F06 :: Feminist Film Studies

America's Next Top Model (ANTM) is thick with gender, race, and class issues. I watched an entire season of ANTM to get the big picture of the show. I was going to watch just one episode, but I was hooked into watching more. The girls selected for the show come from all over bringing a diverse set of perspectives and attitudes. The show does a great job is showing several reasonsfor wanting to become a model. It’s kind of like Real World meets Fashion File with a touch of The Price is Right. In the end, each girl decides if the “price is right” for completely giving up all traces of individualism.

Some of the girls know they're pretty, some don’t, and some don’t care. Whatever their view of themselves is, they all want to be what Tyra and the judges think they should be because they all want to win. One girl battles with the “suggestion” of getting the gap between her front teeth fixed. Originally, she doesn’t want to do it. She knows it’s one of the things that create her distinct look from other women; it’s a part of her individual beauty. She’s told by Tyra and the gang that she’s not marketable with her gap and the gap with dominate any photo she’s in. This is one of the many conspicuous statements about female beauty. Ultimately, whatever Tyra and the judges feel beauty is dictates who stays, who goes, and who morphs to fit their standards.

Race plays a significant role in ANTM. Tyra reinforces black and white stereotypes by making comments like, “Girl, you work that booty like a black girl.” This comment was obviously made to a white contestant. Also, she said something along the lines of “Honey, I can’t believe you can’t drop it better than that.” This comment made to a black contestant. There was a photo shoot where the girls had to dance, and the previous comments were delivered after the shoot.

One girl has a southern accent. She’s out right told that she sounds stupid. That’s one of the positive points of ANTM. There is a focus on speaking correctly. Sounding educated and being educated are important. Not all people with southern accents are ignorant, but anyone will tell you that if you’re on TV appealing to a larger audience you cannot have an accent of any kind, unless, you are to be cast in a specific role which calls for a specific accent.

ANTM is able to get away with their attempts to homogenize beauty with their big budget. They have spent top dollar to persuade the public they know what female beauty is. Tyra isn’t cheap. The rest of the judges probably charge a hefty fee as well. Plus, the models participate in elaborate fashion shoots, stay in a gorgeous apartment, and travel to a beautiful country. It’s definitely the fusion of a glossy fashion magazine and TV. The show is actually glossy! There’s so much beauty.

The clothes and make-up the models wear are the best. They usually wear bright attractive colors and are shot in equally attractive settings. The image on the TV would still be pretty without the women. However, having a little or in some cases a lot of skin across the screen only helps the show. Who doesn’t love a half-naked-potential-super-model?

Also, who can argue with Tyra? She’s a super-model for Pete’s sake! Of course she knows what it takes to be a super-model. This gives Tyra her “mama knows best” attitude about everything. The girls just eat it all up. As a result, the public eats it up. Tyra has stacked credentials in the fashion industry and that’s why she’s hosting the show.

America’s Next Top Model has figured out the combination for a long running hit. They have a big budget, big names, and a big mouth. The show doesn’t make apologies. They know they are creating a “universal beauty.” They have the sponsors and the jobs to let them get away with it. The winner of the show gets a huge modeling contract with a huge modeling firm. If they didn’t know what beauty was this couldn’t be possible. They have an air tight opinion of beauty. Sure, you have the right to disagree, but that’s not going to get you paid or get your face in Elle magazine, and it won't stop them from dictating who does.

Posted by Matthew Shapiro at 08:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

If you already dislike rich people then this isn’t the show for you. I watched an episode of Mtv’s “My Super Sweet Sixteen” with the daughter of hip-hop/R&B artist Cee-lo. The premise of this show is to watch a rich spoiled young girl or boy have their parents spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their 16th birthday party, so they can make a big deal and feel special about themselves. But in the episode I watched the young girl seemed to have no concept of money or working for anything. First she was only turning fifteen, not sixteen and she was still able to keep me watching with her continuous it’s my party and ill cry if I want to attitude. By having shows like this one where a parent spends over $180,000 on a party for their fifteen-year-old daughter it illustrates the where are values rest. The stereotype that the upper class sees themselves as elitists is completely reinforced in this show along with the idea that money equals love. Everything that is wrong in society shows up here.
“Yet RTV constants generally understand that moral weaknesses, body flaws, and intimate betrayals offer the most thrilling evidence of “reality” in the genre.” Myra Mendible, Humiliation, Subjectivity, and Reality TV. I feel that this quote is the direct reason why this show is made. Moral weakness seems to be the driving force behind this one. Where a young girl and her parents have so much money it’s the only way they can communicate. By buying her daughter everything she is giving her “attention” making for a thrilling type of reality. At the end Sophie is given her 180,000-dollar present of a car that she wont be able to drive for at least a year.
With all this in mind we can critically look at who is making this program and the motives behind it. MTV has a lot of power and this show puts it to good use. The content of the show revolves around money, and though editing they market it most towards girls. The title is sweet sixteen, no guys ever really look forward to having a sweet sixteen party even though some are on the show the majority is girls. But the whole show is sparkles and pink glitter. The cuts are fast and always have voices or music going over them to keep your attention. The music is pop crap and radio crap hip-hop, it’s the same music that is always playing on every other MTV show. So by being able to recognize this style it is almost as though MTV is putting their stamp on it. Even at the birthday parties the kids parents go though all the trouble of getting the artist that are on MTV, its kind of like a big add. By directing all of this towards girls it’s setting up the idea that the nicer your possessions the more popular you’ll be, like you can measure your friendship by how many people go to you party. By spending hundreds of thousands of dollars you make all the friends you’ll ever need.

Posted by Alexander Brown at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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OK so this is the second time I have typed this because the first time it did not work and erased everything.
So I watched Hogan Knows Best 3. It is about Terry Hogan who used to be a famous wrestler in the 1980’s and tried to break into film. He now is on this reality show about his family who is Linda the wife, Brooke the daughter and Nick the son. It is about their everyday lives which I find funny because I am sure their lives have changed a great deal since they started this show. The show tries to be like every other show- like the Osborne’s on MTV. This show shows them as one happy family. The mom and dad are in love. The dad is overprotective of his daughter and won’t let her date. The son breaks the rules and is encouraged to chase after the ladies. Mostly the show is about how famous they are (now) and what that means for them everyday. I watched an episode about Brooke mostly. She was trying to get into the Music business. She was in the process of rehearsing and shooting her music video.

Continue reading "Hogan Knows Best" »

Posted by Erica Koby at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK so this is the second time I have typed this because the first time it did not work and erased everything.
So I watched Hogan Knows Best 3. It is about Terry Hogan who used to be a famous wrestler in the 1980’s and tried to break into film. He now is on this reality show about his family who is Linda the wife, Brooke the daughter and Nick the son. It is about their everyday lives which I find funny because I am sure their lives have changed a great deal since they started this show. The show tries to be like every other show- like the Osborne’s on MTV. This show shows them as one happy family. The mom and dad are in love. The dad is overprotective of his daughter and won’t let her date. The son breaks the rules and is encouraged to chase after the ladies. Mostly the show is about how famous they are (now) and what that means for them everyday. I watched an episode about Brooke mostly. She was trying to get into the Music business. She was in the process of rehearsing and shooting her music video.

Continue reading "Hogan Knows Best" »

Posted by Erica Koby at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I watched an episode of America’s next Top Model (ANTM). ANTM can be categorized as a competition reality show. It was created by Tyra Banks (the supermodel) in 2003. It originally aired on UPN but is currently on at 8pm Wednesday nights on CW (which is a merger between WB and UPN). Tyra is one of three executive producers of the show, a mentor to the girls in the competition, as well as one of the judges of the competition. There are usually about fourteen girls or so that began the competition. Each episode, the girls are taught something new about modeling like how to look sad but sexy or how to walk the runway. By the end of the episode the girls have to use what they learned in individual photo shoots. A panel of judges looks at each photograph and chooses who is strong enough to stay and who should go home. They begin to just rip apart each girl from head to toe making comments like “her nose looks piggy in this shot” or “she is showing no emotion in her eyes.” The panel of judges includes a runway specialist who is male, an old school female model, a male photographer, a male photo director, and Tyra herself, who sits at the judging table completely glamorized (make-up, hair, outfit) as if to say “this is what you should be aspiring to become.” There are twelve writers/directors of this show, so I wonder if the judges debating on camera about who stays and who goes is real. When a model is informed that she is “still in the running to becoming America’s next top model” she is called before Tyra who is standing on a pedestal, looking down on the model and informing her on what she did good or, more often what she needs to do to improve her appearance. The winner of the competition gets a $100,000 modeling contract with Cover Girl and a photo spread in Elle magazine, so of course, the show is sponsored by Cover Girl. I found that this show has a multitude of gazes. There is, of course, the gaze of the photographer, who was male. The gaze of the photographer is paired with that of the photograph director, who is watching every shot taken on a computer as it is happening. The job of the photo director is to tell the model how to switch up her poses and how to connect with the camera and in this show is also a male. These two double as judges and each model is aware of this while they are posing. We are sometimes shown that the other models are looking on to find out how well the posing model is doing and to hear what sort of praises or the lack there of that she receives from both the photographer and the photograph director. The camera sits side be side with the other models as if we too are one of the competing models watching the shoot. A slightly more complex gaze is that of the “main” camera from which we gain our insight into this “reality” show. There is also the gaze of the entire judging panel as well as the models viewing themselves in photographs. This gaze is interesting in that the models are usually shocked at how they look often times indicating that they don’t recognize themselves. This show has really caught on in other countries. Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Scandinavia, Thailand, Turkey, and the U.K. all have started their own top model shows, some of which are already on their third season.

Posted by Alicia Sims at 05:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Hogan Knows Best is a part of vh1’s “Celebreality” block. The Hogan family is Hulk (Terry) and Linda with two children Brooke (16-18 years) and Nick (14-16 years). Terry is an overbearing masculine figure. Brooke is treated different then Nick, Nick is allowed to date and is encouraged by his father to hit on and pick up women. One episode Terry is jealous of his sons relationship with his girlfriend and sends a “Hotter” 18 years old girl over to ask his fourteen year old son out. His Daughter Brooke is not allowed to date until she is eighteen, according to Terry all guys are after one thing, sex which he is teaching his son to only think about. The show perpetuates gender inequality by Terry’s thinking he needs to shelter his daughter from boys because he feel she is unable to handle her self while his son is almost pushed into dating, like most fathers he is protecting himself from thoughts of his daughter being sexual and stifling her growth as a person. One episode Brooke is allowed to go on a date, her father places a GPS tracking system in their car to track her, and she is only allowed to go into public areas already planed out. In later episodes Brooke is attempting a pop music career, her father fights all the way against making her sexual. The over sexed media battling an overbearing dad, a corporate system, and a Father battle over the sexual identity of a 17 year old women, she is unable to decided her sexual representations. This creates an completely unrealistic sexual identity, a sweet, pure virgin that is extremely sexual. With pop singer in the late nineties (Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera) conveying the same message a virgin playing sexually promiscuous. No matter how sexually liberal or conservative Brook herself might be it is clear that her family and our culture have denied even the tamest of romantic experience, now promoted as sexual it is clear that she has no representation of her sexuality. Her sexual identity is being decided by the Men in her life.

Posted by Christopher Rose at 02:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What makes a TV. show reality? I watched the Ali G. show for this posting, and some would say it’s not true reality. I don’t think any reality TV show portrays reality; instead they are all themed around the illusion of depicting real life. The makers of any reality TV have so much control over editing, camera work, sets, casting, and episode construction that real events are always skewed in favor to a marketable product. If reality TV was life like, it would be so boring nobody would watch it! Also, when people know they are on camera they are performing, acting out an identity that they or someone else has created for them. This identity forms a loose script for behavior.

Now I turn to the Ali G. Show, an evolved reality show with 3 characters all played by the show’s British creator/writer Sacha Baron Cohen who tours America exploiting ignorance, racism, and sexism with out discrimination or shame. He pokes fun of every aspect of culture, from New York to Texas to Hollywood. He makes fun of bigots, feminists, patriarchy, sports fans, homophobia, patriotic people, and anything else you can think of. And why does he do this? I think he is showing the real American way of living, however varied and ridiculous.

His first Character is Ali G, a white British rapper who thinks he is black, and is lacking understanding of the English language and quite a few brain cells. He asks really stupid questions during the interviews he does, and people take him seriously because he has a camera and an HBO show. But people also think he is really challenged mentally, so they let their guard down, and it’s very interesting and entertaining what comes out.

His second character is Borat, a man from Kazakhstan. He tours America in search of learning the culture. Most people react without surprise when the “foreigner” talks about his culture, where he has insestual relations with his sister, has no running water in his town, and talks about his “krum”. He is perverted, embarrassing, and primitive. Is this offensive to real-life people from Kazakhstan? Usually, but I think the real message is how many Americans view people from former soviet countries. In the episode I watched Borat goes to a karaoke night in a country western bar and sings “a song from his homeland” called throw the Jew down the well. The whole bar is singing along by the end of the song, which at first I thought was really funny, but looking back it is just a disappointment. Borat also goes to a wine tasting class in Texas, where he makes very good friends with the two men giving the class. After heavy drinking from all three men, the waiter comes in to bring more wine. As the (black) man leaves the room Borat asks the (white) men is that man was their slave. The reply was “we can’t call them that anymore”.

The third character, Boris, is the host for the German gay-TV station. He generally shows off the shallow inconsistency in the fashion world, and his favorite it to exploit homophobia. He travels to Miami Beach during spring break, and does a segment with some frat boys who are all about the party atmosphere. They yell P-A-R-T-Y and jump around, slapping butts and showing off their large muscles to Boris. At the and of the segment taping he thanked the guys for being on Gay-TV, at which point they all get really angry, start yelling and freaking out. Boris also attends the annual patriotism fair/conference in the southern part of the country. He does and interview with one of the participants. He ask the man, “what does freedom mean to you, as an American?” The man explains freedom is about being free to do whatever you please, so long as it doesn’t hurt anybody else. Boris act like he understands and says “oh I get it, so like I would be free to walk down the street and hold hands with my boyfriend?” the man said no, that is not freedom or American and quickly ended the interview.

To watch a clip of the show: http://www.hbo.com/alig/video/. Watch “peace” to see a fashion show segment, its very funny.

Posted by Emily Burt at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The reality T.V. show that I watched was My Super Sweet Sixteen. This T.V. show is classified as a reality, news/documentary and it is shown on MTV. All the episodes take place in the same area. According to Wikipedia, "The parties are often set in the same towns. Locations that have featured two or more teenagers include La Jolla, California; Newport Beach, California; Atlanta, Georgia; Beverly Hills, California; New York, New York; Scottsdale, Arizona; Palm Beach Gardens, Florida; Miami, Florida, and Erie, Pennsylvania." When trying to find a list of the people who work on making this T.V. show the lists that I came across seemed to be different for each episodes. It seems as though they hire different people to prep each episode or a few episodes and then they get someone else. This episode was about a girl named Chelsi. She is a thin girl with long brown hair and a very pretty face. She knows she is hot and makes sure that everyone knows she is. Chelsi wants this party to be all about her so she is requiring everyone to dress in a white toga while she wears one that is brightly colored. She wants there to be a gaze on her. To prep for her party she has her dress personally made for her, when it isn't what she wants the first time she demands that a new one is made. She then goes to the gym to recruit four men to carry her into the party. In order to pick them she asks them to take off their shirts and the camera looks up and down their bodies. This is the only part of the show where there is a female gaze. Before her party she also has pictures taken of her and her girlfriends. She is the typical stereotype of a snotty, rich girl who has to have everything her way. You see this many times as she is constantly complaining when things aren't going her way or when she isn't getting all the attention. She asks her dad for a car for her birthday because she says that everyone is expecting her to get one. He says he wont but in the end he gives in to her and gets her one. This show is all about teenagers who get what ever they want. It is mostly directed toward teenage girls but there are some teenage boys on the show getting whatever they want. This show is a stereotype creator. Here is a link to some of the reactions of viewers: http://www.tv.com/my-super-sweet-16/show/33149/summary.html

Posted by Renee Wrobel at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I watched an episode of The Girls Next Door, a show on E! that follows Hugh Heffner’s three girlfriends in their life after being on the cover of Playboy. Many of the shows on E! strive to reveal the lives and stories of celebrities to the world, and in the case of the Heffner girls, their goal is to create humor by drawing from many of the preconceived notions the general public has about Playboy models. The episode I watched was called “Career Dazed” and focused on the girls’ career aspirations of modeling, acting, jewelry designing, and broadcast journalism. Unlike other dating reality shows, the three women featured in this show are not competing for the affection of the bachelor, who is actually only separated from his wife and celebrating his eightieth birthday, but they are content with sharing a romantic relationship while they’re just really good friends with each other. The three women seem to take on specific roles in the house as defined during the opening credits. The first, Holly, plays the role of a cheerleader turned glamour girl, the second, Brigit, a scholarly graduate turned domestic housewife, and Kendra, a tomboy type athlete turned teenage brat. The opening credits to the show are very animated with bright colors and the characters resemble bobble-heads creating an image of something unbelievable and incredibly superficial despite the fact that it’s considered to be reality TV. The music and sound affects added into the scenes contribute to the atmosphere and attitude that the director is trying to convey, such as music that would fit a 50’s family sitcom to create the mood of a happy, traditional home despite the irregular family life and excess wealth as well as using climactic music to bring drama to normally uneventful affairs, creating satire and entertainment for the audience.
As the girls gain more and more recognition and are given the opportunity to excel in their “careers” as public reality TV figures, the message becomes clear that being beautiful is all it takes to succeed in life. All three women have long, platinum blonde hair and Barbie-like figures that are perfected through tanning and makeup. While they are exploring various interests, Brigit mentions that she has a master’s degree in communication studies and explores her new opportunities of broadcast journalism. Rather than highlighting her talents however, they show every mistake and retake necessary to prove that despite college degrees she really is still just a dumb blonde Playboy model. Kendra, the youngest of the three has admittedly the least aspiration towards a career outside the world of modeling and speaks of her enjoyment in being able to have fun while she’s young. However, once again they take what she says in front of the camera, editing it to match what they record her doing at other times, such as having dog responsibilities (showing it her “pimp cane”), doing things she doesn’t want to do (taking a shower when she’d rather continue prancing around in her underwear), and of course her goals (getting a grill so she can be more “gangsta”). However, when she is in a photo shoot for muscle magazine, she is told that she was chosen because they needed someone with personality because the body builder she’s paired with seems to have nothing much past the physical, doing what they can to draw stereotypes of models in general this time (anything he says is inaudible or not included in the cut). Of course during the shoot itself, the photographer makes it clear just how important the physical is as he constantly gapes at Kendra and compliments her perfect body.
As Alison Graham-Bertolini states in the article Joe Millionaire as a Fairy Tale: A Feminist Critique, “Editing convincingly establishes that the women consider this opportunity more important than anything else in their lives. Their degrees, careers, and loved ones are marginalized for the chance to accomplish what is being touted as women’s primary objective, marriage” (Graham-Bertolini, 342). In the same way, the three women in The Girls Next Door are edited in a way that mocks their career goals as something unnecessary and something they are generally incapable of anyways. Instead, they're presented as three "girls" who would really prefer to frolic around in lacy pink underwear with their 80-year-old boyfriend and that the idea of doing something that interests them is just a silly, dismissive idea that Hugh allows them to indulge despite how unrealistic it is.

Posted by Lisa Peplinski at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Last night I watched an episode of America’s Next Top Model. (As a few people have also written about this show, I will forgo an explanation of the premise.) What I find different about this show compared to other Reality TV shows is that the girls are competing for a job, so the whole show is sort of like a weird prolonged job interview. In this way, I do not think that the show is quite as humiliating as others--Fear Factor for example, in which people do and eat outrageous things for money. In the article on RTV in our course packet by Ross & Moorti, they discuss how participation in RTV programs is a form of humiliation. While not to the extent of other shows, humiliation is still seen in America’s Next Top Model. The whole show is basically revolved around the bodies of women, and for some, this focus could be embarrassing, but for the girls who would apply for this show, they take pleasure in being looked at. The humiliation really comes in at the end of each episode when they stand before a panel of “experts” and are judged based on their bodies, faces, and photographs. At the mercy of these experts, the girls will take all the harsh comments that the panel dishes out and are expected to be grateful for the opinions of such esteemed individuals. It is sad to see women being so blatantly judged based on their bodies, and I hate to think of the message this show is sending young girls who watch it.
One thing that stuck out for me in watching this show was the fact that two of the contestants are just 18 years old. They are twins (one of which was kicked off), and it was just said in passing that they are only 18. (I am not sure of the ages of any other participants) But this seemed sad to me because these are really just young girls who are thrown into this demanding, critical situation. It is worrisome that their bodies are such a focus at this young of an age, because they might not always be so thin yet they put so much value on their appearance.
One other thing that I have thought about in regard to this assignment: Many people will say “Reality” TV, putting quotes around “reality” as if it is not actually real. While I have done this too and definitely understand how so many “reality” shows are far from the reality that most people live, I think there is something to be thought about in the fact that this truly is reality for the contestants of these shows. Even though the shows are made for entertainment and so much editing takes places that what the viewer sees is a manipulated product, the participants in these shows are in fact living these experiences and this is their own reality, this is their life…just something I have thought about.

Posted by Colleen Straiton at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We are all guilty of watching at least one reality TV show during our lifetime. Since I have started college I have not had much time to watch much TV, but during high school and during the summer, before I had a job, I watched them constantly. The ones I enjoyed most were makeover shows. But I watched shows from Extreme Makeover to Fear Factor. And when I was in the early years oh high school, I watched a lot of dating shows- the one I watched most often was Elimidate. So I decided to visit my younger days by watching another episode of that for this assignment. And looking back at that I hope I only watched it because there was nothing else on. So here is how it works, the show starts out with four flawless looking girls and one guy, and the point of the show is for the guy to eliminate one girl every round so he can be with the last one (the girl he likes out of the four). So the whole time you are watching four, skinny, barely dressed girls competing for this one man’s attention. There are two things wrong with this picture; one, the TV show attracts the attention of a young audience like me in high school, and it presents the idea that you need to look a certain way (skinny and flawless) and you need to dress a certain way (barley dress at all) in order to gain a man’s attention and approval (as if your existence depended and revolved around that). Second, is showed beautiful women going out of their way to please a guy. Basically the point was not to be eliminated, so they were to do anything that the man asked to stay in the game. If that meant it was necessary to strip and get into a hoot tub with a man and three women you did not know, then so be it. If it meant making out with the guy on demand, then that’s what you have to do. So it taught young girls to do what is necessary to get that one man you are after, even if it means degrading or humiliating yourself.
The women on this show were usually white, skinny, with nice hair, flawless skin, and perfect teeth. They were usually very scantly dressed to show off their “perfect” bodies in order to impress the one man they are trying to get. The men on the show were usually between the average to good-looking range and, of course, were pleased with the idea that multiple women are competing for their affection and would bend over on demand. It portrayed women as weak and slave like (that they have to correspond with the man’s every demands). It is even more disturbing when these women got into fights over the man. One particular episode, one woman got out of her seat and went to spell her drink on another one because the man asked her to do something daring and that woman was bothering her. In another episode two women got into a fight and one of them tells the other that she is not going to take her seriously because she is fashion retarded for wearing white after labor day; are you serious, all that for some guy. Just like Marla Harris said in Gender Trouble in Paradise (Hotel), or a Good Woman is Hard to Find “…women are readily typecast by fellow contestants as bitches, flirts, sluts, and nags.” Imagine how many girls actually watched this in high school? What kind of message did they receive, be a slave to male dominance?

Posted by Saly Abdalla at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/realworld-season18/series.jhtml
I watched the first episode of the 2006 “The Real World” – Denver on MTV. “The Real World” was created for MTV by Jon Murray and Mary-Ellis Bunim of Bunim-Murray Productions and Jon Murray serves as the Executive Producer. Jim Johnston and Joyce Corrington serve as Co-Executive Producers of “The Real World: Denver.” Drew Tappon and Jacquelyn French are executives in charge of production. The Real World is a reality show about “7 strangers living in one house” with different personalities and beliefs. The punch line of the show is to “find out what happens when people stop being polite” to each other. I have 2 categories for the reality shows: the “real” reality TV and the “constructed” reality TV. In my opinion “The Real World” qualifies as the constructed reality because of the amount of editing required. Interestingly, there were no names of the camera or editing crew to be found. I feel that the show has gained this much exposure mostly because of the efforts of the camera and the editing crew. These 7 strangers live in a house with cameras located everywhere, leaving them no privacy. Their days are taped 24/7 and that’s when the editing crew steps in to piece together an episode. They have to take hours and hours of footage and determine what they should include in the 30-45 minutes that will air. This is where the “construction” of reality begins. The camera crew accompanies the cast where ever they go. When the cast mates go clubbing is when the crew uses hand held cameras – to be able to keep up with the events. I find it interesting that whenever there is conflict – it will air. Sometimes we even see how things are taken out of context through editing. We will never know the “real” cast mates – we will only see them in the way that the producers want to portray them to us and what sells in our controversial world. From the bars they go to, to the clothes they wear – the cast mates are coached or provoked to unknowingly frame themselves as a certain personality. The only chance we have to get to know them is the “confessional” style room. This is where the member of the cast can come to, lounge on comfy pillows, and have a heart to heart with a camera. I believe it is even more complex from there because the camera serves as a therapist. But the gaze of the camera is the gaze of the audience – that member of the cast lets us into his/her personality and issues. Further, that same cast mate lets us use their gaze onto the other cast mates. We, as an audience, use their gaze to see what that cast mate sees in their roommates. I think it is a very complex exchange of looks because every cast mate gives the audience a chance to do that. In the same sense our gaze is persuaded by theirs.
So, we meet the cast of “The Real World” – Denver. In the premiere episode, Colie, Jenn, Tyrie, Alex, Brooke, Davis, and Stephen move into their fabulous new house in Denver and waste no time getting to know each other. I have noticed that all Real World seasons have a basic recipe for a conflict. You have Brooke, the southern belle; Jenn, the “crazy”, anything goes, ex-cheerleader; Colie, the girl that likes to party and make out; Tyrie, the large black male with great sports ability; Stephen, a conservative, very religious, anti-homosexual black male, Alex, the hot white playboy; and finally, as Tara Kachgal said: “Look at The Real World. There's always a gay teen on there." - The white, homosexual, religious male – Davis. The stage is set for conflict right off the bat when Alex hooks up with Colie and Jenn in the first 48 hours. And things heat up when Stephen tells Davis he thinks it’s wrong to be gay. In this episode MTV has stepped up and is focusing on the relation of religion and homosexuality since that was the main point of the first episode. The problem I am having with this is that the presence of a homosexual in this house is supposed to be normal and accepted since MTV launched its anti-discrimination platform in 2001. But that is not the case. Even Davis himself is uncomfortable to come out to his cast mates and essentially remains in the closet. Before he was put on the spot with a question, he was willing to hide his sexual orientation so no one else was uncomfortable to live with him in this house. Even Brooke, from the beginning of the show kept asking who was gay. As she put it: “It is more fun and interesting if someone is gay. I am disappointed that no one is."
I am disappointed that, as an audience, including myself, we have come to the point where unless there is someone on the show can be humiliated or rejected for something they are or they believe in - it is not fun or interesting for us to watch. I had a psychology professor that once told me that as humans, we are afraid of not being accepted for who we are and because we can witness on TV what happens in certain situations, we can choose to be ourselves or not. So what kind of an example is The Real World to us that instead examining the relationships between strangers, we are willing to sacrifice our own beliefs so we can feel normal by watching someone that is not like us be rejected in front of the whole nation? Tara Kachgal describes “The Real World” as: “The absence of overt television portrayals has reproduces youth homosexuality as deviant and other, achieving what some term, symbolic annihilation."
I think the biggest issue with shows like this one is that teens that are watching them can be persuaded by them tremendously. A gay teen may have watched this episode and felt ashamed of being gay because it was not accepted by some of the cast mates, and more importantly, it was not fully accepted by Davis. According to bell hooks we need to look closely at motivational representation. From my understanding, everything we see - from still pictures, to reality shows, and to the movies – is shown to us for a reason. Someone is “buying” what they portray. We have to be critical of how we choose to use that representation because someone always creates it.

Posted by Nodira Ismoilova at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't generally watch reality tv, partly because I don't have cable, but also because I find most of it to be uninteresting and trashy. However, one show that I actually did watch more than 5 minutes of is Flavor of Love. The premise of the show is a typical Bachelor type show, but instead of the normal bachelor, it features Flava Flav. On the Bachelor, the man who is the bachelor is rich and attractive with a wide appeal. On Flavor of Love, Flava Flav is a not very well known musician who is known more for his eccentricities than his music. He is not very attractive, he is short and wears strange clothing, but somehow VH1 found a group of women who want to date and even marry him. Flavor of Love is a warped version of the Bachelor, but whether it is trying to emulate or mock the Bachelor is unclear. Certainly the format is similar, but the people make it more comedic than romantic. Many of the women who are trying to be with Flav are pathetic and strange. Why they are attracted to him is not clear. As far as celebrities go, Flava Flav is not that famous, sucessful or rich. If Flav is just considered as a normal guy, he is far from handsome and does not seem intelligent or cultured. The only thing he has going for him is that he is somewhat famous and rich and seems to be a nice guy. As in the Humiliation article by Mendible, the humiliation of these women is clear. They are portrayed as strange for even wanting to be on the show and marry Flav. On top of this there are the typical fights over Flav that occur on most bachelor shows, which seem even more pathetic because they are fighting over Flava Flav. Many of the women seem so desperate to be with anyone that they would do anything to be with Flav. Mendible says that a trait of humiliation in reality tv is that, "the victim is made passive and conscious of the humiliating act, while perpetrators must be aware of the victim's condition and derive satisfaction from it." (336) Everyone on the show is aware of the humiliation going on, Flava Flav, the women and the writers/producers. Not surprisingly Flav enjoys the humiliation when they are fighting over him, and the women enjoy seeing others be humilated as long as its not them. When fights ensue many of the women stand back and smile. Not only is this show humiliating for the women because of embarassing situations like fighting, but the fact that they have no choice but to like this unattractive man and fight over him is demeaning. The women have no agency and can't decide during the show that once they get to know Flav that they aren't interested in him, they must fight blindly for him. Obviously they do have a choice, the choice to be on the show or not, but once they decide to be on it they must play along. Like the Bachelor, Flavor of Love perpetuates gender stereotypes and encourages a heterosexual norm, but in addition to this it humiliates women even more by having them compete over someone not especially desirable.

Posted by Nora Goustin at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I will admit that Laguna Beach is a guilty pleasure of mine. The show starts with a black screen that tells the audience “the events and the drama are real”. Aside from the opening proclamation, you would never know that the show is reality. The show is missing one of the key stamps of reality TV, the confessional. At no point do the characters acknowledge that they are being filmed. The audience is supposed to feel as though they are simply observing the lives of the rich and fabulous teens of a hip California city. The full title of the show is ‘Laguna Beach: The Real OC”. The show came out about a year after the OC had been in syndication. I am guessing that this was MTV’s shot at bringing back the audience they may have lost because of The OC’ s popularity. It seemed to work. Laguna Beach has had a very similar following. The show is shot almost as if it is The OC. On of the markers that it is not are the titles that flash across the bottom of the screen to inform the audience whose drama they are watching. The main characters Kristin, LC and Stephen get the privilege of just their name popping up when they enter a scene. The rest of the cast is always labeled in relationship to these characters. Lo is always presented and Lo: LC’s friend. My personal favorite was Dieter: Stephen’s wingman. The show is shot like a sitcom, with typical MTV tunes in the background. It caters to the chic dream of living a stylish west coast lifestyle. Being rich without being famous.

I think the reason I enjoy the show so much is because of Kristin's character. Kristin, like the majority of the shows characters, is self absorbed and superficial. What I like about Kristin is she is refreshingly honest (in Laguna Beach terms) and she has a sort of no nonsense attitude. Men drive almost all of the main female characters on the show. Characters like LC, and Jessica spend each episode obsessed with boys, how boys see them, what they can do to make boys happy and what girls they will need to step on to get to the boys. These girls accept mistreatment and humiliation from the boys on the show, in hopes of getting back together and winning their affections. Time after time Jessica's boyfriend cheats on her, or is simply mean to her, and yet she always runs back to him, even if they are broken up. This makes the show very frustrating to watch. As a woman it is painful to see the things girls do to themselves and others for guys, especially guys who clearly do not care about them.

Kristin on the other hand reverses these stereotypes. She drives much of the story. Guys are always vying for her attention and when she is sick of a guy then she is sick of the guy. Through much of the first season Kristin determines the course of the relationship between her and Stephen, while Stephen determines his relationship with LC. Although Kristin is sometimes mean insensitive and promiscuous, she presents a refreshing opposite to the passive and submissive female characters. Although Kristin can be selfish, mean and insensitive she, like the boys, gets away with it. Kristin’s character represents a rise in gender equality. She is able to handle her sexuality the way men have for many years. Marla Harris discusses gender equality and sexual liberation. She sites that other shows, such as “Paradise Hotel” feature women who are driven by their own sexuality and will step on anyone they can to get what they want. This reality TV show depicts a young woman who is funny, beautiful, and well liked behaving in the way she wants to. She is in control of her sexuality and relationships. Although the setting leaves something to be desired, the show is a small step in the right direction in terms of feminine sexuality.

Posted by Allison Rogne at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Have you ever heard the term “Fashion police?” Growing up, it was often used in my house when my dad would wear things that made him look un-kept, and not flattering. Hosts Stacy and Clinton of the television show What Not to Wear can be considered fashion police for Americans today. While watching and analyzing an episode over the weekend, they made some interesting comments and helped a woman improve her self esteem.

The woman on the episode I watched, Christina, was in her late 30’s but “tried dressing like she was still 20.” She was in need of assistance with improving her style. With the help of the show, she walked away with a new sense of pride and power. Stacy, Clinton, and the rest of the What Not to Wear staff helped this lady immensely. They started by analyzing her outfits from the past couple weeks. While watching the videos they had of her and going through her clothes, she realized that some of the things she wears are not flattering to her. It was never the case that they brought her self esteem down; they were very helpful and always had productive criticism.

After Christina discovered her style could use an adjustment, What Not to Wear was more than helpful in finding her clothes that were figure flattering, stylish, and comfortable for Christina. They took into consideration her personal style interests but explained to her why some things are not appropriate in certain situations. Instead of only criticizing Christina, Stacy and Clinton were helpful and made productive comments. They also overcame an issue that is largely at hand in today’s society. As discussed in the “Introduction: Gender and the Plus Size Body,” society is trying to accept every size. But Sujata Moortia and Karen Ross say different, what in my opinion is really the case.

“To me it seems clear that “size acceptance” is limited only to the “average” rather than to all sizes…And yet there are surely many women like Wann, whose weight is no physical impediment, but whose bodies are deemed “unacceptable.””

Stacy and Clinton do a good job of accepting Christina’s body shape and helping her feel good about herself as opposed to making her feel like she needs to change.

Where some might criticize What Not to Wear, they do a good job at empowering women and helping them feel better about themselves. Watching this episode and others in the past, the end of the show is almost always positive. The women feel great about themselves in real life situations, not just when going to a party or a big event. They often end up having a new feminine side they are often excited to show off to their friends and family. They have a new appreciation for themselves and have confidence that was not present before their makeover. To be able to have self confidence is one of the most difficult things for women in today’s society. What Not to Wear helps many women overcome the low self esteem some say they have or simply give those that do not have low self esteem extra confidence they did not know they had within them.

Posted by Kelsey Buckley at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

‘Project Runway’ has typically been called an “un-reality” reality television program since it purports to be a contest literally based upon one’s skill, yet it is also a reality television program intrinsically bound up in the industry itself – that is, whatever skill you may have, you have to be marketable, and marketable to a specific audience that ranges from Nicky Hilton to the “sophisticated” women who shop at Banana Republic. As if it’s not blatant, the marketable audience is a white audience. Therefore when I saw several reruns of the second season, I paid specific attention to the token black designer, Zulema Griffin; it may also be key to note that Griffin is a dark-skinned black woman, not light-skinned. To note: Asian women are often featured, though they are edited to appear docile, hardworking, and relatively silent (Season 2 winner Chloe Dao had perhaps one sequence, which focused on her feelings on being referred to as a "patternmaker (aka seamstress)" rather than a designer – so despite her chops, which garnered her the win, she was not flashy enough to be a persona of note). It is two specific episodes that I think embody the idea that a television program bound up in fashion, where black womens’ bodies are commodified as objects, it is the occupation of the creative position that dredges up messy questions of gender, race, sexuality, and class, and how the reality machine works to create biased, contrived portraits of their contestants.
In doing some background work on Griffin, I discovered an interview she did with The Advocate in which she talks about how her lesbianism was completely written out of the show, yet, when she applied as a contestant, they required dating history “10 years back.” She stated not thinking it was of any import whether she was a lesbian or not, but in the assumption that the male contestants on season 2, including Tim Gunn, their mentor/critic, and Michael Kors, one of the mainstay panel judges, there is no shying away from the fact that there is an unspoken norm that gay men seem to inherently “belong” in the fashion industry. In a telling scene, Griffin is pitted as hooks’ “Sapphire” (hooks, 202) against fellow contestant, and gay man, Nick, wherein he continually refers to her as a “bitch” for stealing his model. In yet another episode, Griffin is teamed with fellow white female designer, Kara, and Griffin’s incessant nagging and hard-assing reduces her to tears, and near inability to function. In short, rather than being played off to soften an [absent] black man, Griffin was shored up as a controlling Sapphire, and relentless at that; however, it seems merely to me that she is forced to fight to be taken seriously as a black lesbian designer in an industry that wants their designers largely white, and often men, and their gay designers almost solely in the form of white men.
The episode in which Griffin is “Auf-ed,” the challenge is to use “inspiration” to make a garment. She photographs a black woman on the street wearing a dashiki, and utilizes the inspiration of African form and tradition to make a dress. She is chastised for its “frumpiness,” stating that it doesn’t – altogether now! – make the model look thin[ner], as it just a "sack (aversion to not specifically Euro-Western design)" and is therefore criticized for being technically inferior. Tim Gunn states that her failure was in using “another dress” as her inspiration, rather than something wholly new (denying the meaning behind her inspirational choice as a black woman). The most telling parallel for me in explaining this aspect of design is in the 3rd season when Michael, the token black designer and crowd favorite (as opposed to Griffin as Sapphire), is continually told that his skill is in “sportswear,” and that he shouldn’t bother with “evening wear.” This brings up the argument Ann duCille makes in saying that the “Black ain’t yar; it’s yo,’” and that the black body “is quintessentially cast(e) as...the ‘low-Other.’” (duCille, “The Colour of Class: Classifying Race in the Popular Imagination,” 412) In short, Griffin was in a way doomed to be relegated to designing street wear at best, and her attempts at high fashion, or haute couture were misunderstood because it is simply unimaginable to think of couture as anything but white (it was the couture challenge that nearly “Auf-ed” Michael). (Ibid, 410)
To speak of lesbianism for a moment, if “fashion” without any addendums is read in part as gay, what would lesbian fashion look like? According to Guy Treaby of the NY Times, “It is the subtle incorporation of butch femme dualities...into mainstream fashion that most clearly signals the influence of gay women in the garment industry,” and the mixing of “street and high-end fashion,” creating a “tomboy glamour.” (Treaby, “The Subtle Power of Lesbian Style,” 1-2) It is the same trite notion that being gay implies being able to draw equally from masculinity and femininity, and that gay/lesbian fashion will be a natural incorporation of the two: yet, while lesbian designers (I’m assuming these lesbians are white) are apparently working over womenswear to make it meatier, gay designers (at least on PR) are given free reign to glam up women (since menswear is not part of the competition in general). So, where does Griffin fit into this industry? In my mind, the competition gives her a canned role as a controlling black woman unwilling (or incapable) to sway to the demands of the show and its prescribed “level” of design, yet it also seems a result of simply, not quite knowing what to do with her. If high fashion is so strictly white, male, and by extension gay, then where is a black woman lesbian identity to fit? Relegated again to the lower echelons, she is booted off the show as an example of the ‘low-Other’ whose inability to ‘pass,’ or fit into codified notions of the industry, simply cast her aside.

Posted by Beth Chekola at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Over the Thanksgiving break I spend about 30 minutes watching an old rerun of The Real World: Austin. Their show starts off by an introduction which claims that “this is the true story of seven strangers picked to live in a house and have their lives taped. Find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.” In my personal opinion I thought the show was extremely superficial in regarding to how “real” their lives were suppose to be. The show to me is very phony because a lot of what we see on T.V is edited to make it look like it all happened in a certain timeline. All the houses have cameras everywhere, and there's a clause in the contract of each housemate that says they're not allowed to go places where the cameras are not allowed in. Having cameras everywhere, I would assume that everyone puts on a certain act. Anyway in the show, there was a lot of drama, arguing, fighting, bitching, sex with strangers and drunkness. Throughout the show, the seven people living in the house demonstrates the concept that gender is indeed socially constructed and performed through their behaviors, how they carry themselves, what they wear, how they speak and what they do.

The episode that I watched was basically about one girl by the name of Johanna who is unclear about her love between Wes and a local bartender. On the subject matter of gender performance, Johanna was always emotional and did a lot of crying because she didn’t really know what she wants whereas Wes was always aggressive and acted tough and masculine. This image represents the stereotypes that women are weak and fragile whereas men are strong and stable.

Whenever going out, all the girls (except for one) are dressed in short mini-skirts, revealing tops and in high heels. The girl who didn’t wear such clothing (whose name is Lacey) was obviously the least popular one in the house and she is what I would consider to fall in the category of cultural imperialism. As Iris Marion Young stated in The Scaling of Bodies and the Politics of Identity, “cultural imperialism consists in a group’s being invisible at the same time that it is marked out and stereotyped.” Lacy is consider as deviant or the other just because she isn’t girly and feminine enough and as a result the guy in the house find her to be ugly and unattractive (hence the fact that all the other girls have some sort of relationship/bond with the guys in the house except for her). Regarding to look, The Real World has never hire a girl who is fat for the show and it seems like the show is always trying to add at least one person of color (tokenism) to downplay diversity. All in all, throughout the show it’s evident that the girls act in a different way from the guys. The girl being girlish and the man being manly. This goes to prove that the way people act reinforce their gender status as what it is to be a women or a men and as Tara Kachgal quoted “like talk shows, reality television potentially puts into questions rigid orthodoxies supporting “proper” gender and sexual identities” (The Real World).

Posted by Pang Xiong at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Shocked really doesn’t describe my feeling towards the way this reality television show projects beauty-- ashamed might come close, but appalled would be much more accurate.
This show follows two doctors, Dr. Ray and Dr. Diamond, through their patriarchal practices in Beverly Hills as they help their patients become ‘normal,’ and ‘perfect.’
What is considered perfect inside this fabricated TV. world is disgusting-- both the doctors home lives (which are detailed to fill time during the show) are mirrors of this negative image. For example, multiple times throughout the episode Dr. Ray makes note of his ‘93 pound’ wife as genetically blessed, then continues to ignore her on all other fronts. She is merely there to give the show one more pretty face, or perhaps attract viewers by displaying the humiliation caused by her marriage-- either way her role in the episode causes a saddened headshake. Dr. Diamond makes less of a show of his trophy wife, but in this episode he was trying to convince her to quit her job (also a practicing physician) so she could stay home and take care of their childless new house. This show screams backward, and reflects the increasing problems our society has with how they look.
The two people actually receiving surgery procedures were west coast exotic dancers. They both felt the surgeries would increase the amount of money that they made at work by giving them the ability to feel sexier and more confident on stage. Jay wanted his nose straight, and Liz wanted new breast implants. Both patients were coerced by their doctors into a larger procedure than originally planed. For Jay it was a new chin, and for Liz it was a much bigger implant than she had planned on.
It made sense to read that the number of plastic surgery procedures has increased over the past twenty years, but I couldn’t believe how much. According to the Bordo article the number of annual procedures in ’89 was around 700,000 while twelve years later that number had jumped to 8.5 million. She attributed the increase to the willingness of doctors to commit procedures purely for aesthetic reasons, and not actual health benefits. The way Dr. Ray and Dr. Diamond push their practice of perfection on their patients reflects that trend.
Even without a barrage of tasteless commercials and advertisements, Dr. 90210 pumps an unrealistic, unhealthy, and unobtainable body image onto its viewers. What I want to know is why people are tuning into such a show? Is it actually believed that this type of entertainment has no effect on people? Look at what happened in Fiji-- look what is happening here. The correlations are not hard to make, but the public continues to tune in. WHY?

blog augmentation:::

okay, so I watched this episode two more times in order to catch some of the context and form aspects of it and now I'm even more disgusted with TV than before. As far as filmic construction goes, I noticed that all the shots in-between scenes where either of expensive cars, or headless skirts gyrating down the beverly hills sidewalk. Also, the time spent telling the story of the female dancer was over twice that of the time spent telling the back-story of the male dancer. I guess cop uniforms and latin spandex don't get the ratings that pole lessons and censor blurs do.... or is there something else going on here??
This led me to wonder about context-- who was benefiting from this show, and it was quite interesting to find out that at the end of this atrocity of an episode no credits rolled. Are the producers embarrassed? Are the writers ashamed?
Fortunately for me I am now finished with this assignment and can once again go back to ignoring all the mind mutation that goes on between viewer and television screen. However, I thought I'd leave this electronic space with two quotes just to document why I turn my head from primetime.

dr. diamond in regard's to jay's nose:

" your chin is a little bit weak, i think an implant would really give you a more masculine look"

dr. rey in regard's to liz's chest (okay i have two for him because this guy was wacked out)

(while liz is under the knife) "just look at how ugly that is... ugly. ugly. ugly."
(post surgery interview) "in about a month liz's swelling will go down, and she'll have that really beautiful seventeen year old look"

WHAT THE YUCK!!!!-- and i'll just leave it at that.

Posted by Fletcher Barnhill at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Myra Mendible, in “Humiliation, Subjectivity, and Reality TV,” writes that in 1996, Avaishai Margalit said, “humiliation involves treating human beings as if they were ‘merely things, tools, animals, sub-humans, or inferior humans.’” In “America’s Next Top Model,” the contestants could not fit this definition more perfectly. They are not “people” (although Tyra’s infrequent bonding/therapy sessions with the girls may have you think otherwise). They are “models.” They are there to stretch and morph and make-up their bodies and faces until they look like a product, a tool, for selling clothes. They are told throughout the series, by judges, photographers, and fashion designers, that they are “canvases,” blank slates, there to be molded into the client’s vision, regardless of the actual person and emotions and intellect beneath the skin. They are tools. The means to an end.

And they are often humiliated. Alessandra Stanley wrote in the New York Times in 2002, “humiliation is the unifying principle behind a successful reality show.” In “America’s Next Top Model,” the contestants are constantly shown as stupid, inept, and odd, despite being recognized for a perceived beauty. In front of judges, they’re critiqued for not having enough personality. For making a biting comment to a photographer. For being too “porn-star looking” or “boring” or “adolescent.” In photo shoots, where they’re made to pose in painful looking, odd, poses, sometimes in front of wide animals, like a bull, which often causes them to run in fear, and appear idiotic on screen. When learning how to walk down a runway, they’re laughed at and made fun of when their walks aren’t up to par. And the viewers, along with the show’s judges, often laugh along, enjoying watching these “beautiful” women display their imperfections, thus making the audience feel better about themselves.

The women are also blatantly ranked, in a “scaling of bodies” that is, ultimately, the point of “America’s Next Top Model.” Not only do the judges rank the contestants bodies, but in Episode 10, of season seven, the models are asked to point out, in front of each other, which model they think has the most and least potential. In this way, the contestants are forced to rank and demean each other, a move that causes distress for the women who live and work together on the show, and ultimately, more drama for the viewers at home to salivate at.

Posted by Kristen Mueller at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Reality TV show entitled “The Girls Next Door” is a show in which cameras follow around three playmates, Bridget, Kendra, and Holly, as they live their lives in the playboy mansion. All three of the women are about the same height, have long smooth and shiny blonde hair and have all admitted to having boob jobs. The three playmates act like they are ‘above’ everyone else in the sense that they are the queens of their castle, the playboy mansion. The three women have three different personalities. Bridget is the girly girl who loves the color pink, cute little animals, and talks in a very high pitch voice. Kendra is the athletic girl who loves to talk about sports and can be seen as the “bitchy” girl who is often times complaining. Holly is the “housewife” type girl who wears pearls and acts as a mother figure to the other two girls and is shown to be actually dating Hefner. Even though the women are shown to be more then one dimensional, none of the women cook, do any housework or work of any kind so they can be seen to be utterly ‘useless’ without their looks which is the only thing that the women need to worry about. The main thing that these three women have in common is that in the show they are constantly showing off their bodies in some form or another in every outfit that they wear, which illustrates the shows dominant male gaze. To sum up the type of people that are on the show these four main characters all share the same intersectionality by being all white, rich, and straight. Iris Marion Young’s article “The Scaling of Bodies” is a perfect article to explain this TV show’s situation of narrowing down the ‘acceptable’ appearance of women to a slim minority. The three women are shown as the perfect example of what sexy women ‘should’ look like and how in effect these women should act. There are no women on the show that are above as size 4 in pant size and below a C-cup in bra size. The way that these women are ranked is only on the appearance of their bodies. Even though Bridget, Kendra, and Holly are each shown to have different personalities whenever Hefner is in the room all the women kiss him, smile at him, and agree with whatever he says or tells them to do. The episode that I chose to watch was one called “Fight Night” in which the playboy mansion hosts a night of boxing matches and invites all kinds of sports people and celebrities. During “Fight Night” the women literally transform into objects or animals (the bunny) when they put on their bunny costumes and pose for the cameras while holing signs that say “Round One” or “Round Two” of the boxing match. In one scene where a male sports star approaches Hefner to shake his hand he completely blows of the three women even when they look at him and smile as they shake his hand. The ironic part of this scene was that Hefner had no idea who the man was and Kendra the sports fanatic had followed this man’s career and was just dying to meet him. However since Kendra was a playboy bunny the man obviously treated her as an unimportant object and passed her by in order to talk to Hefner. Another aspect of this episode is that the outer appearance of the women boxers and the playboy bunnies are bluntly compared when Hefner’s old girlfriend from the 60’s says to her sex therapist, “Are those girls?” while pointing to the women boxers. This section of the show sends the message that if you don’t look like a playboy bunny then you will be assumed to be more masculine then feminine. In this episode along with appearance discrimination there is age discrimination. Hefner admits to not dating women over the age of 24. This sends a message to the viewer that being young is always seen as better then being older because men like younger women better than older women. Another aspect of the show is that no males are shown on screen unless there is an attractive woman in the same shot. This further proves the male gaze dominates the show’s production.
The film theory aspects of the show enhance the beauty of the women. There is always high-key lighting that allows the women’s bodies to be shown off in every shot. There is also some backlighting used in one scene with the playmate Bridget where she is shown as particularly innocent with a halo of light surrounding her long blonde hair coming from an open window in her pink themed room. A Long shot and a medium close-up shot are the main types of camera techniques used. The long shot allows the women’s full bodies to be seen from head to toe and the close-up shot is used during the commentary of the women who talk directly at the camera in a type of interview/diary part of the show where they share their feelings about what is going on at the moment. Medium close-up shots are used rather than close-up shots because the viewer ‘has’ to be able to see the playmate’s breasts in every scene, even in the commentary part of the show. Also a high angle shot is used most often when the playmates are in a scene so that the viewer can see more of the upper cleavage and down into the playmate’s shirts, allowing the viewer to have a voyeuristic gaze. Directive sound or live sound is used because the TV show is shot like a documentary where the cameras follow the subjects around filming them at all times.

Posted by Stephanie Scott at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

The reality t.v. show I decided to watch was a rerun of the season 2 finale of the Flavor of Love show. For those not familiar with this show, it is about an old rapper named Flavor Flav and he is looking for a girlfriend. There's about 10 to maybe 12 women staying in his mansion with him and they are competing against each other to be his one and only. In the finale, there were two women left, New York and Deelishis. I find this show highly disgusting and a horrible reputation for women. When it comes to the "gaze", it is almost impossible to argue that the gaze is not a male gaze. You can see the camera zooming in on the women's bodies as they are in bathing suits or kissing Flav and on top of him. I also noticed this notion of the Jezebel, which is a concept developed by Kimberly Springer in her article "Waiting to Set It Off". The Jezebel is a slut, whose presence is to only serve the sexual needs of a male counterpart. The women on the show would have sex with Flav. A lot of the women seemed to not care about their bodies or their self-dignity. The black women on the show just further represented the stereotypes in today's society and were a great disappointment to me being that I am a black woman. They were loud, ghetto, and violent, and some portrayed themselves as easy hoes. They represented what Springer also called the Sapphire. Although the show did have some white women in it, I just think it was a further breakdown in the representation of black women. All this show did was further concur society's painting of black women: voluptous body and violent.

Posted by Alexandria Grim at 09:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While watching America’s Next Top Model earlier this week, I became fascinated and appalled with it. A show about young women competing for a top modeling career, America’s Next Top Model is promoting female self reliance, but in a patriarchal structure based upon an ideal perfection of their greatest asset, the body. Tyra Banks, world famous model, talk show host, and executive producer of the show, mentors these young women on how to make it in the modeling system; giving advice to achieve perfection, she helps build self-esteem and confidence in the girls before each shoot. But soon comes the humiliation in dissection of each girls shoot. I do not believe this humiliation is unnecessary or particularly bad. Each participant is striving to show her full worth for this job; they all knew what they would be in for. As stated in another blog, its like an extended job interview, and the critique is what helps to refine the girls’ skills. Mary Mendible states that one, “ Must know s/he is being humiliated and the perpetrator must be willfully exercising that power.” Tyra as a perpetrator is truly aiding these girls by humiliating them to promote progress, but its unfortunate that it is so harsh; or so it seems. The reality of these RTV shows is not necessarily all that goes on behind the scenes. It is pretty well known that hundreds of hours of footage are taken, and only a fraction are selected to be shown, but this is what makes it interesting for the viewer. The writers and producers of the show tweak the footage to create an engaging drama that will bring in the money. The camera angles, lighting and timeline of final piece are very constructed, giving the viewer a very unreal reflection of the true reality of these girls lives. They are constantly bombarded with cameras (made up of male gazes), exposed to harsh instigated drama between the participants (intended destruction of others) and striving for the title of the ideal beauty(which is all a matter of perspective). “The film image,” as McCabe states, seeks, “to naturalise what is only a projection of patriarchal ideology.” These girls are submitting themselves to the undervaluation of women in order to succeed. Many are forced to give up their morals in order to win the competition based on patriarchal ideology, an ideology in which they will never be the permanent best.

Posted by Stephanie Hagen at 09:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The reality television show that I watched this week was the show America’s Next Top Model. This is a show that takes the desperation of women to become “something big”. This show allows women to humiliate themselves in the hopes that they may become America’s Next Top Model.

As disgusting as this show is to sit through and watch I must admit that I have a strange addiction to it and I must watch this show every week. I really do not understand my obsession with the show because the way it is shown to the audience is something that is suppose to be inspirational to women, but it actually makes you feel kind of horrible about yourself. The show makes you feel horrible about yourself because it shows these women with the impossible body types, yet they are suppose to be real women from around the world that have somehow achieved this perfect body type.

When it comes to the gaze of the show, I believe it is definitely a male gaze. I really do not see this show empowering women, but rather it breaks them down. I have been watching this show for a while and in almost every season that have one “real” woman in the season. One episode from this season they had one girl, Anchal, who was bigger than the other girls on the show, however still a tiny women, and all the other “models” talked about how fat she was and how her body was not good enough to be a model. Another illustration of how this show is shown through a male gaze is the choice of pictures that they take of the girls. In the very first episode of the season there first photo shot was a naked photo shot. The girls had to sit naked in front of the world and directly in front of many individuals they did not know. This sounds somewhat empowering, to the fact they are taking charge of their sexuality, however most were uncomfortable, and when they did not want to do it they had to worry about getting kicked off the show.

Posted by Amanda Amundson at 08:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

The reality show I watched was the premiere episode of the second season of Breaking Bonaduce. The show chronicles the relationship between Danny Bonaduce, and his wife Gretchen. Last season Dany was drunk, high, and 'roided up. He went to rehab, and hopefully got his marriage back on track. This episode mostly featured Danny's trip to Mexico, but recaped many off the events of the first season. The highlight being when Danny is enraged that his wife is attending a bachelorette party with male strippers. This is extremely hypocritical, as in addition to the drugs and booze, Danny is also a sex addict, and has cheated on her in the past.
The gaze is used a lot in a scene where they recap Danny almost cheating on his wife the last season. The camera travels around a bar lingering on nearly every scantily clad woman. It is so over the top that for most of the girls you never see their face. The camera pans up and down focusing on their legs and breasts.
Breaking Bonaduce is part of VH-1's Celebreality group of shows. Like most of these shows it was heavily influenced by shows like The Osbournes, and The Surreal Life. These shows are really at their best when the people are acting nuts. At this point these shows are so commonplace on TV, that the crazy antics on all the shows often times seem like performance.
The crazy antics are also lacking in this episode. The second half of the program showed brief clips of how crazy Danny will be in the future episodes. In these scenes Danny is tossed out of the house, only to have Gretchen bring him back. The show portray's Gretchen as a victim of Danny's overbearing personality. This is highlighted in the scene that concludes the show where she and their therapist gang up on Danny for being nuts. I don't know if he ever hit her, but Gretchen seems to have battered wives syndrome, she keeps going on with this loser. I wonder if it is all performance on both their parts. Gretchen plays the part well. The audience sympathy is with her, but why should it be? Clearly it is in her best interest financially to stay with him, the reality show is produced by both of them, and the show only works if he has something to go crazy about (her).
I woulld say that overall that the show does not portray women in the best light. They are either seen as sex objects, or with Gretchen as an almost willing victim in what appears to be an awful marriage.

Posted by Alexander Holler at 08:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I recently watched one of my friends old recordings of an episode of the Real World: Key West, which I haven't seen. I have watched bits and pieces of the show from time to time, but not in a steady manner because I never really got into reality tv. While watching the show, I took notice in the way that all of the characters represent stereotypes that typically clash with the other personalities on the show. In this season of the Real World, there is a group of four guys and three girls. One girl has an eating disorder and is very emotional (she also has an