Television and Culture

Reality Check

The most recent reality television dating shows lights up the fantasies we first learned from fairy tales: castles and fortunes, true love and romantic destiny, and above all that most perfect storybook union, the ''fairy tale wedding”. In The Bachelor, a dating reality television show aired by ABC, a man (bachelor) is in search of his potential wife among the twenty five female participants, who are just as eager to become the elected bachelor’s mate. Beautiful and, not rarely, exotic surroundings help setting the romantic ambiance to this show, needless to say, the pre screened participants are too, good looking women. Perhaps the fact that is more intriguing is that, besides beauty, career wise, these women not necessarily comply to what is expected in our culture. While the majority of the participants are professionally oriented to take on careers typically feminine (to list a few, there is a NBA dancer, a teacher, a nanny, a waitress), women whose career could be considered male territory are also represented amongst the participants (and there we have an entrepreneur, a commercial pilot and a National Guard captain). Despite the professional preference contrasts, what levels out the participants is the goal of finding love and live happily ever after. But the misleading nature of reality television dating shows causes detrimental effects in real life individuals, affecting mainly women and the way their perceive themselves and their present or future relationships.
So, how real is what we see on reality TV? Most of us have bills to pay, jobs to perform and, not everyone can count on five weeks of vacation to go find love in paradisiacal places; in fact, few people have more than three weeks of rest per year. Thus, it is evident that what is called reality TV isn’t part of many individuals quotidian. According to Catherine Gourley, author of “How Real is Reality TV?”, in order to achieve a compelling drama show, editing scenes is necessary, and this is what makes the shows exciting, yet, steers away of what is supposed to be real. Hence, reality TV can’t be considered a portrait of our society with its inherent occasional boredom and routine, rather a sequence of events mounted to appeal to its viewers.
Subsequent to the concept of reality TV, in order to understand the impact of reality TV dating shows in its female audience, it is necessary to understand why people watch this sort of shows. In his article, “Why Reality TV is Good for Us”, James Poniewozik debates the positive aspects of watching reality TV. He starts out by pointing the tangible nature that is what really attracts us on that TV genre, “There you have the essence of reality TV's success: it is the one mass-entertainment category that thrives because of its audience's contempt for it. It makes us feel tawdry, dirty, cheap-if it didn't, we probably wouldn't bother tuning in.” The fact many of the feelings and reactions performed by anonymous people, hence any of us, confers reality TV a connection that other TV shows may have failed to achieve, and the proof is the rising number of new coming reality shows. Although Poniewozik recognizes that there’s very truth or reality presented by reality TV, he observes, it seems that the plot doesn’t let people down while identifying their desires and experiences with the characters in the shows; “Reality shows don't just reach tens of millions of viewers but leave them feeling part of a communal experience”. That way, offenses, cursing, humiliation and embarrassment occasions showed in this TV genre does not seem alarming to its viewers, instead, it just helps growing the connection established between the show and its spectators. Illustrating this author’s ideas, sordid elements are often part of The Bachelor fairy tale story. In recent episodes of The Bachelor, the woman chosen by the fairy tale prince look alike was accused by other Bachelorettes of “shaking her boobs” to win his heart, while other woman in the show formed interest groups, aiming to outcast some considered stronger candidates. Not such a glamorous conduct by the contestants, yet, the formula seems to work in order to attain its targeted audience, namely, women.
Likewise, the desire for status through automatic fame is another element that triggers the high audiences of the reality tv dating shows. In “Why America Loves Reality TV”, authors Steven Reiss and James Wiltz conducted a survey of 239 people to uncover the reasons why they watch reality TV shows. One of the conclusions of this study was that, the actual reality TV spectators were both intellectually and non-intellectually driven individuals. In the search for common ground on this type of TV watching, Reiss and Wiltz identified “Reality TV allows Americans to fantasize about gaining status through immediate fame. Ordinary people can watch the shows, see people like themselves and imagine that they too could become celebrities by being on television”. In fact, the reality show The Bachelor sends out a message that any woman could instantly become an eligible candidate to the single gentleman who is looking for love, when in fact, the candidates are pre screened and selected according to the portion of personal drama they can add to enrich the storyline.
Perhaps one of the main negative consequences of watching reality tv dating shows resides in the fact that, in order to be eligible to deserve one’s love, a woman ought to comply to predictable beauty standards. That not only is untruth, but it can cause the women who do not fit into that stereotype to relentlessly search for unattainable perfection. Yet, is our human nature need for aesthetic sensations that keeps us watching a program that can deteriorate our self esteem. As described in Common Culture, author Jib Fowles points out fifteen basic appeals that the advertising industry exploits in order to manipulate and generate interest from feasible customers. Parallel to the appeals used by the advertising industry, the media also seems to borrow those tools to establish a stronger connection with its viewers. That way, the need to escape comes into play as an often relief to our tribulated lives; “…the desire to duck out of our social obligations, to seek rest and adventure, frequently takes the form of one-person flight”.(82) The major problem happens when reality dating show, like The Bachelor, recalls fairy tale settings and the prince is a handsome and financially stable man, but it doesn’t quite portray the contemporary single woman looking for love. By presenting a version of reality distorted by editing, the television program perpetuates problematic stereotypical images of appropriate female demeanors and goals. Career wise, while the women in the last season of The Bachelor seemed to represent a fairly good amount of female contemporary job occupations, physically they were all slim and beautiful, magnifying the focus of the socially acceptable lenses on females who share those physical attributes as potentially the ones to find true love. Despite the increasing popularity of reality TV, watching those programs can have a negative impact in the way woman perceive themselves and their body image.
The consequences of believing that reality TV is, in fact, a reflection of our reality, affects not only women’s body image and imminent compromise of forged expectations toward present and future relationships. Assiduous viewers also seem to be leaded to leave their financial and professional destiny on hold, while keeping focus in this sort of shows. According to Cynthia Frisby, author of “Getting Real with Reality TV”, the main reality TV spectators are reportedly adults, from 18-49 years of age, with average income of $75,000 or more, thus a pretty good income earning group. As the data shows, the majority of reality TV viewers are people in the peak of their economically productive lives, with an average income that doesn’t seem too humble. This data leads to a big hole in our culture and economy, as our future leaders, writers, doctors, researchers and other important professionals appear to be hectically busy watching a series of unrealistic dating games with a succession of gossip and backstabbing events. The negative impact of this source of entertainment shall not be visible or even measurable, which makes more difficult to take any action to preventing these shows from being labeled as reality.
Similarly detrimental to a woman’s sense of worthiness can be the effect of the inversion of values presented in other reality TV dating shows, as seems to be the case of Millionaire Matchmaker, a television series produced by Bravo network, and presented by Patti Stanger. The premise of the show is to match single wealthy people, all claiming to be certified millionaires, with potential spouses. The reason many people seem to like this show is due to its social comparison nature. According to Cynthia Frisby, the social comparison is a key factor that keeps us interested in watching this type of program, “Social comparison theory postulates that individuals have a drive or need to compare their abilities and opinions to others.” Following that need, many individuals fall into the often unconscious need to follow what’s going on with the character or reality tv person they mostly identify with. In the case of Patti Stanger’s show, woman who watch the series are potentially comparing themselves to the ones selected to take on dates with the eligible millionaire customers. In one episode, a client codenamed Sextoy Dave is looking for his one true love, a beautiful woman who looks like Paris Hilton and who will love him and his stripper pole. For Dave, the stripper pole is a deal breaker. He loves it so much that he's taught himself a few moves on the pole. Even when the Millionaire Matchmaker tries to convince Sextoy Dave to move the pole to his basement, he refuses. The Millionaire Matchmaker paired Sextoy Dave with a Harvard recent graduate who didn't seem to mind the stripper pole, but she decided not to pursue the relationship. Once again, the reality TV dating show signals to women that, independently of a successful career or education, “real” love seems to dwell far away from the academic life, negatively inferring that education does not guarantee absolute happiness.

Reality television has been known as the lowest form of entertainment, a threat to intelligence, and exhibition of the most unflattering of human instincts. Yet, reality TV dating shows, for instance, rank among the most watched. Perhaps it is time to review some of our values and close the fairy tale books, and do a reality check, and perhaps, there will be more room for the exploration of the real effects of the “unreal” television.

Works Cited
Fowles, Jib "Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals.”
Common Culture: Reading and Writing About American Popular Culture.
Ed.Michael Petraca & Madeleine Sorapure. Upper Saddle River, NJ:Pearson, 2009. 71-88.

Frisby, Cynthia M. "GETTING REAL with Reality TV." USA Today Magazine 133.2712 (2004): 50-54. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 17 June 2010.
Poniewozik, James, et al. "WHY REALITY TV IS GOOD FOR US." Time 161.7 (2003): 64. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 19 June 2010.
Reiss, Steven, and James Wiltz. "WHY AMERICA LOVES REALITY TV." Psychology Today 34.5 (2001): 52. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. EBSCO. Web. 16 June 2010.