The other night, I was flipping through the channels absent-mindedly when I came upon this scene of a woman pummeling another woman’s face as others tried to pry her off. I became intrigued and slowly set the remote down as I watched this picture of chaos erupt on my screen. What had this poor thing done to deserve such a beating? And why was this other lady so angry?
Sadly, this is becoming the dominant representation of women on television today. Shows like Bad Girls Club, Basketball Wives, Love and Hip Hop and The Real Housewives of series have portrayed women in a light that paints us as catty, defensive, aggressive, classless, promiscuous and ignorant. But who is the main viewing audience of these shows?
More than likely, you won’t catch your boyfriend captivated by an episode of Mob Wives (and if you do, I’d be a little suspect). Just like I became caught up in watching that scene of the women fighting, women are watching these shows–often getting so involved that they become oblivious to the fact that a lot of these reality shows are NOT reality.
What was that? Yes. REALITY SHOWS ARE NOT REALITY. They are, more times than not, loosely-scripted series with terrible plot-lines and bad acting. Producers and writers create a lot of the events that happen on these shows for ratings and advertising. Pure and simple.
So what is this dehumanization of women that we are seeing and why is it happening? The better question: why are we letting it happen?
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