by Amy Spicer
As I channel surfed the other night I was once again visually assaulted with mind numbingly bad “reality” shows. But I had to take pause when coming across one particularly vile show. Take a female group of cast-offs from other reality shows, put them together in a house, provide copious amounts of alcohol, shake well and see what happens. All the while claiming to be a show about “making them more beautiful on the inside”
The upcoming clips included a trip the women take to the 9th ward in ravaged New Orleans to see the devastation, perhaps gain some perspective and try to make a difference. Cut to next clip: women literally falling down drunk yelling unintelligible bleeped out profanities and throwing random objects…at each other. And scene.
Is it that people’s ability and willingness to watch and be entertained by such things stems from the increasing separation we experience from others around us? At a time when we have an unbelievable number of ways to communicate it seems we are actually becoming more distant from each other as individuals. In turn we can more readily objectify each other and fail to experience sympathy or empathy towards one another. These events also aren’t played out in front of us, rather we are witnessing them through the world of television, a place where even “reality” is surreal.
Most reality shows are inexpensive to produce and in turn quite profitable. And because “we” continue to watch they continue to be made. Many even achieve significant popularity not to mention cultural prominence. However are they really good for society? Are we more apathetic because they exist? Is it the “train wreck effect” where we simply can’t look away? Or are we boosting our own self confidence in the convoluted way of “well at least I’m better then that person”? Reality TV begs these questions yet are we willing to answer them truthfully?
These shows also perpetuate deeply ingrained stereotypes as the drama of reality TV is actually manipulated through the use of “typecasting”. Race, gender, and sexual orientation are particularly useful for such characterizations because they pull from a long, rich history of social and racial stereotypes. Disconnect occurs yet again as we aren’t thinking about who these people really are, but how they exist within the stereotype they are evoking. With the minority and gay population, hugely marginalized in quality programming, these shows are actually devastating as the individual unwittingly becomes representative of their entire group.
These are not documentaries. People are put into heavily contrived situations then footage is altered, edited and stitched together into a hot mess of what the producers think will result in the best “entertainment”. Said entertainment often comes from conflict – so conflict will even be incited or created where none exists. It’s all in what they choose to reveal to you. So we as viewers are also being manipulated. And we should be insulted and demanding more.
I’m not actually saying that you shouldn’t watch reality TV (or that I don’t for that matter, I guess Top Chef is after all “reality TV”), but aren’t we ethically challenged here? Entertainment is one thing but the pure drivel we are passively accepting from media companies is only getting worse. Are we as a society willing to reflect on why such programming is made and why we are watching it? Why is a washed up 80’s rock star discussed at length but President Obama’s last speech goes relatively unnoticed? Why will so many call into vote on a dancing couple but not know when Congress is in session (making decisions by the way that truly might affect them)? Why do we find other people’s erratic and disgusting behavior entertaining? And why, why, why with all the conflict, pain and suffering in this world do we allow time, money and resources to pour into these shows? We have the power to truly effect change, maybe even redirect some of these resources into truly worthy and needy causes. We also have the power to demand “entertainment” that doesn’t cause us to become less intelligent as we watch. Maybe it’s time to put down the remote and step away.