There is a reality TV show about almost every single type of person out there today. However, what I realize is that much of what is show to us in these reality TV shows isn’t the reality for a majority of its viewers. Take for instance the Real Housewives. What about this reality tv show is real, when applied to the lives of many of its viewers? The answer is: Very little.
The average housewife does not for instance, spontaneously drop $5000 on a purse, nor can they afford to hire a nanny, a gardener, a governess and a chef to run their house. These are the lives of a very small group of people in this society. The rich the famous and the powerful. Thus, we are be real is what we see on TV. Additionally much of the events that occur on these shows are scripted in order to play to the what the producers think the audience will like, and will get them the most ratings.
Thus we see that if we were to take a step back and think critically about what we call reality TV, it is actually not. I think it would be more appropriately named “Stereotype TV”.
The more I watch this tv show, the more I realize the subtle enforcement of negative stereotypes that happen within the show. The show in Atlanta. For instance this is the official description of the Atlanta show:
This is the official description of the Orange County Show
Here we see how diffrentley the shows are described and how the negative stereotypes associated with African Americans are subtly worked in to the description of the Atlanta show.