The Reality Of The Real Housewives Of Orange County Essay

A central theme within Ruth Ozeki’s My Year of Meats is the idea of authenticity. It appears in the very core of the show My American Wife!, where the goal is to find “authentic,” “attractive” wives with attractive families and lifestyles so that BEEF-EX can make meat look appealing to Japanese viewers. However, many characters in the book have different views on what authenticity means, and the definitive definition is never revealed by Ozeki. In fact, My American Wife!, the authentic reality show, is one of the least realistic parts of the entire book and a reflection on the lack of authenticity in today’s reality TV shows. Although authenticity is projected as subjective, as My Year of Meats shows us, one will find nothing “real” or “genuine” about reality TV, which is negatively impacting our society.

The popularity of the program can be attributed to various socio economic factors. Mainly the economy plays a vital part in the popularity of reality television and Dance Moms. New technology has made cameras more mobile and allows viewers real-time glimpses of never before seen lives. Due to Dance Moms using “ordinary people” the program is also more inexpensive to produce. The popularity of talent shows such as Dancing with the Stars and a recent “tween boom” makes Dance Moms a familiar hit with females of various ages as various ages are present on the program. The behavior of the women is also due to the socioeconomic times they are in. Not needing to work despite the tough economy and fighting boredom, the mothers only worries are out doing one another— not figuring out how to pay a bill. Due to the mothers being high class, they provide insight into a world for the privileged. The program portrays supermoms that sacrifice their lives for their beautiful, talented

Images of the “housewives” are excessively pictured on the internet. Bravotv.com has pages full of group photographs of the women in their exotic southern outfits, sparking smiles and diva personas. Pictured on the first page is a photograph from Bravotv.com, featuring the cast of The Housewives of Atlanta. It is intriguing to note that this portrait has been cropped together as one unit. In reality, however, each woman is a picture in its self that the producers of the show pushed together to appear as one photograph. Each woman is given certain characteristics to make them, in turn, an actual character on a show. Characters are needed so that the viewer’s cans stereotype each woman, thus providing a cast of characters. This provides an array of misconceptions of who these women

Modern media has a massive audience with more than 115 million American household families owning a television (NewsWire). Everyday viewers devote time to watching programs and are intrigued by the attractive actors and the situations they encounter. Although these characters and their lives seem to be unbelievably attractive, many of the shows have stereotypical gender qualities. Regina George in Mean Girls frequently portrays qualities that are often seen as ideal ways for women to live, though a closer look reveals the limitations with these ideas.

However, it can be observed and said that they have always lived up to the image of “housewife” material or as a constant collaborator of a male role, instead of being the main character. According to Elasmar, M., Hasegawa, K., & Brain, M, on their essay the portrayal of women in the US prime television, “TV has portrayed females in many ways, studies have shown that women have been underrepresented and stereotyped in TV programs.” Women have been living under that invisible stereotype that has cornered them and does not allow them to grow professionally or socially. TV has been the master-mind behind a stereotype that has left women without the chance of demanding equality or credibility on shows, a stereotype that will always be mentioned and enforce if TV shows do not start producing real-world programs based on true stories or true qualities of

Keeping Up with the Kardashians is a reality television show that has aired on E! for the past seven years. It has filmed eight seasons focusing on the lives of the Kardashian and Jenner families. The reality show focuses on both the private and professional lives of the Kardashian sisters Kourtney, Kim, and Khloe, with additional emphasis on their brother Robert, mother Kris, stepfather Bruce (Robert Kardashian passed away before the show aired and Kris got remarried to Bruce), and half siblings Kendall and Kylie. As the seasons progressed their boyfriends, friends, and coworkers all became a big part of the show. This included people such as Kourtney’s boyfriend Scott Disick, her two kids Mason and Penelope, Khloe’s husband Lamar Odom,

As early as 1950, television families have depicted not only the way we live today, but also the way we ought to live (Tueth, 2003). Hence, television has continued to present comedies about family life that ranges from the didactic model of domestic conventionalist and gradually to non-conventionalist ways of life. By conventionalist, I mean the depiction of the “nuclear” family that consists of clear roles, responsibilities, and gentle lines of authority that flow from the wise dad and understanding mom to the obedient children (Kutalas, 2005). Examples of these types of shows between 1947 to 1990 that constructed more than 60% of family sitcoms included: The Cleavers, The Cosby Show, Father Knows Best, Family Ties, and Growing Pains

It is often said that the media and the arts are an accurate reflection of any given community. This is especially true in American pop-culture, where television shows depict the various stereotypes attributed to men and women and the roles they play in society. House, a highly popular medical drama that revolves around Dr. Gregory House and his diagnostic team, is a particularly good example as it represents the true state of the traditional gender roles in American culture today by, both, redefining and reinforcing them over the course of the show.

Orange Is the New Black has started to redefine various gender and sexuality expectations that have been concreted in to media for many years. Women are not always portrayed genuinely in mainstream media, many television shows place women on a sexualized pedestal, where they are subject to male gaze due to hegemonic femininity representation. Diane Ponterotto (2016) describes how male gaze can affect media, and social notions, “Through the male gaze, the female body becomes territory, a valuable resource to be acquired,” (p. 147.) Ponterotto continues, mentioning that many women have

The show reinforces the classical gender roles that female stereotypes continue to thrive in the media we consume every day. Women in this show is objectified and mostly portrayed as just beautiful with little education. (Gender Stereotypes in Mass media, 2014).

Over the past two decades, the impact of gender role stereotyping on our society has been examined in numerous studies. The purpose of these studies was to determine whether the sex bias portrayed in books, TV shows and social media is still as prevalent as in the past. Modern Family is one of the TV shows that clearly prove that, the roles played by males and females have changed in by the time. Modern Family show is about a family that tackles normal, everyday problems. The show features three combined families Jay and Gloria, Phil and Claire, Mitchell and Cameron and how different genders in each family act. Because of gender stereotype issues like gay marriage, house wives and large difference in age between married couples, this show focused on challenging these stereotypes and solving such conflict in our society.

During the 18th and 19th century, patriarchy has been responsible for designing women’s role in society. Throughout history, men have been deemed as superior while women have been regarded as inferior. Society has this ideology that women are the sole laborers of a household; they were not granted the same privileges as men. In addition, women have been negatively affected by stereotyping. Women have been portrayed on television as being submissive to men. The depiction of women on television portrays the implications of a societal view of women. From a man's perspective, an ideal woman is a housewife who does all the household duties herself. However, over the years, studies have shown that gender roles have slowly advanced. Women began

Television networks are continually expanding their programming slates, and many in the past have switched to a year-round programming schedule that makes the phrase “summer return” basically absolute. On every channel, in every magazine, every darken theater, we see the way pop culture limits women’s role- girlfriends, victims, hookers, corpses, sex bombs, and “teases,” but why? Television, for most women, was the first place where they were able to visually see themselves represented. And for quite a while, they didn’t see much besides the loving wife, the dutiful daughter, gossiping girlfriends, fashion models, and the occasional maid, granny, or nanny. In Where the Girls Are: Growing Up

The result showed that, at the surface level, women are portrayed in “Desperate Housewives” is much different from other TV-series, however, in deep level, women still similar to the norms and traditional

Today’s audience grabs hold of reality TV now a day. Looking forward week to week to watch these unscripted real life situation shows. In a way it 's becoming increasingly hard to avoid not watching. Some viewers see the TV show and tend to be attention seekers, and reality TV allows them to fantasize about achieving status through instant fame. Too much reality TV may lead viewers to idealize real world situations, like romanticizing dating. Like when Truman saw the girl in the library who was an actress and a fan of the show. He wanted to take her out sometime later that week, but she said it couldn’t happen because she knows what’s going on, but she had true love for him and asked to go out with him right then on a little date to the beach. As they went to the beach she was going to spill the beans and tell him everything. Then a man of the show in a car drove there to stop her acting like her father to get her before she ruined the show. It’s like most reality TV love shows on today people who audition for a show and know it’s scripted, but end up actually having a real feeling for the person.