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Friday, February 24, 2017
Week Five: Response 5.4
Cite a few of Pozner’s examples of racial or ethnic
stereotypes in reality TV.What is
problematic about broadcasting these depictions of “reality” into homes
nationwide?
In Chapter 5: Race and Ethnicity, Pozner cites several racial stereotypes Black people are shoehorned into on RTV; tropes such as the Sapphire or the Mammy which gives impressionable audiences an unrealistic impression of African Americans. Specifically, Sapphires are purposely portrayed as “‘rude, loud, malicious, stubborn, overbearing,’” on television to promote drama and ratings on reality television (166). This sends a problematic overarching message that Black people are violent – which is coincidentally the argument ignorant people use against the Black Lives Matter movement where said people (who’ve likely never interacted with many people of color before) believe the murder of black adolescents is justified because they were being too “thuggish” or appeared “violent” based on their understanding of race through the messages they digest from RTV. Another archetype manifests itself in the form of the Mammy, “in which Black women play fawning domestic servants, cooks, and surrogate mothers for white people;’” a dangerous concept when taken in context that this trope stems from the roots of slavery and Black oppression, and is usually depicted in various forms of media to assuage white feelings on the tricky subject of slavery (e.g. not all Black people were opposed to slavery because here we have a Black woman taking care of this white family she clearly loves and is not being forced to care for under ulterior motives). A modern day example of this would be the Aunt Jemima pancake brand logo, normalized and integrated into everyday life despite the character being based on the Mammy archetype. Further stereotyping comes to play once Flavor of Love airs, further pushing controversial boundaries thanks to its host, Flavor Flav, who was picked due to his ability to play up negative stereotypes attributed to Black people. With the airing of Flavor of Love comes the rise of another archetype, the Jezebel, where Black women are hypersexualized and dehumanized via becoming a sex object rather than a person, which, when translated into real world messages, undermines the accomplishments and feats of Black women in favor of ranking them based on aesthetic appeal only. Of course, while racial and ethnic stereotypes also bleed over into other people of color (e.g. Asian and Latinx people being treated as from the same country and completely overriding cultural diversity or personal voice or the vilification of people from Middle Eastern countries due to dramatic propagandist retelling of war films), Pozner primarily focuses on the issues plaguing the Black community regarding unrealistic representations (which is even more of an issue considering that a lot of big media is controlled by white people). While many, many people (although not all) can probably comprehend the over dramatic behavior on reality television is an untrue portrayal of real world people and events, and while people and representation on television doesn’t speak for an entire demographic or community as a whole, these messages presented to the general audience is still an issue considering how scarce representation comes for people of color compared to representation for white people. Furthermore, a lot of negative portrayals regarding people of color either: a) further fuel racist and or prejudiced sentiment within openly racist/prejudiced people or b) further ingrain low key racism and or prejudice within everyday people through the constant and consistent depiction of a group of people in a set manner. The dimensionality of people can’t be understood or captured through one or two “features” or characteristics attached to a person, and only serves to turn a diverse group into a caricature of itself, making it easier to dehumanize said racial/ethnic group.
When VH1 started their series “The Flavor of Love” with Flavor Flav, they created an extremely racist reality television stereotype for African Americans. This spin off to the almost entirely white cast of the Bachelor depicted black men as womanizing, ex-criminal looking to find love with women who were depicted as Jezebels. These women typically had a background in sex work and often were found fighting or trying win over Flavor Flav’s heart by finding their way into his bed. The problem with this depiction is that this reality television gives viewers a false sense of reality that is actually manipulated to get the most viewings. This meant broadcasting this “reality” into all American homes causing people to believe that this is how all African Americans act. White viewers were watching this show and thinking that Flavor Flav was a sad and laughable version of the Bachelor. Also, believed that these women were classless and thus these people were the representations of all African Americans to them. African American viewers were watching this because it was the only show in which they saw people that looked like them. Whether or not they themselves connected with the women or men on them. Because of the enormous amount of ratings, this show went on to create a sequel and even when that sequel was taken off air for its criticism, the stereotype that VH1 had previously set still exists with shows on their channel as well as other channels now. These reality stars continue to create negative stereotypes of the African American community. The Bachelor/Bachelorette has its first African American Bachelorette an it will be interesting to see if the stereotype carries on to this Cinderella show The overreaching problem these stereotypes create is that in a society that claims everyone is equal, all forms of racism still exist. There have been studies done to see if people have an internal bias and most people do whether they think they are racist or not. This bias and even more extreme forms of racism present in police brutality and shooting as well as criminalization of neighborhoods is not helped by the racial stereotypes presented in black television. Not only does the lack of African American television shows exist, but the ones that do exist present African Americans as violent, womanizing, hypersexual, ignorant, and many more negative stereotypes.
“On The Bachelor, white women get to play Cinderella. On Flavor of Love, Black women get to play maids.” (Pozner pg.161). Sadly, this has been typical of the role Black women, and indeed, all women of color, ‘get’ to play in recent iterations of Reality Television. Not that it was better before Flavor of Love which debuted in 2006. Before 2006, people of color were relegated to stereotypical roles where their main purpose was typically racist comedic relief, stuck in tired old tropes such as playing the ‘Mammy,’ the ‘Sapphire,’ or the ‘Jezebel,’ all of which were coined in the 1800’s to reinforce the social norm of the time. The one glimmer of hope; that small, small, silver lining, indeed truly the only good thing to come out of Flavor of Love, is that it opened the door. Today, there are Sitcoms such as Blackish, Jane the Virgin, Dr. Ken, etc. that don’t bill their characters as ‘[They] happen to be black,’ or ‘[They’re] kind of Asian,’ but rather as ‘They are Black,’ ‘They are Asian,’ and this is their story. Granted the above are comedies, and racial humor is no doubt used to great effect, but they give a more realistic representation of people of color than anything available on the market today. For all the progress made with Sitcoms, there seems to be no real, appreciable advances made with Reality TV itself. Women of color are still tokenized on shows such as The Bachelor, and are frequently broken down, shown to be vulnerable, and swiftly kicked off the show. Others such as Survivor are also predominantly white, where the minority cast members are pigeonholed into specific roles, the Latina women are tough, rugged and are often described as ‘feisty,’ the Black women are portrayed as catty and bitchy, and the Asian women are portrayed as frail and quiet, almost always deferring to male judgement. The problem with these portrayals is quite obvious; we as people are as different in personality from one another as Earth is geographically different from Jupiter. If we keep representing women and people of color as defined by their stereotypes, that is all that people, indeed society, will think of them, nothing but what we’ve been shown our entire lives through the narrow, heavily doctored window that is ‘Reality’ Television.
When it comes to reality television, black women are stereotyped as being loud, violent, uneducated, ghetto, or even maids. For example, on the reality show Flavor of Love, casts members were given names such as Buckeey, Nibblz, Like Dat, New York, and Hoopz. These names that were given to the cast is one example that shows how Flavor of Love was a mockery and embarrassment to African Americans. Flavor of Love was the first reality television show put on air for African American viewers. Before Flavor of Love, reality tv was dominated by predominantly white people. Ironically enough, white people are casted in reality shows such as The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, which ends in a nice little prince charming/cinderella story. When looking at tv shows that have African American female cast members, black women get thrown into one of five categories: The Black Bitch, The Entitled Diva, The Hoochie Mama, The Ghetto Girl, and The Mammy. Viewing reality tv and thinking about “The Black Bitch” the first woman that came to my mind was Omarosa from The Apprentice. Although she was a very accomplished, educated black woman who graduated from Howard University, she was overshadowed by the role that was assigned to her for the world to see through reality television-- a bitch. If a black woman is not portrayed on reality tv as a bitch, she is portrayed as a mammy. A mammy is a house slave that loves to take care of the white folks. In the media, the mammy is usually portrayed to be obese, uneducated maids. When I think of The Mammy, the first movie that comes to my mind is Big Mommas House. In that movie, Big Momma (African American obese elderly lady) is good for cooking, cleaning, and babysitting for wealthy white families. If a African American female is not being portrayed as a Mammy, she is most likely being portrayed as the complete opposite role. The biggest portrayal given to black women in my opinion is the Jezebel portrayal. The Jezebel portrayal is the hypersexual black temptress who has animalistic sexual behaviors. Majority of black women on reality tv are portrayed to be a “hoochie” or a “hoe”. People of different races who live nationwide are seeing these stereotypical negative portrayals of African American women. This is very problematic because these people who view these reality shows start to generalize that all African American women act that way, which is simply not true.
Pozner produces a plethora of racial and ethnic stereotypes all throughout chapter five. Pozner proceeds to show us a range of positively enforced and negatively enforced stereotypes prevalent all throughout Reality TV. Starting “on The Bachelor, white women get to play Cinderella. On Flavor of Love, Black women get to play maids” (Pozner 161). We find that most white cast driven RTV shows tend to put white men and women in more favorable lights such as Joe Millionaire or Who Wants to Marry My Dad?. They make the men charming, handsome, wealthy and more importantly white! In turn its ethnic counterparts such as Tila Tequila or Flavor of Love make people of color look obscene, foul and uneducated. Women of color are even more stereotyped and submitted to this intersecting oppression. America’s Next Top Model portraying Black women as angry and/or bitchy and Tila Tequila fetishizing and giving Asian women a light of being low brow (Pozner 166-168). The problem with these stereotypes is they perpetuate and negative cycle of marginalizing people of color. Broadcasting shows such as these into homes nationwide leads to a false representation of people of color that further oppress them. Making it probable that false information or stereotypes are distributed to a general public that may have yet to interact with this marginalized group; leading to further misrepresentation. It also puts people of color in a particular bind: either watch and support these shows out of fear of losing all representation or choosing to not support these shows and risk actually losing representation. These RTV shows continue to enforce and solidify a white patriarchal society’s dominance. To further perpetuate that being successful, desirable and/or approachable only comes to those who are white, middle to upper class, able-bodied, cis gendered males. Victoria L.
Reality show’s are more popular than ever in this day and age. As of today there are thousands of different reality shows for the typical viewer. There are reality shows about cooking, cleaning, renovating, losing weight, plastic surgery, celebrities, waiters and waitresses, housewives, and even reality shows about finding love just to name a few. Out of the thousands of reality shows that have been there have been plenty of controversial reality shows. Perhaps one of the most controversial reality tv shows was VH1’s Flavor Of Love starring Flavor Flav. Flavor of Love was one of the most controversial reality shows in reality show history. The show was centered around 90s hype man Flavor Flav who was on his quest to find “love”. He was accompanied by twenty other women (who notably were all half his age) who all were vying for his love. One of the many attributes this show is known for is being the “black bachelor”. It was marketed as “being like the bachelor but for African Americans and other people of color”. A majority of the women were portrayed in a highly sexualized way. From the beginning they were stripped of their names and given peculiar nicknames such as New York, Pumpkin, Rain, Hottie, Red Oyster, and Hoopz. Some of these women were in college, some had already completed their college careers, some were former sex workers, and some were just working to make a living. Yet none of that mattered to the producers of this show and neither mattered to Flavor Flav. The women on these shows were portrayed as sex crazed, crazy, neurotic, dumb, hopeless romantics who wanted nothing but Flavor Flav. It didn’t matter that he was sleeping with a new girl nearly every night or they fact that he was entertaining 20 women at once. It’s not that this show was racist because it was made to be like a “black bachelor” it was racist because it reinforced so many preconceived stereotypes and did nothing to fight them. When people at home would watch this show and watch the way these women were portrayed and the way these women would act they would just feed into the stereotypes that already surround many african americans, asians, and latinos. On the first episode of the season “Red Oyster” is asked what type of asian she is. When she replies and says “filipino” she almost immediately is asked “Ling Ling can you do my nails”. In an effort to try and go along with the “joke” she replies by saying “that's the koreans not the filipinos”. That is just one of the examples of the numerous racial and ethnic stereotypes that are displayed throughout this show and even often are passed as “jokes”. One of the only white contestants nicknamed Apple's even states in the beginning of the first episode “I don't know if I necessarily fit in with some of the other girls….i’m not ghetto”. As she was saying this in her confessional the camera would pan in and out focus in on the other contestants. Only showing the African American contestants. One thing to note is that this was one of the only predominantly African American cast. It is problematic when this is displayed as “reality” into homes nationwide because it isn’t reality. When people at home would only see a certain group of people portrayed in a certain way they are more inclined to believe that it is how that group must act all the time and that is not the case. That is why it is problematic that this is portrayed as “reality” because it isn’t. This is problematic because it isn’t reality despite being called “reality tv”. Many viewers at home don’t seem to understand that a majority of the stuff that happens on these shows are fake or exaggerated by the producers and the contestants on the show for rating purposes.
Racial and Ethnic Stereotypes are deeply entrenched in mainstream media—most specifically in Reality Television. If anything was considered to be “real” on “reality television,” it would be the injustice that women faced who did not appeal to the favorable demographics imposed by the producers of reality television. This meant that minorities and those who were not part of the dominant culture were either not cast at all or if they were, they were ridiculed, humiliated, and then eventually sent home. The most infamous racial and ethnic archetype is the “Sapphires.” The Sapphires represent the “Angry Black Women.” This is intended to represent the supposed “ghetto” and “irrational” women. Casting directors value the “Angry Black Women,” because they represent “Good TV,” in the initial phase of the bickering and arguments and the ultimate depression that ensues as they ultimately become eliminated. For instance, through the depictions of Tyra Banks schizophrenic messages, many contestants were subjected to these racial and ethnic stereotypes. The most infamous case was that of Tiffany Richardson. Richardson was specifically cast as the “angry black woman.” She was not only humiliated and sent home. She then was brought back because of that appeal and then sent home once more in the most infamous scene on reality television about Tyra “rooting,” for her. By demeaning Richardson’s class status and her lack of retrieving opportunities, Tyra’s personality then became that of the “angry black woman.” Another contestant that faced injustice as a result of her ethnicity and race was Kelly Jacob. Coming from an affluent family background, the complete opposite of Richardson, one would assume they would generally have a different experience. However, this proved to be anything but true. Jacob was demeaned and compared to that of a monkey—primal aspects and all. The most intriguing and in a sense ironic effect this had was the fact that it was her lips she hated. The lips that once voiced her confidence had now been silenced by those who attempted to break down her confidence. As Pozner stated, “They’ve created a universe in which women not only have no real choices, they don’t even want any.” (Page 25) This is dangerous to viewers at home because it reinforces the notion that only one type of women is deemed acceptable and that the individuals both on and watching the show are NOT considered that woman. This perpetuates the idea that minorities are unfavorable and do not belong on reality television. In rainbows, it’s the combination of all the colors side by side that make it beautiful, no one color outshines the other, why can’t it be the same with women?
Reality TV does a fantastic job at misinforming the public about how women are expected to look. In many shows, such as America’s Next Top Model, being extremely thin is applauded. Viewers of these shows, especially female viewers, are being programmed to think that being as thin as the contestants on these shows is what one should be aiming to achieve and that anything else is frowned upon. The way normal and overweight bodies are presented in these types of shows is very warped. An almost anorexic-looking woman is considered normal while a woman that may be just a few pounds larger than her is given the label of plus-size. Women at home watching these categorizations begin to judge their own bodies. The majority of women do not have the extra thin bodies that the judges on reality TV shows look for. Therefore, this creates a mass propagation of information that brainwashes women into thinking that if they are not as thin as the contestants on the television, then they are not good enough, and this means that a majority of women will be dissatisfied with their body image. Pozner makes a point about how reality TV associates thinness with health. BMI is used as an indicator of whether someone is underweight, normal, overweight or obese. Pozner mentions that a woman named Elyse, a contestant on America’s Next Top Model, was given positive feedback for her weight on the scale. According to her height and weight, she had a BMI of 16.4, which is dangerously underweight. However, the millions of viewers at home had just learned something different. An unhealthy weight is what makes you beautiful.
In the book, Reality Bites Back the Troubling Truth about Guilty Pleasure TV written by Jennifer L. Pozner, she discusses numerous ethnic and racial stereotypes in reality television. Dating back to the 1840’s, when minstrel shows were popular emerged various stereotypical roles assigned to African Americans. Some of these include: the sapphire, which is an angry black woman, the mammy, who is supposed to be a nurturing black woman and who loves caring for white folk, the dandy who attempts to mix with white society but is laughed at because it is not possible, and the jezebel who is a hypersexual black temptress with an animalistic sexual appetite. Over the years these stereotypes are still prevalent in the media today especially in reality TV. Pozner points to the release of the VH1 show, ‘Flavor of Love’ as the gateway for, what seems to be hundreds, of reality TV shows that we see today. The women contestants or ‘flavorettes’ were cast because they had a history in sex work and had unstable personalities. They were bitchy towards each other and embodied the sapphire stereotype. Moreover, all of the contestants slept with Flavor Flav and were constantly objectified to prove their worth sexually. The problem with perpetuating these stereotypes, especially on reality TV, is that it is sold to the public as real life; that black women act in this way as a group. There is a large part of America that has a small population of colored people and they can use these shows as an example of how that demographic acts, and further their beliefs and prejudices. Or it can go the other way if people stop being critical and simply accept these portrayals on television as the norm. When reality TV is written off as ‘mindless entertainment’ that is the most dangerous outcome. All media contains ideology, and when it becomes invisible that is when these stereotypes are at their strongest.
In chapter five of Reality Bites Back, Pozner offers us several examples of racial and ethnic stereotypes presented in reality television. Asian women are portrayed as a fetish, as seen in the example with Lola Corwin in the show, Temptation Island. In that show, Corwin, a Korean American model gave the impression of being a very tempting exotic woman whose job was to lure men in who were already in relationships. Corwin went on to appear in Playboy, and calendars with collections of hypersexualized Asian woman. Pozner shows us another example of these stereotypes in the show Wife Swap. In one of the episodes, a Black woman known as D’eva Robinson, was made to encompass the Sapphire trope that is the angry, black woman. Women of this nature are loud, impolite, and make sure to speak their mind. In another show titled Black. White., a black family and a white family are made to interchange races. Bruno, who was a white man made to convert to blackface, explained that racism no longer existed and that he wanted strangers to call him “nigger.” Along with that, Carmen, a white woman in blackface, greeted a black woman with the words “Yo, bitch!” while wearing a African dashiki. These examples show how troubling it is to stereotype people of different races and ethnicities. First of all, people of color are not represented enough in reality TV, so it is problematic that when these people of color are finally represented, it occurs within certain categorizations. Furthermore, if the only exposure the world has of these ethnicities is through television and media, it is wrong to portray these minorities in stereotypical ways, because it is not the appropriate representation of how people that belong to these races and ethnicities actually behave or live their lives. -Amber M.
Pozner sites the fact that ANTM perpetuated the stereotype of the "ghetto black chick" through Tiffany Richardson. By making her losing the competition because "of her lack of motivation" Tyra helped reiterate the stereotype that black women are poor because of their laziness and unwillingness to work. By making Tiffany into that "ghetto black chick" she helped the narrative of "the welfare queen" be fed to audiences at home. Pozner also sites the treatment of Ya-Ya as the "angry black woman” by deeming her as intimidating and “bitchy.” Framing intelligent black women into “the angry black woman” helps send the message home that a black woman can't be intelligent she can only be angry and formidable. They made sure to constantly make Ya-Ya feel like she was unworthy or that she wasn't modelesque because she was intelligent. The show helped create the idea that smart black women can't be confident and proud of their intelligence because if they are they will be called “arrogant” or they're work will be overlooked because they're “pretentious” and “higher than thou.” The problem with television shows like ANTM helping these stereotypes and assumptions of black women circulate the mainstream is that it is being fed to you by another black woman as well. To hear a black woman who claims she comes from an impoverished background as well tell other black women that they are “too ghetto” or “too arrogant” allows viewers at home to accept these assumptions about black women. If someone like Tyra banks continues the idea that poverty is from a lack of trying it helps society justify why black women are the most impoverished group of people in our country. If you openly put down intelligent black women and try to break their confidence, you teach those black girls at home that they can't be both smart and beautiful or that they can't be black and smart with confidence but that they must hide it so they don't become that “angry black woman.” -Megan J.
In Chapter 5: Race and Ethnicity, Pozner cites several racial stereotypes Black people are shoehorned into on RTV; tropes such as the Sapphire or the Mammy which gives impressionable audiences an unrealistic impression of African Americans. Specifically, Sapphires are purposely portrayed as “‘rude, loud, malicious, stubborn, overbearing,’” on television to promote drama and ratings on reality television (166). This sends a problematic overarching message that Black people are violent – which is coincidentally the argument ignorant people use against the Black Lives Matter movement where said people (who’ve likely never interacted with many people of color before) believe the murder of black adolescents is justified because they were being too “thuggish” or appeared “violent” based on their understanding of race through the messages they digest from RTV. Another archetype manifests itself in the form of the Mammy, “in which Black women play fawning domestic servants, cooks, and surrogate mothers for white people;’” a dangerous concept when taken in context that this trope stems from the roots of slavery and Black oppression, and is usually depicted in various forms of media to assuage white feelings on the tricky subject of slavery (e.g. not all Black people were opposed to slavery because here we have a Black woman taking care of this white family she clearly loves and is not being forced to care for under ulterior motives). A modern day example of this would be the Aunt Jemima pancake brand logo, normalized and integrated into everyday life despite the character being based on the Mammy archetype.
ReplyDeleteFurther stereotyping comes to play once Flavor of Love airs, further pushing controversial boundaries thanks to its host, Flavor Flav, who was picked due to his ability to play up negative stereotypes attributed to Black people. With the airing of Flavor of Love comes the rise of another archetype, the Jezebel, where Black women are hypersexualized and dehumanized via becoming a sex object rather than a person, which, when translated into real world messages, undermines the accomplishments and feats of Black women in favor of ranking them based on aesthetic appeal only. Of course, while racial and ethnic stereotypes also bleed over into other people of color (e.g. Asian and Latinx people being treated as from the same country and completely overriding cultural diversity or personal voice or the vilification of people from Middle Eastern countries due to dramatic propagandist retelling of war films), Pozner primarily focuses on the issues plaguing the Black community regarding unrealistic representations (which is even more of an issue considering that a lot of big media is controlled by white people).
While many, many people (although not all) can probably comprehend the over dramatic behavior on reality television is an untrue portrayal of real world people and events, and while people and representation on television doesn’t speak for an entire demographic or community as a whole, these messages presented to the general audience is still an issue considering how scarce representation comes for people of color compared to representation for white people. Furthermore, a lot of negative portrayals regarding people of color either: a) further fuel racist and or prejudiced sentiment within openly racist/prejudiced people or b) further ingrain low key racism and or prejudice within everyday people through the constant and consistent depiction of a group of people in a set manner. The dimensionality of people can’t be understood or captured through one or two “features” or characteristics attached to a person, and only serves to turn a diverse group into a caricature of itself, making it easier to dehumanize said racial/ethnic group.
Isis H
When VH1 started their series “The Flavor of Love” with Flavor Flav, they created an extremely racist reality television stereotype for African Americans. This spin off to the almost entirely white cast of the Bachelor depicted black men as womanizing, ex-criminal looking to find love with women who were depicted as Jezebels. These women typically had a background in sex work and often were found fighting or trying win over Flavor Flav’s heart by finding their way into his bed.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with this depiction is that this reality television gives viewers a false sense of reality that is actually manipulated to get the most viewings. This meant broadcasting this “reality” into all American homes causing people to believe that this is how all African Americans act. White viewers were watching this show and thinking that Flavor Flav was a sad and laughable version of the Bachelor. Also, believed that these women were classless and thus these people were the representations of all African Americans to them. African American viewers were watching this because it was the only show in which they saw people that looked like them. Whether or not they themselves connected with the women or men on them.
Because of the enormous amount of ratings, this show went on to create a sequel and even when that sequel was taken off air for its criticism, the stereotype that VH1 had previously set still exists with shows on their channel as well as other channels now. These reality stars continue to create negative stereotypes of the African American community. The Bachelor/Bachelorette has its first African American Bachelorette an it will be interesting to see if the stereotype carries on to this Cinderella show
The overreaching problem these stereotypes create is that in a society that claims everyone is equal, all forms of racism still exist. There have been studies done to see if people have an internal bias and most people do whether they think they are racist or not. This bias and even more extreme forms of racism present in police brutality and shooting as well as criminalization of neighborhoods is not helped by the racial stereotypes presented in black television. Not only does the lack of African American television shows exist, but the ones that do exist present African Americans as violent, womanizing, hypersexual, ignorant, and many more negative stereotypes.
-Ali P.
“On The Bachelor, white women get to play Cinderella. On Flavor of Love, Black women get to play maids.” (Pozner pg.161). Sadly, this has been typical of the role Black women, and indeed, all women of color, ‘get’ to play in recent iterations of Reality Television. Not that it was better before Flavor of Love which debuted in 2006. Before 2006, people of color were relegated to stereotypical roles where their main purpose was typically racist comedic relief, stuck in tired old tropes such as playing the ‘Mammy,’ the ‘Sapphire,’ or the ‘Jezebel,’ all of which were coined in the 1800’s to reinforce the social norm of the time. The one glimmer of hope; that small, small, silver lining, indeed truly the only good thing to come out of Flavor of Love, is that it opened the door. Today, there are Sitcoms such as Blackish, Jane the Virgin, Dr. Ken, etc. that don’t bill their characters as ‘[They] happen to be black,’ or ‘[They’re] kind of Asian,’ but rather as ‘They are Black,’ ‘They are Asian,’ and this is their story. Granted the above are comedies, and racial humor is no doubt used to great effect, but they give a more realistic representation of people of color than anything available on the market today. For all the progress made with Sitcoms, there seems to be no real, appreciable advances made with Reality TV itself. Women of color are still tokenized on shows such as The Bachelor, and are frequently broken down, shown to be vulnerable, and swiftly kicked off the show. Others such as Survivor are also predominantly white, where the minority cast members are pigeonholed into specific roles, the Latina women are tough, rugged and are often described as ‘feisty,’ the Black women are portrayed as catty and bitchy, and the Asian women are portrayed as frail and quiet, almost always deferring to male judgement. The problem with these portrayals is quite obvious; we as people are as different in personality from one another as Earth is geographically different from Jupiter. If we keep representing women and people of color as defined by their stereotypes, that is all that people, indeed society, will think of them, nothing but what we’ve been shown our entire lives through the narrow, heavily doctored window that is ‘Reality’ Television.
ReplyDeleteChristopher D.
When it comes to reality television, black women are stereotyped as being loud, violent, uneducated, ghetto, or even maids. For example, on the reality show Flavor of Love, casts members were given names such as Buckeey, Nibblz, Like Dat, New York, and Hoopz. These names that were given to the cast is one example that shows how Flavor of Love was a mockery and embarrassment to African Americans. Flavor of Love was the first reality television show put on air for African American viewers. Before Flavor of Love, reality tv was dominated by predominantly white people. Ironically enough, white people are casted in reality shows such as The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, which ends in a nice little prince charming/cinderella story. When looking at tv shows that have African American female cast members, black women get thrown into one of five categories: The Black Bitch, The Entitled Diva, The Hoochie Mama, The Ghetto Girl, and The Mammy. Viewing reality tv and thinking about “The Black Bitch” the first woman that came to my mind was Omarosa from The Apprentice. Although she was a very accomplished, educated black woman who graduated from Howard University, she was overshadowed by the role that was assigned to her for the world to see through reality television-- a bitch. If a black woman is not portrayed on reality tv as a bitch, she is portrayed as a mammy. A mammy is a house slave that loves to take care of the white folks. In the media, the mammy is usually portrayed to be obese, uneducated maids. When I think of The Mammy, the first movie that comes to my mind is Big Mommas House. In that movie, Big Momma (African American obese elderly lady) is good for cooking, cleaning, and babysitting for wealthy white families. If a African American female is not being portrayed as a Mammy, she is most likely being portrayed as the complete opposite role. The biggest portrayal given to black women in my opinion is the Jezebel portrayal. The Jezebel portrayal is the hypersexual black temptress who has animalistic sexual behaviors. Majority of black women on reality tv are portrayed to be a “hoochie” or a “hoe”. People of different races who live nationwide are seeing these stereotypical negative portrayals of African American women. This is very problematic because these people who view these reality shows start to generalize that all African American women act that way, which is simply not true.
ReplyDelete-Erika D.
Pozner produces a plethora of racial and ethnic stereotypes all throughout chapter five. Pozner proceeds to show us a range of positively enforced and negatively enforced stereotypes prevalent all throughout Reality TV. Starting “on The Bachelor, white women get to play Cinderella. On Flavor of Love, Black women get to play maids” (Pozner 161). We find that most white cast driven RTV shows tend to put white men and women in more favorable lights such as Joe Millionaire or Who Wants to Marry My Dad?. They make the men charming, handsome, wealthy and more importantly white! In turn its ethnic counterparts such as Tila Tequila or Flavor of Love make people of color look obscene, foul and uneducated. Women of color are even more stereotyped and submitted to this intersecting oppression. America’s Next Top Model portraying Black women as angry and/or bitchy and Tila Tequila fetishizing and giving Asian women a light of being low brow (Pozner 166-168). The problem with these stereotypes is they perpetuate and negative cycle of marginalizing people of color. Broadcasting shows such as these into homes nationwide leads to a false representation of people of color that further oppress them. Making it probable that false information or stereotypes are distributed to a general public that may have yet to interact with this marginalized group; leading to further misrepresentation. It also puts people of color in a particular bind: either watch and support these shows out of fear of losing all representation or choosing to not support these shows and risk actually losing representation. These RTV shows continue to enforce and solidify a white patriarchal society’s dominance. To further perpetuate that being successful, desirable and/or approachable only comes to those who are white, middle to upper class, able-bodied, cis gendered males.
ReplyDeleteVictoria L.
Reality show’s are more popular than ever in this day and age. As of today there are thousands of different reality shows for the typical viewer. There are reality shows about cooking, cleaning, renovating, losing weight, plastic surgery, celebrities, waiters and waitresses, housewives, and even reality shows about finding love just to name a few. Out of the thousands of reality shows that have been there have been plenty of controversial reality shows. Perhaps one of the most controversial reality tv shows was VH1’s Flavor Of Love starring Flavor Flav. Flavor of Love was one of the most controversial reality shows in reality show history. The show was centered around 90s hype man Flavor Flav who was on his quest to find “love”. He was accompanied by twenty other women (who notably were all half his age) who all were vying for his love. One of the many attributes this show is known for is being the “black bachelor”. It was marketed as “being like the bachelor but for African Americans and other people of color”. A majority of the women were portrayed in a highly sexualized way. From the beginning they were stripped of their names and given peculiar nicknames such as New York, Pumpkin, Rain, Hottie, Red Oyster, and Hoopz. Some of these women were in college, some had already completed their college careers, some were former sex workers, and some were just working to make a living. Yet none of that mattered to the producers of this show and neither mattered to Flavor Flav. The women on these shows were portrayed as sex crazed, crazy, neurotic, dumb, hopeless romantics who wanted nothing but Flavor Flav. It didn’t matter that he was sleeping with a new girl nearly every night or they fact that he was entertaining 20 women at once. It’s not that this show was racist because it was made to be like a “black bachelor” it was racist because it reinforced so many preconceived stereotypes and did nothing to fight them. When people at home would watch this show and watch the way these women were portrayed and the way these women would act they would just feed into the stereotypes that already surround many african americans, asians, and latinos. On the first episode of the season “Red Oyster” is asked what type of asian she is. When she replies and says “filipino” she almost immediately is asked “Ling Ling can you do my nails”. In an effort to try and go along with the “joke” she replies by saying “that's the koreans not the filipinos”. That is just one of the examples of the numerous racial and ethnic stereotypes that are displayed throughout this show and even often are passed as “jokes”. One of the only white contestants nicknamed Apple's even states in the beginning of the first episode “I don't know if I necessarily fit in with some of the other girls….i’m not ghetto”. As she was saying this in her confessional the camera would pan in and out focus in on the other contestants. Only showing the African American contestants. One thing to note is that this was one of the only predominantly African American cast. It is problematic when this is displayed as “reality” into homes nationwide because it isn’t reality. When people at home would only see a certain group of people portrayed in a certain way they are more inclined to believe that it is how that group must act all the time and that is not the case. That is why it is problematic that this is portrayed as “reality” because it isn’t. This is problematic because it isn’t reality despite being called “reality tv”. Many viewers at home don’t seem to understand that a majority of the stuff that happens on these shows are fake or exaggerated by the producers and the contestants on the show for rating purposes.
ReplyDeleteJagtap K.
Racial and Ethnic Stereotypes are deeply entrenched in mainstream media—most specifically in Reality Television. If anything was considered to be “real” on “reality television,” it would be the injustice that women faced who did not appeal to the favorable demographics imposed by the producers of reality television. This meant that minorities and those who were not part of the dominant culture were either not cast at all or if they were, they were ridiculed, humiliated, and then eventually sent home. The most infamous racial and ethnic archetype is the “Sapphires.” The Sapphires represent the “Angry Black Women.” This is intended to represent the supposed “ghetto” and “irrational” women. Casting directors value the “Angry Black Women,” because they represent “Good TV,” in the initial phase of the bickering and arguments and the ultimate depression that ensues as they ultimately become eliminated. For instance, through the depictions of Tyra Banks schizophrenic messages, many contestants were subjected to these racial and ethnic stereotypes. The most infamous case was that of Tiffany Richardson. Richardson was specifically cast as the “angry black woman.” She was not only humiliated and sent home. She then was brought back because of that appeal and then sent home once more in the most infamous scene on reality television about Tyra “rooting,” for her. By demeaning Richardson’s class status and her lack of retrieving opportunities, Tyra’s personality then became that of the “angry black woman.” Another contestant that faced injustice as a result of her ethnicity and race was Kelly Jacob. Coming from an affluent family background, the complete opposite of Richardson, one would assume they would generally have a different experience. However, this proved to be anything but true. Jacob was demeaned and compared to that of a monkey—primal aspects and all. The most intriguing and in a sense ironic effect this had was the fact that it was her lips she hated. The lips that once voiced her confidence had now been silenced by those who attempted to break down her confidence. As Pozner stated, “They’ve created a universe in which women not only have no real choices, they don’t even want any.” (Page 25) This is dangerous to viewers at home because it reinforces the notion that only one type of women is deemed acceptable and that the individuals both on and watching the show are NOT considered that woman. This perpetuates the idea that minorities are unfavorable and do not belong on reality television. In rainbows, it’s the combination of all the colors side by side that make it beautiful, no one color outshines the other, why can’t it be the same with women?
ReplyDelete- Dorothy I
Reality TV does a fantastic job at misinforming the public about how women are expected to look. In many shows, such as America’s Next Top Model, being extremely thin is applauded. Viewers of these shows, especially female viewers, are being programmed to think that being as thin as the contestants on these shows is what one should be aiming to achieve and that anything else is frowned upon. The way normal and overweight bodies are presented in these types of shows is very warped. An almost anorexic-looking woman is considered normal while a woman that may be just a few pounds larger than her is given the label of plus-size. Women at home watching these categorizations begin to judge their own bodies. The majority of women do not have the extra thin bodies that the judges on reality TV shows look for. Therefore, this creates a mass propagation of information that brainwashes women into thinking that if they are not as thin as the contestants on the television, then they are not good enough, and this means that a majority of women will be dissatisfied with their body image. Pozner makes a point about how reality TV associates thinness with health. BMI is used as an indicator of whether someone is underweight, normal, overweight or obese. Pozner mentions that a woman named Elyse, a contestant on America’s Next Top Model, was given positive feedback for her weight on the scale. According to her height and weight, she had a BMI of 16.4, which is dangerously underweight. However, the millions of viewers at home had just learned something different. An unhealthy weight is what makes you beautiful.
ReplyDelete-Amber M.
In the book, Reality Bites Back the Troubling Truth about Guilty Pleasure TV written by Jennifer L. Pozner, she discusses numerous ethnic and racial stereotypes in reality television. Dating back to the 1840’s, when minstrel shows were popular emerged various stereotypical roles assigned to African Americans. Some of these include: the sapphire, which is an angry black woman, the mammy, who is supposed to be a nurturing black woman and who loves caring for white folk, the dandy who attempts to mix with white society but is laughed at because it is not possible, and the jezebel who is a hypersexual black temptress with an animalistic sexual appetite. Over the years these stereotypes are still prevalent in the media today especially in reality TV. Pozner points to the release of the VH1 show, ‘Flavor of Love’ as the gateway for, what seems to be hundreds, of reality TV shows that we see today. The women contestants or ‘flavorettes’ were cast because they had a history in sex work and had unstable personalities. They were bitchy towards each other and embodied the sapphire stereotype. Moreover, all of the contestants slept with Flavor Flav and were constantly objectified to prove their worth sexually. The problem with perpetuating these stereotypes, especially on reality TV, is that it is sold to the public as real life; that black women act in this way as a group. There is a large part of America that has a small population of colored people and they can use these shows as an example of how that demographic acts, and further their beliefs and prejudices. Or it can go the other way if people stop being critical and simply accept these portrayals on television as the norm. When reality TV is written off as ‘mindless entertainment’ that is the most dangerous outcome. All media contains ideology, and when it becomes invisible that is when these stereotypes are at their strongest.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteIn chapter five of Reality Bites Back, Pozner offers us several examples of racial and ethnic stereotypes presented in reality television. Asian women are portrayed as a fetish, as seen in the example with Lola Corwin in the show, Temptation Island. In that show, Corwin, a Korean American model gave the impression of being a very tempting exotic woman whose job was to lure men in who were already in relationships. Corwin went on to appear in Playboy, and calendars with collections of hypersexualized Asian woman. Pozner shows us another example of these stereotypes in the show Wife Swap. In one of the episodes, a Black woman known as D’eva Robinson, was made to encompass the Sapphire trope that is the angry, black woman. Women of this nature are loud, impolite, and make sure to speak their mind. In another show titled Black. White., a black family and a white family are made to interchange races. Bruno, who was a white man made to convert to blackface, explained that racism no longer existed and that he wanted strangers to call him “nigger.” Along with that, Carmen, a white woman in blackface, greeted a black woman with the words “Yo, bitch!” while wearing a African dashiki. These examples show how troubling it is to stereotype people of different races and ethnicities. First of all, people of color are not represented enough in reality TV, so it is problematic that when these people of color are finally represented, it occurs within certain categorizations. Furthermore, if the only exposure the world has of these ethnicities is through television and media, it is wrong to portray these minorities in stereotypical ways, because it is not the appropriate representation of how people that belong to these races and ethnicities actually behave or live their lives.
-Amber M.
Pozner sites the fact that ANTM perpetuated the stereotype of the "ghetto black chick" through Tiffany Richardson. By making her losing the competition because "of her lack of motivation" Tyra helped reiterate the stereotype that black women are poor because of their laziness and unwillingness to work. By making Tiffany into that "ghetto black chick" she helped the narrative of "the welfare queen" be fed to audiences at home. Pozner also sites the treatment of Ya-Ya as the "angry black woman” by deeming her as intimidating and “bitchy.” Framing intelligent black women into “the angry black woman” helps send the message home that a black woman can't be intelligent she can only be angry and formidable. They made sure to constantly make Ya-Ya feel like she was unworthy or that she wasn't modelesque because she was intelligent. The show helped create the idea that smart black women can't be confident and proud of their intelligence because if they are they will be called “arrogant” or they're work will be overlooked because they're “pretentious” and “higher than thou.” The problem with television shows like ANTM helping these stereotypes and assumptions of black women circulate the mainstream is that it is being fed to you by another black woman as well. To hear a black woman who claims she comes from an impoverished background as well tell other black women that they are “too ghetto” or “too arrogant” allows viewers at home to accept these assumptions about black women. If someone like Tyra banks continues the idea that poverty is from a lack of trying it helps society justify why black women are the most impoverished group of people in our country. If you openly put down intelligent black women and try to break their confidence, you teach those black girls at home that they can't be both smart and beautiful or that they can't be black and smart with confidence but that they must hide it so they don't become that “angry black woman.”
ReplyDelete-Megan J.