F06 :: Feminist Film Studies

To summarize the episode “Brooke’s Dating Game� Linda (Brooke’s mother) is thinking out loud about whom her 18-year-old daughter should be dating. This thinking out loud turns into a competition between Linda, Nick (Brooke’s brother), and the Hulk. They all try to find the perfect man for Brooke. Not surprisingly Brooke goes with the plan and meets all three men that her family has chosen for her. Nick finds a young, skinny, car-loving guy like himself, Hulk finds an aspiring wrestler, and Linda calls up the 25-year-old model that worked with Brooke on her music video. In the end Brooke goes for the model, again no surprise.
It is probably safe to say that most normal families would not make a competition out of trying to find their daughter a boyfriend, especially at the age of eighteen. But since this is a reality show, and because “RTV viewers place a very high value on both revenge and competition� according to the information Myra Mendible found in a study conducted for Psychology Today and put in her article “Humiliation, Subjectivity, and Reality TV� it would make sense that the Hogan family makes life interesting by turning Brooke’s dating life into a game. Most likely if the Hogan family was not being taped for a reality show, this competition to find Brooke a perfect man would have never even been started. Hulk was not very keen on doing it right after Linda mentioned something. It was not until a little later in the show that he thought it would be fun. What probably changed his mind was a producer saying that they needed something interesting, like a competition, to make a show interesting and worth watching and that he would have to go along with the competition. Because the reality TV show viewers crave competition, especially when it involves relationships and sex, Hulk had to compromise himself and his family to appeal to his audience.
The use of the voyeuristic gaze is very apparent throughout the show. Brooke meets the model third and decides to go on a date with him right away. When she comes back from changing the camera’s pro-filmic event is a shot of Brooke’s tiny black dress and all her skin. What it interesting to note is that Brooke’s father is conservative and doesn’t want his little girl to show much skin, but gradually Brooke wears less and less clothing the show has gone from season to season. Linda does tell Brooke to put some more clothes on, but she only puts on a small shirt. Clothing, or lack of clothing, is a big ordeal in reality TV. In the last scene of the show, Brooke is on the beach with her model boy and he is sweating up a storm. She tells him to take off his shirt and he does. In this scene the voyeuristic gaze has been transferred from Brooke onto the model.
Hogan Knows Best is filled with motivated representations, which are one of the main reasons people watch the show. The Hogan’s family “participation should be seen as a voluntary mode of sanctioned humiliation which they regard as a necessary part of becoming famous for 15 minutes� (Karen Ross and Sujata Moorti, “Commentary and Criticism Introduction)�. Karen Ross and Sujata Moori were commenting on women who are on reality shows to find a husband, but I think it also pertains to the Hogan family because the Hogan family is also humiliating themselves by the way the dress, how they act, and how the treat one another. Overall, this episode was similar to the others because it uses Brooke as an object or even a puppet for the satisfaction of the viewers.
The form of the show, summarized in one word is very "camping." Even Brooke Hogan said that "We're finally having fun as a family. It's sad that a drag show pulled us together" according to the imdb website (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468996/). Because the show is on VH1, it makes sense that it is cut together with hip music and the scenes are cut together in somewhat of a music video sort of way. The ransitions between shots are of the family members either in fast pace soing something like waving or moving their hips. The graphics are bright orange, red, and other bright colors. The show is filmed with a music video approach. Time is constructed fast paced, probably because if we watched any point of time (scene) for more than 45 seconds we would be board to death. The editing is done in such a way to bring out each family memebers main characteristic. For example any footage they have od Brooke looking like a dumb blonde or showing some skin they put it. Overall the editing follows most of the reality shows that are put on VH1 and MTV.
Occording to Wikipedia, Hogan was offered a reality show "prior to his famous WrestleMania X8 "Icon vs. Icon" match with The Rock in 2002" but he refused. It was only untill he saw what reality shows and TV shows were doing for popstars such as Britney Spears that he decided to do the show to support his daughter Brooke and get her name out there. With this idea in mind, it makes perfect sense that Hogan went along with Brooke's dating competition. Many of the episodes are centered around Brooke and her up and coming career. Hulk probably would not have allowed Brooke to partake in such revealing photo shoots and crazy dating games if it was not for the reality show. I am pretty sure that the Hulk would never let he daughter go out in a pink bra (like the one in the photo above) if it were not for publicity.