Thursday 24 January 2013

Critical Investigation: Task #6

To what extent and why are women within constructed reality TV shows such as ‘The only way is Essex’ represented in a negative way?

To a large extent woman within reality TV shows are seen as represented in a negative way as having no common sense and being sex objects. They are also seen as women who lack education & ambitions “as producers create a universe were women not only don't have real choices but don’t even want any.”[1]
Constructed reality TV shows are all known to represent women in this way portraying females today “including stereotypes that most people would have assumed got left behind 35 years ago.”[2]
The real question is the reasons why producers represent women from this genre in such way. Some would believe that “The rise of reality TV came at a time when networks were looking for a quick fix solution to economic problems within the cultural industries”[3] this allows us to argue that the representations of women are false representations that are highly exaggerated so that they could hide real issues such as economic problems. Whereas, Laura Mulvey argued that objectifying women in an image is for the pleasure of men while women are seen as icons.
A vast majority of the time constructed reality TV is seen as really popular genre which makes us rethink if women are actually even taking offence to the representations or even if they disagree with it. It makes us question “what do reality TV producers want us to believe about ourselves and about ‘our place’ in society.” [4]


[1] Pozner, J. L. (2010). Reality bites back: the troubling truth about guilty pleasure TV. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press :.

[2] Ibid

[3] Hill, A. (2005). Reality TV: audiences and popular factual television. London: Routledge.

[4] Pozner, J. L. (2010). Reality bites back: the troubling truth about guilty pleasure TV. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press :.

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