s’ bodies looked muscular and smooth. There were cuts to individual interviews of everyone to give quick insights or thoughts about what is happening around them. Also, during the interviews, in this particular episode, the women’s hair was blowing in the wind, like trying to be sexy. And at one point, Tila looked topless in one of her interviews. One thing I noticed was that the blonde, Amanda, is highly sexualized and I can’t help but think she stays to the end to draw in more viewers since she is an attractive blonde with huge boobs. The background music changes so much with what is happening during specific events, like when Tila is getting ready to give the last key to her final contestant that will not be eliminated, the music changes to a anticipation-type sound, to peak the viewers suspense of needing to know who is going home. The ideas and ideals that are being sold in this representation is basically a show for dirty men to watch to get off from seeing two females being affectionate towards each other. The use of gazes is important because the women’s bodies in this show are so sexualized and objectified and another time the gaze is important is when Tila is giving out the keys to the people who she wants to stay, she is looking up at her “heroes” because they are bigger and stronger than her and she needs them to protect her, while they are looking down at her petite frame. The odd one out in this show is Dani, the more masculine female. She is has short hair, does not appear to wear makeup or dresses, is more laid back and not catty, like other females that were in the house, but I would say that Dani is more of the “stereotypical” lesbian, since “girly-girls” are perceived to be heterosexual.
America's Most Smartest Model: Night of the Hairy Grizilla Monster
America’s Most Smartest Model is a VH1 show featuring male and female models of various levels of experience competing for $100,000 and a spot in a V05 commercial. The contestants participate in one event geared at measuring their intelligence and one event geared at measuring their modeling ability per episode. The show purports to be engaging in an attempt to discover if the stereotype about models is true: Are they really stupid?
Continue reading "America's Most Smartest Model: Night of the Hairy Grizilla Monster" »
a shot at love with Tila
I watched A Shot At Love with Tila Tequila ep. 7 on youtube. This show is about a bisexual girl want to find true love, while straight boys and lesbian girls live in one big house together and compete for Tila’s affection.
The context of this show targets women who love drama and men who want to kill their time by watching contestants fighting for one bisexual woman and by looking at women’s body and also queer audiences who would like to watch people who have similar experiences.
I think that this show is mostly about three elements: jealousy, gender, and humiliation.
It was ridiculous to watch when Tila talked about everyone’s drama. Of course, there are drama going on among contestants, since they are all living in one area with no privacy and they are thinking about the same thing; ‘I am going to win this game to have one on one date with Tila.’ The contestants are sited in the place where each of them have to hate or feel jealous when anther gets more attention from Tila. And also Tila cause that jealous more and more by kissing a contestant in front of the other.
it was interesting that this show is now about just straight women and men competing but it is all about straight men accept the fact that they are not only fighting against men but also fighting against lesbians, bisexual women proudly tell her identity and find true love among contestants, and lesbians’s drama involved with Tila’s affection. Amenda asked Ryan if he is fighting for cheak or dude. This explains me that they are not just against with one particular gender. The show is definitely not about normative people competing for lovely women. However, to talk about this mixed gender reality is now one of the components that audiences are interested affected and wanted to watch: something spectacle. ( Liz Morrish and Kathleen O’Mra)
All contestants have the same goal; be Tila’s true love. However, at the same time, they are against with each other. Because of so many jealousy that caused from them, they are humiliating each other to let them look stronger. Brandi is a lesbian contestant who left Tila’s house because of her drama with Vanessa. Hoever, she came back to house for returning to Tila. While she was talking to Tila, all the other contestants, especially Amenda, didn’t feel good about it, because for her Brandi was biggest competitor. She likes Brandi, but she doesn’t want her to be back, because then she will be danger from elimination. There was shot that Amenda explain “reality.” She said, “ I feel I am the best person in the house for her… I love them all, BUT I am not going to be happy for them if they end up with the girl that I am love with. THAT IS JUST REALITY.
I watched A Shot At Love with Tila Tequila ep. 7 on youtube. This show is about a bisexual girl want to find true love, while straight boys and lesbian girls live in one big house together and compete for Tila’s affection.
The context of this show targets women who love drama and men who want to kill their time by watching contestants fighting for one bisexual woman and by looking at women’s body and also queer audiences who would like to watch people who have similar experiences.
I think that this show is mostly about three elements: jealousy, gender, and humiliation.
It was ridiculous to watch when Tila talked about everyone’s drama. Of course, there are drama going on among contestants, since they are all living in one area with no privacy and they are thinking about the same thing; ‘I am going to win this game to have one on one date with Tila.’ The contestants are sited in the place where each of them have to hate or feel jealous when anther gets more attention from Tila. And also Tila cause that jealous more and more by kissing a contestant in front of the other.
it was interesting that this show is now about just straight women and men competing but it is all about straight men accept the fact that they are not only fighting against men but also fighting against lesbians, bisexual women proudly tell her identity and find true love among contestants, and lesbians’s drama involved with Tila’s affection. Amenda asked Ryan if he is fighting for cheak or dude. This explains me that they are not just against with one particular gender. The show is definitely not about normative people competing for lovely women. However, to talk about this mixed gender reality is now one of the components that audiences are interested affected and wanted to watch: something spectacle. ( Liz Morrish and Kathleen O’Mra)
All contestants have the same goal; be Tila’s true love. However, at the same time, they are against with each other. Because of so many jealousy that caused from them, they are humiliating each other to let them look stronger. Brandi is a lesbian contestant who left Tila’s house because of her drama with Vanessa. Hoever, she came back to house for returning to Tila. While she was talking to Tila, all the other contestants, especially Amenda, didn’t feel good about it, because for her Brandi was biggest competitor. She likes Brandi, but she doesn’t want her to be back, because then she will be danger from elimination. There was shot that Amenda explain “reality.” She said, “ I feel I am the best person in the house for her… I love them all, BUT I am not going to be happy for them if they end up with the girl that I am love with. THAT IS JUST REALITY.
November 27, 2007
The Biggest Loser
The context of this show targets people who are overweight, whether men or women. “The Biggest Loser” is hosted by Alison Sweeney who is an actress in Days of our Lives. She is a host because she used to be overweight and now is a huge advertiser for weight loss. The network that airs this show is NBC 11, one of the basic channels that you don’t need cable for. It is shown every Tuesday night at 7pm central time.
Married away
On Tuesday November 27th at 8pm I watched the show Married Away on the Style Network. Married Away is an hour long ‘reality’ show which showcases two new couples each episode. The show follows each couple, their families, and their wedding planner to far off places around the world where they are having the wedding. Quoting the shows website, “Uniting two families in holy matrimony is one thing, but bringing together two very different clans in a distant locale is quite another. Between the planning, the culture clashes and the jagged nerves, there's room for plenty of high drama. Because when unfamiliar languages, cultures and traditions come into play, executing a wedding can be quite a challenge!”
Live G-String Divas Unite!
G-String Divas was a reality television series that began airing in 2000 on HBO. Although the series only had nine episodes, it continues to live on in late-night reruns (and is available on websites that index pirated television content). The show followed the lives and work of a group of nine dancers who worked at a club in Philadelphia, PA.
The show was marketed as erotica to straight men; the website for the show invites them “inside the sexy, flirtatious lives of erotic dancers.” Accordingly, the show featured copious amounts of nudity, depicting the women working on stage and doing lap dances in slow motion with soft lighting and cheesy softcore porn music in the background.
However, the show was not as one-dimensional as its marketing copy would make it seem. It featured personal interviews with the dancers in which they talked honestly about their lives and their feelings about their work. Although some of the dancers were portrayed as being enthusiastic about what they did and seeing it as empowering, others said candidly that they thought it was boring, but that it paid the bills. In the process of showing them working, they were seen in both positive and negative relationships with co-workers and customers. They were also shown in their lives outside the club – the women included an artist and one who had a master's degree in psychology, and they were shown dealing with issues such as jealous boyfriends, religious upbringings and the stigma that they faced from the outside world because of their work.
The show also deals extensively with the dancers' performance of gender identity, although it does not describe it as such. Performativity is an integral part of sex work. Dancers work hard to perform and portray a fantasy of an idealized woman. However, they also have to negotiate performing this idealized female role with the fact that their use of overt sexuality directly contradicts it; they have to play both the madonna and the whore, “giving performances that break conventional patriarchal notions of female sexuality while simultaneously reinforcing patriarchal norms” (Fogel). The dancers use more than their acting skills for this performance; they have to attempt to literally embody this ideal. In order to portray this exaggerated ideal of femininity, they make up, dress up, and work to change their bodies. Episodes of the show included “Recipe for a Stripper's Body,” featuring the women giving tips on using exercise, diet and surgery to make themselves proper objects of the male gaze.
The feminine ideals that they work to embody are so far from reality that they require considerable amounts of work to even approach, but they are more attainable for some women than others. Sex work makes this very plain: women who do a better job of playing the role make more money, but the playing field is not level. For example. the one Black dancer in the otherwise all-white club, Cashmere, feels that she has to straighten her hair to fit in with white standards of beauty. The dancers are ranked by body, skin and hair type and color, with the ones who can most easily fit these standards at the top. That said, making money in strip clubs often has at least as much to do with hustling skills than looks. Cashmere expresses in her interview that she has to work harder to get to the same place – much as women of color often have to in the real world. Although she never uses the word "intersectionality," it, like much of the theory we have studied, is clearly at play.
Works Cited:
Fogel, Curtis. “Presenting the Naked Self: The Accumulation of Performative Capital in the Female Strip Trade.” Gender Forum. Köln: 2007. , Iss. 17;1 pgs
Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica
In high school, one of my favorite shows was Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica. I repeatedly watched the episodes when they aired on MTV from 2003 to 2005. The episode I choose to watch is titled “Jessica’s Dessert,” and it is from the second season. I watched it on the DVD collection of the second and third seasons.
The producers of Newlyweds are Rod Aissa and Lois Clark Curren. They have produced many other reality television shows together including: Punk’d, The Osbournes, and Cheyenne, which all aired on MTV. MTV is targeting people between the ages of 12 to 34 years. It has a large target audience because fans of 98 Degrees (Nick’s former boy band) and Jessica Simpson tune in to watch two of their favorite celebrities, and newly married couples can relate to the stuff displayed on screen. And some just tuned in, in hope that something outrageously dumb would come out of Jessica’s mouth (“Is this tuna or fish, I know it say’s fish but….”). The show follows Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson, both B-list stars before the show, on the first few years of their marriage while they deal with the pressures of stardom. The episode “Jessica’s Dessert” follows Nick and Jessica to Manhattan, where Jess will have a photo shoot for her line of beauty products, Dessert Beauty, which are completely edible. During this time, rumors spread that Jess may be pregnant, and she actually ends up getting sick in the episode.
The Hills, Season Three, Episode 15
Beauty and the Geek
Just finished watching the first part of a two-part season finale for Beauty and the Geek. While I think that there would be some better episodes than the one that I watched, as this was focused just on two couples post-transformation, so the element of cruelty was tuned down, I still found the entire premise of this show to still be very offensive. This division, between people who are beautiful and people that are geeks perpetuates the stereotypes of what it means to be geeky and what it means to be cool, and while these stereotypes are a reflection of current social norms, it still serves to perpetuate such preexisting beliefs and divisions.
The show presents itself as being about "transformation." To be fair, there is meant to be transformation for both the geek as well as the beauty, but this does little to change the overall message of the show, which is that geeks should stop being so damn geeky and learn how to conform a little. The forced social transformation of the geeks into people that are slightly less geeky already occured at this episode, though flashbacks helped to illustrate the ways in which the geeks had changed throughout the season. The only moment in the episode that really lived up to the cruelty of the shows premise in its delivery of degradation came when the male geek, Dave, had his partner, Jasmine, play a Live Action Role Playing Game (LARP) with some of his friends. They dressed up in fantasy costumes, complete with swords and shields and enacted a fantasy scenario involving swordplay. This moment in the show exists mostly for the viewers amusment, to laugh at the ridiculousness of going to the park and playing dress up. It is because of things like this, the interest in fantasy and the willingness to play a LARP that defines Dave as a geek and this social atribution is exploited for the viewers amusement in this sequence.
One thing that was interesting about this particular episode/season is for the first time, they had a partnership that was between a male beauty and a female geek. This is somewhat of an interesting idea, in that idiotic reality TV sort of way, but it serves as little more than a gimmick. It is evenhanded I suppose, the idea that not just men are geeks - women can be geeky social outcasts too! And men can be hunky! Gee, what a deeply nuanced and complex society we live in. It does show, at the least, that women can be ridiculed for their nerdy and antiscoial qualities, the same way that men are. The alleged geekiness of her character isn't really exploited in this episode, enough so that I'm not really sure why she was picked for the show. She doesn't seem to be the most social person, but she certainly doesn't seem to be an extreme example of what a geeky woman looks like. Is she geeky just because she is shy and inteligent?
The character that is most fascinating to me in this episode would have to be Jasmine, the female beauty. Her charatcter (can you even call someone in this kind of show a person anymore?) is so uninteligent and stereotypically 'ditzy', qualities which all too often are equated with being attractive in our current social climate. Some highlights: "I'm so excited to go home! I hope we get to go shopping!" "I don't look like them or talk like them and some people will judge you for that" (in reference to Dave's friends.) The first quote, obviously, relates to the expectation/cultural conditioning that women who are beautiful must also be consumers...a message that is so prevalent that it may perhaps be the dominant message of television. Her preppy, bubbly uninteligence also further drives the message down people's throats that to be cool or pretty, you need to keep your inteligence in check.
Formally speaking, this show looks a lot like most other reality TV shows. Yes, there are subtle differences, but the style of these shows tends to be so similar. Lots of fast cutting, used to cover up the lack of any thoughtful mise-en-scene. Constant musical pieces that use every musical cliche to elicit an immediate emotional reaction out of the viewer. This particular stylistic choice within reality TV is very often used in an ironic fashion, particularly in this show, as its not meant to be a particularly serious slice of hyperreality. The style of the show in general is meant to be entertaining and humorous, and is not meant to be taken very seriously. This is a show that is meant to be a family show, as it is rated "TVPG", is on at an early time (7:00 pm) and the adverteisments are clearly meant to be geared towards a family audience, with WalMart being the sponser of the show. Of course, when things are not meant to be taken very seriously, when its just "family entertainment", this is when they seep into our subconcious most easily. When ideology is invisible is when ideology is most at work.
The Girls Go to Shanghai
America’s Next Top Model is a reality TV show where young women compete against each other in the modeling industry. I watched the episode entitled “The Girls Go to Shanghai.” I watched it on Cwtv.com. It was quick and easy to watch. The Executive Producers are Ken Mok, Tyra Banks, and Daniel Soiseth. It is produced by 10 By 10 Entertainment and Bankable Productions. Because of the commercials, it is obvious the show is targeted towards women who are interested in the fashion industry, mostly aged 16-30 but it could vary more depending on the woman. The commercials consist of Covergirl makeup, Victoria’s Secret, and other feminine products/services.
Two-A-Days
On Monday night I was able to catch an episode of “Two-A-Days”, a reality television show on MTV following the Buccaneers, member s of the Hoover, Alabama High School football team.
"Next"
I decided to watch the MTV reality show “Next.” This is where a guy or a girl gets set up on dates with five different people. If that individual does not like a certain contestant he/she can “next” that person, send them back on the bus and meet the next person in line. I accessed this through my television, on Tuesday afternoon on MTV.
Kalissa Miller is one of the producers of the show. I am positive that there are a team of producers that work on most of the MTV reality shows that are aired. The target audience is anyone who watches MTV. I think the majority are young viewers, especially young girls. There is a lot of reality shows that are aired on MTV.
I think this show is absolutely ridiculous. It is all about first impressions and looks. The main guy/girl looking for the date bases his/her judgments all on outward appearances. If he/she does not like what they see, they will simply send them back on the bus waiting to meet the next person. It is exactly opposite of the old saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
The idea that is being sent to the audience is that you better look and be attractive to the dater or else you are a loser. I think this message is very horrible to be sending to the young audience that is viewing shows like this. Life is not all about who finds you attractive and what you look like. In this particular episode, all of the five girls get “next-ed” by this guy. The first three girls last only one minute, because he did not like what they looked like. One of the girls, according to him, had too much junk in the trunk. The fourth girl lasted 30 minutes, but he “next-ed” her because she was not having fun doing the activity that he picked out. The fifth girl lasted 72 minutes, but he “next-ed” her because after the activity he found out that she worked at a tanning salon and did not agree with the whole “fake and bake” idea.
The form had a lot of close-up shots. At first the individuals were shown by introducing themselves to us, the audience. I also noted that in each of their introductions, there was always a sexual connotation that was slipped in. Then when an individual would be rejected by the date, both of them would be talking directly into the camera with some harsh criticism about one another. There were also a lot of over the shoulder shots when the daters were first meeting each other, so we the audience could get a real look at their impressions.
It always seems that in this particular reality show, the heterosexual guys are always looking for that pretty girl with a great body, and anything else gets tossed to the side. So this is reinforcing femininity with young girls because these girls that view this will want to achieve that perfect body because that is what guys supposedly want. The thing I do not understand is how this television show is stilled being aired. It is so far from reality that it is almost funny.
November 26, 2007
Valentine's Day at the Playboy Mansion
I watched “Hearts Afire” episode 38 of “Girls Next Door” which first aired in April 2007. I viewed it at 8 on a Monday night on channel 49 (E!). This episode showed ‘the girls’ celebrating Valentine’s day and Mardi Gras with their boyfriend Hugh Hefner. The show followed Bridget, Kendra, and Holly, three beautiful skinny blonde women, around for Valentines day which included a dog date where Bridget and Holly drove their dogs around Playboy park, and creating cakes for Hugh. The women were shown preparing for the Mardi Gras party and then enjoying the party.
During the show, while the women spoke to each other, carnival music wasvplaying in the background. This was also on while the women were giving their personal interviews, and while baking the cake for Hugh. This music, as someone else has mentioned, subtracts value from what the women have to say and gives the audience permission to not take the women seriously. However, when Hugh was speaking, or the women were talking about Hugh, big band music was playing in the background, making Hugh seem very glamorous and classy (the exact opposite of how I think he should be portrayed).
The women were the objects of an assumed male gaze. During the personal interviews the women were shot from the chest up, making sure to include their barely contained busts, which would appeal to a male audience. Also, during the Valentine’s day dinner, one of the playmates shoulder straps kept falling down, revealing her breasts, and a sound effect (like a bloooop sound) was added in for extra emphasis, just in case anyone missed the naked breast at the dinner table. In addition to the table incident, women were getting their costumes ‘painted on’ before the Mardi Gras party, and Hugh was in the room watching the women get ready. Of course the women’s privates were blurred out, but little was left to the imagination. The camera showed the women being looked at by an assumed male audience, as well as by Hugh.
I also am led to believe the targeted audience is male because of the advertisements in between segments of the show. Alcohol, male enhancement drugs and Holiday DVD ads with sales pitches like “wanna bring the girls home for the holidays?” appeal to a male audience.
According to Margalit as discussed in “Humiliation, Subjectivity, and Reality TV”, humiliation is the treating of a person as an object or tool, and this is what unifies reality t.v. The women in “Girls Next Door” are definitely depicted as sub-human, they are shown as sex objects, and as sexy yet unintelligent women than don’t even deserve the audiences respect to listen to their interviews without carnival music in the background. This reality show definitely takes away the women’s dignity as human beings and questions our societies ethics and morality in the inclusion of this type of show in our entertainment.
Word count: 486
Celebrity Fit Club 3
I viewed VH1's Celebrity Fit Club 3 on the TV Guide Network. This one hour reality show follows eight celebrities on two teams of four as they go through "fit camp" and face public weigh-ins in front of three judges consisting of their physical trainer, a psychologist, and a doctor. The most dramatic event of the show set in a grand hall and dimly lit with candles is the weigh-in which takes up 30 minutes of the hour long time slot. Each celebrity is weighed individually and then they are weighed as teams. The team weigh-in is done on a giant set of old fashioned scales complete with fog machine to dramatize the moment. The team that wins (loses the most weight) will win a cash grand prize.
This reality tv show promotes the idea that people have to be thin in order to be beautiful. The panel of judges gives each celeb a target weight loss goal that they must reach by the next weigh in. By other people telling them the amount of weight they must lose takes a person's control of their own looks out of their hands. The judges then have control of what this person is supposed to look like in order to be beautiful. By breaking the celebrities into teams and having them compete for money makes weight loss and sex appeal out to be competitions for the everyday person as well. They must mentally compete with those celebrities in order to physically look like they do in order to be sexy and beautiful.
Most astounding are the women in the show who weigh around 170-180 pounds. They are on a weight loss show which immediate labels them as overweight. The women, especially Tempest and Kelly, look fit, healthy, and attractive. However, they are still told to continue losing weight in order to pursue new roles in their careers. Another celeb on the show is Countess Vaughn. She weighed in on this show at 126lbs after losing four pounds from the previous weigh-in. Since she reached her goal weight loss she was offered a glamorous photo shoot from Smooth Magazine and the judges informed her that she must lose another 3lbs to prepare for the shoot. Apparently for Hollywood, even 126 pounds is not thin enough for their celebrities.
The image of woman on this show is especially alarming. The celebrities that look fit and healthy are constantly told they must continue to lose weight in order to maintain their jobs. The Americans that watch these shows and that look up to stick thin celebrities like this show promotes feel that they too must be this thin in order to have sex appeal. These shows do not support a healthy lifestyle like they purport to do, instead they support the idea that thin equals beautiful. Additionally, the winning team is awarded money which tells the viewer that more sex appeal equals more money and that you have to be thin to have sex appeal.
The commercials between segments of the show also promote these ideas of weight loss and beauty. They are advertising weight loss plans and pills mixed with health foods and sexy perfume ads. The combined effect of these commercials is the same as the message of the show: you have to be thin to be beautiful.
Girls Next Door
The show that I watched has already been discussed in a post, so I will try not to include similar information. The show that I viewed was The Girls Next Door. I do not have cable however; I viewed this show through DVD. The show is based around the life of three women, Holly, Bridget and Kendra. These three women have one thing in common, they are dating Hugh Hefner, and I think we all are familiar with what he is famous for, Playboy. I watched several episodes, but I only want to focus on one of them. The episode I would like to discuss is the very first episode of the show. This show included a miny episode; however the main thing it included was an introduction to the three women.
The first episodes titled Meet the Girls was first aired on Sunday, August 7, 2005 on the channel E!. The show is targeted towards adults, female or male. I have seen this show on E! and I believe on television it is more targeted towards females, however the DVD includes deleted scenes, which basically are all nude scenes, which brings the targeting more towards men. The topic of the show is basically the following of Hugh Hefner's girlfriends. It shows the lives of three women trying to fill their day with anything they want to do, pretty much. For example, in one episode Bridget throws a birthday party for her dog, in which the staff of the mansion has to cater to the dogs. This is not real life, this is pathetic. The construction of the show is to make these women look as dumb as possible; unfortunately I don't think it takes too much for them. For example one of them, Bridget has her master's degree, yet she is portrayed as a "dumb blonde" throughout the show. The more I watched the show, the more I believe she plays the role of the "dumb blonde" purely for the show. I believe this is because if there was an intelligent woman on the show, no one would watch it. People want to see the "dumb blonde" on television, they want that character, so they can mock and laugh at the stupidity of an individual. As discussed in “Humiliation, Subjectivity & Reality TV” “humiliation is the unifying principle behind a successful reality show”. By this I mean every reality television show focuses on one thing, the humiliation of the stars. The Girls Next Door is no different. The way the show is edited is to show the stupidity of the women. For example, most of the time during the solo interviews, they edit in music to make Kendra appear dumber. Now I will be the first to say, that I don’t believe it is just editing that makes her appear dumb, but they increase it by playing music. For example in one interview, she was thinking of something for a while and they added the jeopardy music. That would be okay if something brilliant was said to follow but that was not the case. All and all the show plays with the idea of the stereotypical “dumb blonde” and the “goldigger”, by following these three women.
Intervention- Cristy
I don't watch a great deal of television, but one show that catches my attention every time is called Intervention. Intervention runs on the A&E network typically on Sunday nights and in hourly segments. The show is about individuals who are addicted to an unhealthy and demonizing lifestyle that is destroying their families (mainly alcoholism and drugs). The addicts agree to be followed and believe they are helping A&E make a biography, however they have no idea that at the end of the show they will be faced with an intervention. This reality series is going on its fourth season with A&E and the executive producers are Robert Sharenow, Colleen Conway. Both producers have previous experience and an extensive background for reality television. Since this TV show features a different individual and their family every segment, I have chosen to focus on episode 31, season 2- Cristy for my critique.
The show introduces Cristy as a fun loving 20 something girl, who was born into a tight nite family and once had aspirations of being a clothing designer. However, things didn't go as planned for Cristy, she quickly fell into a lifestyle that could be the end of her according to her mother. Cristy is addicted to Crystal meth and alcohol. Throughout the show Cristy is never sober, and basically displayed as a waste of life according to the critiques. She supports her habits by stripping at a local club, and stealing from her loved ones. She is shown on television basically naked in many scenes desperate for cash. Her family is portrayed as very loving, but tired of her abuse. As for Cristy she is very disrespectful toward her family and very single minded in the episode, which could be edited to portray this or could be reality. This episode is very heart wrenching and hard to watch, like most Intervention segments that air on A&E but for the viewer, we just can't seem to get enough.
Intervention's audience is that of a wide array. The show draws in viewers who are both young and old, current users looking for help, and people who have never used at all. This show is good at further demonizing alcohol abuse and drugs by showing the audience it can happen to anyone, however is a very extreme example(s). I feel that people who watch the show or who get really into the show have something to gain from it. Possibly because they have a family member that needs help and the viewer doesn't know how to help them. It's important to note that this series doesn't always end with an happy ending. Sometimes the intervention is not successful and the users relapse or even pass away. The show leaves the viewer almost empty in episodes where there are children involved and families ripped apart. It also shows people at their lowest of lows and is degrading to women by showing their bodies nude on TV. A&E's producers are trying to get the message out that if someone needs help to get it before it's too late. It's very close to a public announcement type reality show to scare people straight. The producers have shown music that relates to how people are feeling throughout the episode, and the filming is very harsh. There doesn't seem to be much editing out or anything that the show doesn't show, they catch it all and show the harsh realities of drug addiction and alcoholism. The family’s members of the addict are interviewed and speak throughout the whole segment, disclosing how they feel and how it's turned their life upside down. There is a lot of crying, begging, and violence in the episodes, but are often closed with counseling. The interviews of family members are very sad and give the audience a glimpse of their reality. This is very useful in the production of this show and also what makes it so interesting to watch.
The series focuses on all types of addicts and people involved. They are all ages from 13-65 and of all walks of life. The stories told are from all over the United States not just a given state and all have one thing in common, and that is that they will face an intervention at the end of the episode. The show often features lower class individuals though, and often displays them as dirty. It's important to keep in mind that not all addicts are dirty or of lower class, so there is some stereo type going on here. In more than a couple episodes the addicts are shown to be stealing in order to support their habit and not all addicts steal either. There are some issues the way this show represents people and needs. The bottom line is that A&E wants to generate money and the only way to do so is to make a show that keep viewers coming back for more.
There are many, many different types of gazes throughout these different episodes of Intervention. The way people view themselves and others. Cristy for example strippers to make money to support herself and her family doesn't support this behavior. They feel that if she gets out of the stripping environment she could stop using meth. The temptation and drugs wouldn't be there if she worked somewhere else according to her family. In conclusion this series is very heart wrenching and humiliating for individuals. Like that of the reading, if the show successfully humiliates individuals and they can look at themselves on nation television, we have high hopes that this will bring on change.
I cried… and then I cried again…
I watched Extreme Makeover Home Edition on ABC Sunday night with my mom and my sister at home. The show was featuring the Swenson-Lee family in Minnetonka, Minnesota and my sister’s coworker is related to the family. This two hour special also included families from past shows because this was their 100th episode.
The target audience of this show was definitely middle-class, men and women with families.
Extreme Makeover Home Edition is about a crew of people who travel around the U.S. and makeover homes of families that have had a huge tragedy or loss happen to them in hopes of making life easier for them in some way. The crew receives a video diary of the family’s story and they build an outrageously elaborate and beautiful home in seven days for them while the family is sent on vacation. The people and contractors in the home town of the family volunteer their time and get the job done as a community. Many other gifts are given to the family and there is never a moment that isn’t fully pact with emotion.
This episode featuring the Swenson-Lee family of Minnetonka was heartbreaking. The story was centered on Taylor Lee, a 13-year-old girl who witnessed the death of both of her parents. Five years ago Taylor was riding in a car with her dad and the car crashed and her father died. About a year ago Taylor’s mother and her mother’s boyfriend were shot to death by her mother’s ex-boyfriend and Taylor witnessed the shooting. After Taylor and her three siblings were left without parents or a place to live, their Aunt, Vickie Swenson and her husband and their four kids took them in. Vickie, pregnant at the time realized that their house was not nearly big enough for 10 people.
More importantly relating to gender, was the emphasis of the dangers of domestic violence. Everyone in the episode addressed the issue and Taylor Lee and her Aunt Vickie have introduced bills to the Minnesota legislature dealing with preventative measures of domestic violence. These women were portrayed as strong, intelligent and passionate about the protection of other families from domestic violence.
On the other hand, performative gender roles were very clearly seen as the designers asked the young boys and girls what they wanted for their new rooms. The young girl wanted everything pink and yes, the designer went ahead and made the room look like someone puked Pepto-Bismol all over it. The designer for the boys’ room decided that since they were boys and they roughed around a lot everything would be made of steel. Not only did the designer give the boys a nice ‘manly’ room, but he filled it with all kinds of autographed sporting goods including things from the Twins, the Vikings and other Minnesota male sporting teams.
This is a sort of normalization of gender roles. In article titled The Normalization of Heterogendered Relations in The Bachelor, these gender roles are addressed. “Throughout the episodes, many of the women discussed their dream weddings, marriage, and the details of being a good wife. These sound bites explicitly reinforced heteronormative standards for women” (Gust Yep and Ariana Ochoa Camacho).
It seems at points that although this show promotes constructiveness and healing, it seems that it is purely sensational to a point that the audience is so overwhelmed with emotion that it causes a heightened response that keeps the viewer glued to the TV. The ways in which the tragic stories are told and retold over and over again gives this show a sense of gripping terror, sadness, happiness and hopefulness that paralyzes the viewer. From the audience, little attention is paid to how gender is being performed during this emotional bombardment of tragedy, loss and hope for the future.
This show was so emotionally charged that it was hard to take note of the form but I did notice some filmic construction.
There were a ton of close-ups when things got emotional (which happened quite often).
There were also handheld cameras that jiggled everywhere as people ran around with them.
The shots of the house zoomed in and zoomed out a lot showing the outside conditions.
November 25, 2007
Meet the Future of America: Laguna Beach (Episode #1, Season 2, 'Since You Been Gone)
America's Most Smartest Model
Context: America’s Most Smartest Model is an elimination show with male and female models competing for a V05 commercial spot, $100,000.00 and the ridiculous title of “America’s most smartest model.” This show is aired on Vh1 on Sunday nights at nine pm. Because the contestants are both very attractive male and female models it seems that the show is geared toward all genders and judging by the commercials, individuals ranging from teenagers to early middle age. Most of the commercials were either for the show’s sponsor: V05 styling products or for other Vh1 reality shows such as I Love New York 2. Interestingly the advertisements were either geared strongly toward the female consumer with moms in cleaning product ads and young female models displaying “V05 perfect hair” or strongly toward a male target audience with hypermasculinized commercials for Burger King and Guitar Hero.
A Night With Sheriff John Brown
“Doesn’t pay to be in a stolen car, does it?”
“Nope.”
“Enjoy jail, man.”
KAT'S SUPER SWEET SIXTEEN
I chose to watch the show My Super Sweet Sixteen which is on MTV and produced by . This show focuses on rich girls turning sixteen who force their parents into giving them the birthday party of their dreams. The show is aimed at young girls within their teenage years. It is all about looking fabulous and having the biggest and the best of everything. The show creates this atmosphere by using quick shots and fast music to keep their viewers attention. Also I noticed anytime Kat was to beg for something the show would become more quite and slow down, as to keep the viewer in suspense, waiting for her Father’s answer. When her Father said “yes” as he always would, a shiny star would bling in Kat’s teeth showing everyone that she had won and who had the power.
The Girls Next Door
The reality show I watched was The Girls Next Door. I saw The Girls Next Door on E! at 7:00 PM on a Sunday night. The show was developed by Kevin Burns. The target audience is younger (teenage-college age) girls/women. The commercials tended to be for movies coming out on DVD, new movie trailers, fashion lines such as Dolce and Gabbana, and other shows that aired on E!
The overall topic of The Girls Next Door is to show the lives of Hugh Hefner’s three girlfriends, Holly, Bridget, and Kendra. One of the interesting aspects of the show is that though the three women have a very unique relationship status they and Hugh Hefner go about their lives like it is a completely normal situation. The episode I watched, My Bare Lady, focused on Holly, Bridget, and Kendra’s career aspirations. This episode had very little interaction between the three women as each was working on their individual goals— Holly to become a Playboy pictorial editor, Bridget to become a television host and anchor woman, and Kendra to invest in a condo that she will rent out.
For the most part the show has a very light feel to it. The music is generally upbeat “happy” music that does not allow viewers to take any of the women seriously. Occasionally there are moments with more dramatic music (like the dun dun dun… stuff). However, this over-the-top dramatic music is strategically placed during moments that are really not that dramatic—making it seem like the issues that Holly, Bridget, and Kendra care about are not really that important. An example of this is when Holly was concerned about the color of the paint being used in a photo shoot and they cut to a shot of the painted stairs with high pitched scream and scary music added to make it seem like the issue of the paint color was being over-stressed. Both the upbeat and the dramatic music are used for comic effect. One of the things I enjoy about the show is the clever editing. The editors often will use sound effects to make it seem like things are happening that are not. One instance of this is when Bridget leaves the room carrying a big tray of cupcakes. The editors added in the sound of a metal tray hitting the floor to make it sound like she dropped it even though she did not.
The article “The Normalization of Heterogendered Relations in The Bachelor” states that, “heterogender refers to the asymmetrical stratification of the sexes, privileging men and exploiting women.” This is also true in The Girls Next Door. Hugh Hefner is an eighty-one year-old man who is dating three attractive, and much younger, women—Holly (27), Bridget (34), Kendra (22). Hefner often refers to the trio as “the girls.” This might be somewhat demeaning to them, but they do often refer to themselves as girls as well, so I have to assume they don’t mind it. He has a lot of power in this relationship because, in my opinion, it seem like all three women feel like they are very privileged to be “Hef’s” girlfriend even if they have to share him. The same article quotes the producer of The Bachelor. When asked about the qualifications for the casting of the women on the show he states, “most importantly, they have to look good in the hot tub.” This is apparently one of Hugh Hefner’s major criteria as well. All three women have the stereotypical blonde "Barbie Doll" look. When Kendra is signing the paperwork for her condo she says in a personal interview, “this is my second major investment, my first being my boobs… my boobs bought my condo…thank you boobs!” She is totally aware that her physical image has gotten her where she is today.
My Super Sweet Sixteen (Alex)
The show I picked was My Super Sweet Sixteen regularly broadcast on MTV and produced by them as well. I do not have cable so I saw this via MTV.com. I was looking for a show to watch that I have never seen before, versus a reality show that I love, in order to be as objective as I could be. Before I watched the show, I knew the premise: young girls approaching their sixteenth birthday are planning a huge, lavish party thanks to their parents’ money to celebrate. This show is aimed at young girls from pre-teen years to teen years. The pace of the show is fast and flashy, with lots of quick shots as Alex and her posse of girlfriends goes from “fabulous” place to “fabulous” place. The episode is also accompanied by upbeat music, mostly hip-hop sounding. Even the intro to the show is flashy and displays wealthy lifestyle in a short period.
The particular episode features Alex, a young girl from Boston. As she is showing the viewer how “great” her life is she admits that she has done nothing to earn it, nor does she do anything on her own. She just loves her bed and thinks it is so wonderful, but then she stops to tell us that the cleaners make it. It is also important for us to know that all her friends are rich too, so that is why it is important for her to have a great party. During the episode, Alex also has her mom take her to the BMW dealership to pick out her birthday present. Alex felt it was important to “look good” in her car. She wanted the car to complement her. The car she wanted was $120,000. Alex did not think that was too expensive. Her mother asked her to look at something else.
A running theme though this show was “looking good” to her peers, and she wanted to be looked at. She had 100+ “friends” to her birthday party. Ultimately, Alex appeared to only wanted for these “friends” to judge her in a positive way. She also wanted to display her wealth, which really isn’t hers, but her parents. She comes off to be surrounded by people who value not who you are but what you have (or can get others to give you with nothing in return). I feel this can be related to the Humiliation, Subjectivity, and Reality TV essay. While Alex was not intentionally trying to humiliate herself, she did put herself on display and made a spectacle of herself. This left her wide open to humiliation. And while she does embarrass herself mildly I think (saying something dumb or her attempt at break dancing), she doesn’t seem fazed by the awkward glances strangers or friends give her. Schick argues, “that gloating involves
thinking oneself somehow superior to another; it is a judgment of "relative standing” (Mendible 337). Alex has what is important to her and her social circle (money and stuff) so to be embarrassed by those who she does not perceive to be her peers, their judgments do not matter. While I think most of us remember and understand being 15 or 16 years old and that need for acceptance, My Super Sweet Sixteen takes it to the next disturbing and annoying level.
Charm School
Charm School was a VH1 program featuring thirteen "Flavorettes" aka, thirteen women who were on season one or two of Flavor of Love. Charm School is one of the spin-off shows including both seasons of I Love New York. The producers for Charm School are Michelle Brando and Mark Cronin who are also the producers of the other shows. The target audience for these shows are young women between the ages of 18 to 35 because the advertisements were for hair care and birth control.
The premise for this show was to take thirteen unruly, not upper middle class acting women and teach them the "Ten Commandments of Charm School" which were:
1) Check Thyself Before Thou Wreck Thyself
2) Thou Shalt Goeth, Girl
3) Thou Shalt Show Some Class
4) Thou Shalt Work What Thou Art Working With
5) Thou Shalt Spit Mad Game With Style
6) Thou Shalt Mind Thy Money
7) Thou Shalt Payeth It Back
8) Thou Shalt Represent
9) Unless Thou Can Play, Thou Wilt Be Played
10) Thou Shalt Be Fully Fabulous
These commandments were posed by the 'expert' on etiquette Mo'Nique and she judged if the contestants were to stay or be kicked off. Also in the shows 'experts' were brought in to show the women how to act. These 'experts' were usually white and middle to upper class. The shots of the contestants often showed them in 'un-ladylike' circumstances, poses, and the dialog between them. They were constantly dropping swear words and talking down about the other women. The editing of the show does create more story lines and different reactions than what actually happened; however, this is commonplace in reality television shows.
The specific episode I watched was Episode Three "Dirty Drawers Done Dirt Cheap" and was aired on April 22, 2007. I viewed this episode on VH1's website "V Spot." The commandment in this episode was "Thou Shalt Show Some Class". In this episode the contestants went in front of an etiquette coach and was scolded and mocked by this coach because of the behavior shown. For example, one of the girls "showed her Britney" when she crossed her legs. The participants in this program played their stereotypical roles. The Flavorettes played the lower class and most of them were women of color except a couple of 'white trash' women. Mo'Nique, who presides over the girls, is shown to be higher class, always looked put together, and always acted above the Flavorettes because she was the 'expert'. The other people brought in for this particular episode were the etiquette coach, who was a blond haired white women (because they always know the best way to act) and a upper class man who owned a winery. The ranking of bodies in this is obvious.
In this representation of reality the ideal being communicated is that to be considered a woman you have to act like a lady. This is by imposing the commandments set by Mo'Nique and by humiliating the contestants to show this ideal. Humiliation is a key role in this television program and "is the unifying principle behind a successful reality show" (Mendrid 335). However, the contestants in Charm School subject themselves to this humiliation by succumbing to the rules of the game and acting out their stereotypical, overly dramatized roles. The Mendrid article explains this by, "This interdependence is central and unique to humiliation; the object of humiliation must know s/he is being humiliated and the perpetrator must be willfully exercising that power" (336). This is the case with Charm School: The Flavorettes know they are being humiliated through the challenges and the contrast with the 'experts' and the 'experts' are willfully exercising the power to humiliate them.
word count: 614
Beauty and the Geek
I was originally going to watch the bachelor when stumbled upon this solid gold reality television show. I watched Beauty and the Geek on cwtv.com. It is produced by Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg, the producers of Punk'd.
Let's See What Happens When the Crowns Come Off...
Pageant Place, “After the Fall”—Episode 1:
I found this show on the homepage of mtv.com. I had never heard of this show so I thought I would check it out because it looked perfect for this assignment. I watched the first episode since I had no background of this show.
Context: Pageant Place is produced by Donald Trump and the Miss Universe Organization and is aired on MTV. The target audience is young women in their teens and twenties. The commercials are for cell phones, other MTV shows, make-up, etc.
Content: This show follows the lives of Miss Teen USA, Miss USA, and Miss Universe as they live together in a New York apartment and travel around working for the Miss Universe Organization. This particular episode introduces the audience to the title-holders, Katie, Rachel, and Riyo (who moves in at the beginning of the episode.) We learn about tension between Katie and the Former Miss USA, Tara. This drama becomes important when Donald Trump announces that Tara is coming back to live with the girls as a representative of the organization. There is also drama that surfaces between Katie and her boyfriend when he arrives at one of her photo shoots and sees her posing with a male-model.
Form: The main structure is built on quick “testimonial” interviews where the women can talk about each other and the situations privately, meetings with the organization, organization events such as traveling and photo shoots, and “private” moments such as dates. The music is very melodramatic, adding to the absurdity of the “serious” moments. There are a lot of fragmented shots of the women’s bodies, usually focusing on their waists and legs. There are multiple, flashy montage sequences, usually showing the glitz and glam of a certain class of New York City lifestyle. These are mostly used to indicate the passage of time.
Continue reading "Let's See What Happens When the Crowns Come Off..." »
"Real Housewives"
“The Real Housewives of Orange County” Season 3
Context: This show created by and aired on Bravo follows the lives of five actual “housewives” living in a privileged gated community in Orange County, California. In recent years, shows such as The O.C. have created buzz around places of extreme wealth and privilege, and Orange County in southern California is one such place. The episode I watched was a rerun from Season 3—which means that this show got high enough ratings and enough advertising dollars to produce three seasons of nonsense. The show was created and produced by Scott Dunlop, a native of Orange County.
Content: Most of the women on this show looked alike (large breasts, tanned skin, coifed blonde hair), so it was very difficult for me to tell them apart and keep their stories straight.
Little People Big World
I chose to do my reality tv report post on the episode called "Zach's Emergency" in "Little People Big World." I was at my house on Thanksgiving watching the "Little People Big World" marathon all day and this episode aired in mid afternoon.
November 24, 2007
What happens when boys dance with boys and girls dance with girls?
I analyzed an episode of So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD). Since I am a fan of this show, it was easy to pick an episode, and I was able to access it since I recorded it when it was originally aired on August 15th, 2007. I chose this episode because it was the final competition show of the season, and all of the dancers had to dance with each other; which meant that for the first time, it wouldn’t just be a guy/girl dance or a solo, there would be a guy/guy dance and a girl/girl dance. I was very interested to analyze how the same sex partnering would be framed, and I decided to focus my analysis on those two dances and not discuss much else since this was a 2 hour-long episode.
Continue reading "What happens when boys dance with boys and girls dance with girls?" »
What Not to Wear
I watched the episode “Carrie” from “What Not to Wear”, produced by Abigail Harvey and directed by Kasheed Daniel. “What Not to Wear” is a reality show airing on The Learning Channel, TLC, which airs on Friday nights at 9/8c. The show is based off of the British version of the show. Hosted by fashion gurus, Clinton Kelly and Stacy London, “What Not to Wear” has the main premise of restyling a person’s fashion over two days.
Normally the show has participants nominated by their family and friends as well as self-nominations for a special occasion such as class reunions. The nominated participants will have two weeks of “secret footage” shown to them when they are surprised by the “What Not to Wear” crew. After viewing the footage, the nominee is offered to travel to New York City and shop in the city using a Visa card with $5000. The catch is that the person’s wardrobe is sent as well to New York City, and will be critiqued and most articles of clothing thrown away. If the nominee agrees to the terms, which everyone does, they spend time in New York City shopping, and getting a new hair style and makeup tips.
The shots of the show range from establishing to close ups. Establishing shots are mainly used to show the audience the show the participant enters, along with shots show the city of New York. Another shot normally used in “What Not to Wear” is the wide shot that shows the entire body of someone. This shot allows the view to see the person’s clothing. After hair and makeup are completed, a close up shot is used.
The show is appeals mainly to women from teenagers to the elderly. The commercials during the show are for other retail stores such as Macy’s, H&M, and Bloomingdales. The commercials also are for the other reality shows on TLC. “ London Ink,” “Meerkat Manor,” and “Little People Big World” are the shows publicized in the commercials.
Mulvey’s theory of the gaze is most prevalent in “What Not to Wear.” The show is empowering the norm of having to look beautiful for others. Participants are critiqued over and over on how they look, and are told how to look better. Even the 360 degree mirror participants must enter reinforces the scopophilic ideals of “taking other people as objects.”
Although “What Not to Wear" does enforce the heteronormativity in society, the show also helps women improve confidence and self-esteem.
November 23, 2007
Another Top Model entry, but it's different– I swear!
I viewed the America’s Next Top Model episode: The Girl Who Starts to Loose Her Cool, the episode after The Girl Who Crawls
I watched the show during its original broadcast on The CW, November 14th. As is previously stated, the show is produced by Tyra Banks, Ken Mok, and Anthony Dominucci. Banks is an accomplished runway star, talk show host, and creator of Top Model. Mok has been a part of several reality television programs that failed to garner the same success as Top Model, he also produced the hollywood film Invincible (2006). Dominucci has a long history with MTV’s The Real World, he has been a producer, a director, and casting director for the program.
Continue reading "Another Top Model entry, but it's different– I swear!" »
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.
Continue reading "Do You Still Have Love For New York? (Episode 7)" »
November 20, 2007
A Shot At Love
I watched A Shot At Love with Tila Tequila on MTV. Talk about some quality television. This show has a classic premise: Girl wants to find true love, makes other singles compete ridiculously for her affection. What makes this show different?? One, Tila is famous for having millions of friends on myspace, which makes her what, a d list celebrity? Also, the big twist of the show is that Tila comes out as bisexual, and both men and women are competing for her affection.
The episode I watched focused, as many reality shows do, on humiliation. First, the contestants had to race to see who could eat their plate of cow testicles the fastest, the winner getting one on one time with Tila. Then Tila decides to have everyone help her with the eliminations by explaining to the group who they think is the least compatible for her and why. It was heart warming.
The show used similar filmic forms as many others. There is of course, the interview with the camera shots, where we get to see the inner thoughts of the contestants, and why they hate that other girl or why they arent getting a fair chance, making the viewers feel as if they really know these people. Then there is the wonderfully dramatic music whenever someone hurts Tila's feelings. Always a nice touch. The episode I watched also contained several flashbacks to earlier episodes. There would be a flash of white light, and magically we are transported to the past, which is black and white, just to make it perfectly clear that we are no longer mid-elimination in Tila's living room.
I watched an afternoon rerun on MTV, which was filled with commercials for acne cream, axe body spray, target, cell phones, and occasionally music. I picture the target audience for this show to be exactly my wonderful gentlemen neighbors: college students who have nothing better to do all day but lounge around and watch whatever is on MTV. MTV advertised during the program as well, scrolling words across the top of the screen, often over contestant's faces, announcing the start time of some other quality MTV production. It was distracting.
The show does view its characters through a male gaze. Every single girl is thin with big boobs, wearing plenty of makeup, and usually wearing minimal clothing. Even in the interviews, the ladies where revealing shirts, and the camera is sure to capture her cleavage, while the male interviews are often from the shoulders up.
One thing I always think of when watching reality tv is I wonder how much film is edited, or how boring their days are between cat fights and humiliating competitions. I would love to see how reality tv is edited together to form the wonderful storylines we love to hate.