The effects of reality TV on the average woman in general
Although I know reality TV affects men and women in several different ways, I found the feminine beauty ideal associated with reality TV to be most interesting and important. I personally believe that stereotypes exist because of most of the things on TV and in the media, and when shows such as “The Kardashians” and “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” expose us to what its like to rich, fabulous, and beautiful, we all expect that to personally happen to us when in reality it hasn’t even happened in all honesty to those “stars.” I quickly realized their lives are not as perfect they make us think they are. President Obama stated "until a girl can imagine herself, can picture herself as a computer programmer, or a combat commander, she won't become one. Until there are women who tell her, ignore our pop culture obsession over beauty and fashion... she'll think those are the only things that girls are supposed to care about." While I agree that once someone dreams bigger, it may come true, it is also true that it is hard to shy away from the beauty ideals since they are so heavily pressed on us in our culture today. These images of the perfect woman and the perfect clothing, and lifestyle are around us everyday and gives women the wrong interpretations of success, which is truly disheartening. Parents try so hard to keep their kids away from things like this, and from catching on to the stereotypes and beauty ideals, but it is truly inevitable. Julia of MSNBC states, “As much as many parents will insist “not in my house,” there’s a good chance that your child has swallowed reality show toxins,” proving that once parents even think about keeping their kids away from things like this it is already to late.
The effects of reality TV on women of color
Shows such as Real Housewives of Atlanta and Basketball wives are on the rise in the reality TV show world. In an article written by Tamika Mallory of NewsOne paper, she states her frustration for the depiction of African American women on television. Tamika states “On a daily basis, we are bombarded with images of women of color dancing half-naked in music videos, or prancing around fighting each other on one of these TV shows.” Which in my opinion as well, is completely true. Things like this are only furthering the stereotypes of women of color in the world as we know and see them today. While carrying on terrible stereotypes, this also is not creating a great image and perspective for future generations and the viewers in general. Julia of MSNBC states “shows like this are teaching viewers to disrespect black women.” I could not agree more, with the way they show racial stereotypes and they act and treat each other is not something that should be shown on television. Tamika Mallory made a good point in stating “Even though there may be extensive money in reality TV, have we decided that it’s worth the cost of selling our souls and misleading our children?” basically meaning that we have to make a change, we should not brainwash other generations with all of the made up stores within reality TV.
The effects of reality TV on young women
When I think about television and ultimately young women, for some reason MTV shows such as teen mom and jersey shore automatically pop up in my mind. I see a lot of controversy over these shows everywhere almost every day, which is why I decided to analyze them. First of all, many people seem to think that MTV’s hit show “Teen Mom” influences young women to get pregnant and such, but could this show really just be “Teen birth control?” According to Melissa Maerz, “from 2009 to 2010, the U.S. teen birth rate declined 9 percent, the steepest one-year drop since 1946” which is right around the time the show became popular. I also read that “90 percent of teen viewers said the show makes pregnancy look "harder than I imagined," and 72 percent said it motivates them to delay parenthood” which persuades me to believe that Teen mom is not all that bad of a show after all when it comes to the message it relays and not so much content or quality. With “over 3 million viewers each week” and the national teen birth rate declining a significant amount since the release of the show, I think it is safe to conclude that Teen Mom is not for everyone, but definitely not a huge threat to teens who see it as an eye opener simply because “The series does not sugarcoat the challenges its subjects face” (FeiFei Sun, TIMES) making people see the harsh realities before hand not that every situation is the same but that is the risk you take.