Last week, Gloria Steinem spoke at Simmons College in Boston, where she earned a doctorate in human justice 40 years ago. After a weighty discussion on feminism and its place today, the talk turned to television.
Unsurprisingly, Steinem revealed she’s not a fan of “The Real Housewives” franchise on Bravo.
Wait, what?! How could Gloria Steinem not love women who throw drinks on each other and get into screaming fights about banal things like wearing fur to a party?
Well, she didn’t so much reveal it as come out and say, “I think the worst [shows] are the ‘Housewives’ shows, because they present women as rich, pampered, dependent and hateful towards each other.”
Steinem’s timing is spot-on, as “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” season finale started this week with the first part of a two-part reunion special in which the women rehash the major conflicts of the show.
The show itself is a spectacle of adult-children, and the worst part is these adult-children have actual children.
In one episode, a woman is unaware her daughter is at a friend’s house because the woman most likely has a drinking problem. Despite the title, the women are hardly shown doing anything other than going on lavish vacations sans children, taking exercise classes together, going to parties and meeting up with each other to gossip about the rest of the group.
Meanwhile, on the rare occasions the husbands appear on the show, the men are portrayed as enjoying carefree, simple friendships — an obvious and calculated contrast to the women’s screaming brawls.
Steinem is correct in her assessment of the series. However, the show has an irresistible appeal.
Although I, as well as other women I know, enjoy smart shows like “Girls,” “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad,” trashy reality shows have an undeniable pull. The characters are manic, fall into ridiculous situations and otherwise serve to remind us that, even at our worst, at least we’ve never gotten into a hair-pulling fight at a lingerie party.
In cultural discourse, someone is always quick to claim reality TV shows glamorize teen pregnancy (“Teen Mom”) and hedonistic lifestyles (“Jersey Shore”), or reality shows portray women as conniving bitches (“The Real Housewives” franchise). I have a hard time believing that. Nothing is glamorous about the lives played across these shows — I can’t get through a single episode of “Teen Mom” without feeling depressed for the girls, especially because all of them are expecting more children.
Same with “Jersey Shore” and “The Real Housewives”: Their lives are so depressingly empty, void of fulfillment or real friendships or satisfying relationships. They exist in a manipulated reality, and there’s nothing glamorous about that.
A study published in Psychology Today revealed participants in a survey who said they enjoyed intellectual activities are no less likely to watch reality TV than the participants who said they didn’t enjoy intellectual activities.
In a different article on reality TV also published in Psychology Today, the author admits she is a “reality TV aficionado.”
The writer, Melanie Greenberg, said, “Being hardworking and self-disciplined in my own life, I enjoy the escape into fantasy and melodrama at the end of the day, as well as the rags to riches stories, over the top diva antics, glamorous lifestyles, and mean girls (and boys) shenanigans. As an expert on life stress, emotion and human behavior, my brain gets a workout trying to explain these theatrics in the light of psychological theory and research.”
The common response I’ve heard when asking friends why they watch reality shows, and the response I am quick to give, is they watch for the entertainment value and a brief self-esteem boost.
The characters in the shows are parodies, and their dramas and conflicts are superficial.
Chloe Finch is a journalism sophomore at UF. Her column usually runs on Thursdays. You can contact her via opinions@alligator.org.
