Final Draft
“Don’t stress your brain out too much; just sit there and look pretty”
[[1]]
To what
extent are females represented as sex objects in reality TV shows such as ‘Love
Island’?
Reality
TV shows are not a good influence for young female audiences as they may assume
that they need to replicate their actions and live up to their physical
appearances:” Among girls who watch reality TV, 72% say they spend a lot of
time on their appearance.”[[2]] Despite the gains made by feminism
over the last 30 years, reality TV still offers too many negative gender
stereotypes. This is particularly
highlighted in the latest reality TV show, ‘Love Island’ (2016). It is a
documentary sub-genre, created by ITV and produced by ITV Studios.
It is aired at 9pm, after the watershed due to its explicit content and
predominantly targeted at mainstreamers, C2DE working class aged 16-30+, ranging
from 70% female viewers to 30% male viewers. The
show follows a linear narrative therefore editing plays a key role within the
narrative because they must cut down twenty-four hours into forty minutes. The
dominant ideologies consist of men having authority over women which portrays
women as sex objects, reinforcing patriarchy: “Males as a group have and
do benefit the most from patriarchy, from the assumption that they are superior
to females and should rule over us” [[3]],
and the ideology that in order to be with
someone you must be willing to engage in sexual activities, thereby making it
acceptable for a man to have sex with more than one women however when a woman
does she’s criticised.
This ideology was challenged when contestant Zara
Holland was stripped of her Miss Great Britain title after engaging in a sexual
act on screen. However, fellow contestant Sophie Gradon spoke out in her
defence: “As an ex, Miss Newcastle and Miss GB, I
can say that it’s time people move forward from their old-fashioned thinking
and accept the simple fact that... women like to have sex!"[[4]] The pageant organisers said: "The feedback we
have received from pageant insiders and members of the general public is such
that we cannot promote Zara as a positive role model moving forward.” [[5]]
Throughout
the show, women are being represented as
sex objects which reinforces the dominant female stereotype of women being 'sex
icons', “Women might have an even tougher time, especially moms, who may try to
get their teenage daughters to refrain from being objectified.” [[6]] The denotations of a girl in a bikini gives the
connotation of her being sexually exploited by showing off their body.
The
first episode starts with close-ups/medium shots of the villa and these shots
also show the arms and legs of a women which already objectifies women as
they're using these close-ups to potentially attract a male audience. There is
a voice-over of a women who appears to be the host of the show, this sound is
non-diegetic as we can't see her speaking directly to the camera. There is also
non-diegetic music being played alongside the voice-over which is parallel as
it sounds very sexual which fits with the nature of the show. The host says:
"It's a beautiful villa for beautiful people."[[7]], this comment is
controversial as the aim of the show is to bring in people from the public and
this comment makes us imply that the producers of the show
are specifically looking for: "Some sexy singles"[[8]] which was another
comment made by the host. This further emphasises that the show is merely
concerned about the appearance of the people within the show.
After the shots of the villa and the host, there is a medium
shot of a boy and girl in bed half naked which gives the impression that they
have been engaging in sexual activities which then reveals that the show is not
only about "sexy" people but also about sex, “Watching
at home, viewers couldn't hide their disgust at the public sex antics on the
ITV2 show. One tweeted: 'Love Island legit makes me feel sick. How you gunna be
having sex with people watching and saying stuff about sexual positions.
wtaf.’”[[9]]
There is also a
long shot of a girl working in the office surrounded only by men which is followed
by her getting up and stripping into a bikini. She then walks off while the men
just look at her in approval, “If we start to believe what these shows tell us,
which is that women are stupid, incompetent, and can only succeed by using
their sexuality to get ahead.” [[10]] This
relates to Mulvey’s theory[[11]]
about the male gaze as it appears that the girl is presented merely to look at.
This scene also relates to Perkin’s theory[[12]]
about stereotyping being partly true as she is in an office working however she
is only acknowledged for her sexuality and beauty therefore portraying her as a
sex object.
Also, according
to Marxism, the sexist representation of women in the media, advertising
and popular culture is no longer limited to the presentation of women as
dutiful wives and mothers. It now encourages women to be seen, and aspire to be
seen, as sexually available and attractive to men at all times. At work,
women continue to earn less than men and tend to be concentrated in lower paid,
female-dominated and highly casual industries and jobs, “Rather than seeing examples of
what women can become — a scientist, a vineyard owner, a chef — girls and young
women are watching examples of females as teen moms, housewives or socialites
(Kardashians).” [[13]]
The opening
scene introduces the contestants of the show and they are all good looking,
fitting the dominant reading of the show being for "Beautiful
people". This sequel scene sums up
the dominant reading of the show being simply about attractive people coming on
a show to find love, aka engaging in sexual activities. The host once again
confirms this reading by saying; "Let’s meet the group of gorgeous young
singles."[[14]] The
female contestants arrive wearing bikinis which is followed by close-ups of
their bodies to potentially attract a male audience due to the male gaze, “Throughout the decades, TV has
depicted females by focusing on their physical characteristics, sexual appeal,
and romantic success, whether they are housewives, mothers, or objects of
desire.” [[15]]
The
first contestant is Miss Great Britain and instead of talking about her career
to be an inspiration to the younger girls watching, she chooses to talk about
her assets: "My boobs are real, 32 DD."[[16]] This portrays her
as a sex object and according to the hypodermic needle model[[17]] this
representation is injecting information into young females and also young males
that a woman is merely acknowledged due to her physical appearance, “Research
has indicated that body dissatisfaction can be seen in studies with girls as
young as six years old.”[[18]] This is damaging and rises
concern for moral panic[[19]] as younger females
begin to feel insecure about the way they look, “Girls today are often just as self-hating when it comes to their
bodies as their pre-feminist counterparts were.”[[20]] and
also aim to have this 'perfect body' that the females on this show all have and
show off in bikinis majority of the time in the show, “A
cultural ideal of thinness for women, which is well below the average weight of
women in that culture, directly causes body dissatisfaction at a higher rate
among women than men.”[[21]]
Feminists
have spoken out against the objectification and stereotypes of women and male
domination of society/patriarchy. They also argue that sexual objectification
can lead to negative psychological effects including eating
disorders, depression and sexual dysfunction, and can give women
negative self-images because of the belief that their intelligence
and competence are currently not being, nor will ever be, acknowledged by
society, “The sexualisation of women is related to the
development of eating disorders, low self-esteem, depression, and negative
feelings regarding sexuality.” [[22]] Additionally,
young male audiences also may be injected with the idea that a woman is merely
beneficial due to her sexuality. This is also a moral panic as men objectify
women, “When men view images of sexually objectified women,
it has been shown to increase men’s acceptance of rape myths, interpersonal
violence, and gender role stereotyping.”
[[23]]
According
to the theory proposed by Levi Strauss, there are many binary oppositions
[[24]] visible in this
scene, the first would be 'men vs women' and 'masculinity vs femininity'. This
is shown as the female contestants stand in a line while the men come in one by
one, “As they attempted to couple up, the girls were lined up (in bikinis,
obv) for the boys to pick from like slabs of meat on an oestrogen buffet.”[[25]]
You can tell from some of the female contestants body language that they
are trying to gain the attention of the male contestants and they do this
by standing in a seductive manor, “And you’d
understand that women were put on this earth to compete for male
attention—when, of course, they’re not busy pulling each other’s hair out or lounging half naked in a hot tub.”[[26]] The
female contestants have to stand forward if they like the way the guy looks but
ultimately, the male contestant gets to pick one.
This
is objectifying them along with making the men seem superior to them since they
are the ones picking and not the girls, “When it comes
to men, the women become naïve, this is the similarity between the
girls in both reality TV programmes. This supports hegemony that
women should be beautiful and take care of their appearance.”[[27]] This
relates to Levi-Strauss's theory that representations are formed by ideology
and in this case, the producer clearly holds the view that men are dominant and
emphasises on patriarchy as they are picking girls as though they are an item
in a shop or an object, “Males as
a group have and do benefit the most from patriarchy, from the assumption that
they are superior to females and should rule over us.”[[28]]
This also relates to Medhurst's theory of using stereotypes to tell the
audience that men hold dominance while women are subordinate, “These shows not only culturally signify that
subordination is acceptable, but they promote the embodiment of the media’s
version of attractive; tall, thin and beautiful.”[[29]]
One
of the female contestants is not chosen by any of the boys and is paired up
with a guy she didn't like which is obvious through her facial expression which
shows distress, this relates to Blumler’s and Katz uses and gratifications
theory[[30]]
of personal identity. In this case, young females could see themselves being
reflected as they may also experience rejection. Finding themselves reflected
in texts and learning behaviour could also produce negative role models for young
girls, “You are told in reality TV that no quality about women is worth
anything other than her beauty, that she has no access to power other than her
beauty.” [[31]]
An
article by Daily Mail focuses on two contestants who have sex before the
lights go off in front of other housemates who then applaud. Malin
Andersson and Terry Walsh couldn't be bothered to wait until the lights were
off and decided to get intimate with an audience. “Viewers couldn't hide
their disgust at the public sex antics on the ITV2 show, Ofcom said they
had received 10 complaints during the current series of Love Island, relating
to swearing, glamorisation of smoking and inappropriate sexual activity.”
[[32]]
Similarly, ITV’s Love Island was investigated by the television watchdog
over complaints about a sex scene involving two contestants which was broadcast
just 10 minutes after the watershed. Ofcom launched an investigation after
eight viewers complained.
The
representation shown in ‘Love Island’ is accurate in some aspects since female
celebrities usually exploit themselves in the sense that they dress
quite revealingly or openly engage in sexual relationships, “The
increasing sexual connotation of reality programmes displays a cultural message
to viewers that it is appropriate to over-sexualize your lifestyle as well as
revolve the majority of your life around dating and intimacy.” [[33]]
Additionally, the representation isn't
fair as its producing a wrong role model for girls to look up to, “Teens and adolescents who
regularly view sexually or romantically themed reality shows are more likely to
endorse traditional gender roles and stereotypes. These traditional roles limit
women to the home and the caring for of children and allow men to be the bread
winners.”[[34]] Younger females watching
the show will assume that in order to gain attention they need to look/dress a certain way, “A study
found that girls who watched more appearance focused television shows were less
satisfied with the way they looked. Results also indicated that girls who had
more discussions with their peers about celebrities and what they looked like
had more of a desire to be thinner.” [[35]]
Furthermore, in reality TV, women are portrayed as dependent and
subordinate to men, as well as vain. The women are
generally young and physically attractive displaying them as sex
symbols, “The portrayal of women in reality TV is not realistic.”[[36]] This stereotype is not only confining
but offensive to female progress, “Before women’s liberation all females young and
old were socialised by sexist thinking to believe that our values rested solely
on appearance and whether or not we were perceived to be good looking,
especially by men.”[[37]] Women are also judged against men who serve as the norm in
television and society.
Some
of the main themes in the show is that in order to be with someone you
have to be willing to engage in sexual activities, it’s acceptable for a man to
have sex with more than one women however when a woman does she’s spoken about, “Apart from
being depicted as passive and weak, women are generally much younger and more
physically attractive than their male counterparts, displaying them as sex
symbols.” [[38]] The
major values in this text make the audience assume that relationships are all
about sex, being physically attractive and having trust issues, “Nearly every night on every major network,
“unscripted” (but carefully crafted) ‘reality’ TV shows routinely glorify
retrograde stereotypes that most people would assume got left behind
thirty-five years ago.”[[39]]
ITV determine what they broadcast on their platform
therefore meaning that they control the way women are
being stereotyped in reality TV shows they produce.
Rather than subverting these stereotypes they are reinforcing them in
shows such as Love Island where women are being represented as sex objects, “Reality TV shows are far from being simple
‘guilty pleasures,’ these programs are actually guilty of fomenting gender-war
ideology and significantly affecting the intellectual and political development
of this generation’s young viewers.” [[40]]
Throughout the show, the male contestants only speak
about engaging into sexual activities with the female contestants
which once again portrays them as sex objects, “The concept of being a
gentleman has been lost on this lot, who spend their days cooped up in the
villa either bragging about their sexual conquests or objectifying their female
co-stars.”[[41]]
In addition to that, contestants Nathan and Cara
were cuddled up in bed, when Cara declined a kiss, Nathan told her: “You’re the
most frigid girl I’ve ever met in my life, you are frigid aren’t you? Do I
intimidate you? I thought so.”[[42]] This comment
further injects into young girls minds that they need to be willing to perform
sexual acts even if they’re not comfortable in order to gain approval, “By
putting men like this on TV, we’re not only teaching boys it’s ok to speak to
women like this, but we’re also perpetuating the idea that women should ‘put
out’ or face ridicule.”[[43]]
Furthermore, since it is a reality TV
show it is expected since similar behaviour is seen on other shows, e.g.
Geordie Shore, Towie, Big Brother etc. “Kim Kardashian was only noticed due to her publicly
leaked sexual intercourse stunt with musical act Ray J. Before this she was
just another young woman, which only further promotes the over-sexualized
nature of women in television and the need to flaunt ones physical attributes
in order to get noticed.” [[44]] Many
criticize Geordie
Shore as entertainment in its lowest form as it promotes fights,
drinking, people falling over, nudity, swearing, and “bucking” [sexual
intercourse].
However, it could be argued that “We exist in world where we
are told to fear or be ashamed of our bodies, rather than enjoying them. And
somehow the Geordie women have unlearned this — and thus,
in their small way, helped feminism.”[[45]] They
sexually compete against the boys of the show. Holly warns that “I’m going to
be banging for fun. Literally, I’m gonna be the new Gary.”[[46]]
The girls refuse to be passive objects, instead adopting the boy’s sexual
aggression and reflecting it back at them. Rather than attempting to rein in
the boys’ “pulling [picking up women]” they level
the playing field by adopting for themselves the masculine sexual standard. On
the other hand, shows like “The Bachelor” showcase
a regressive view of relationships by allowing women to compete for a
relationship and saying “pick me, pick me” in hopes that they are chosen by the
bachelor. From the slut, the airhead, the backstabber, and the Angry Black
women often portrayed, the type of behaviour portrayed on reality television
has set the feminist movement back at least 30 years!”[[47]]
When exploring historical
reality television, there were shows such as ‘The Up series’ which is a series
of documentary films produced
by Granada Television that have
followed the lives of fourteen British children since 1964, when they were
seven years old. So far the documentary has had eight episodes spanning 49
years (one episode every seven years) and the documentary has been broadcast on
both ITV and BBC. Another show was ‘The American Sportsman’ which
ran from 1965 to 1986 on ABC in the United States. A typical
episode featured one or more celebrities, and sometimes their family members,
being accompanied by a camera crew on an outdoor adventure, such as hunting,
fishing, hiking, scuba diving, rock climbing, wildlife photography, horseback
riding, race car driving, and the like, with most of the resulting action and
dialogue being unscripted, except for the narration. From this we can see that reality TV shows
held more educational purposes in the past however they now hold entertainment
value. Social realism is something the British have always done well. We
live in a country more liberal than most, where contentious opinions have often been
tackled through drama. Television has helped break down certain
social barriers by educating the populace.
Many of the women on reality TV shows tend to be acting out
lives as teenage mothers, cheated-on girlfriends and/or scheming drama queens,
“I’m thinking of programmes… where all the women talk about is their looks and
their clothes. It focuses on the lives of beautiful women who spend a lot of
money on themselves – and that’s just not the real world.”[[48]] By contrast, strong and
hard-working, purposeful young women with dreams and ambitions beyond their
looks and their sex lives are very thin on the ground in these programmes,
“They offer such a limited view of what it is to be a woman, and all over the
world young girls are lapping it up.”[[49]] The emphasis on the value of women being about how they
look and how they dress is all-pervasive in the reality TV genre, “Studies
have shown that women have been underrepresented and stereotyped in TV
programs.”[[50]] The message girls can pick up from this is clear:
being a woman is all about style and appearance, not what you do or what you
stand for, “A study found that for girls their ideal figure was thinner
than they were and that their ideal figure was also thinner than what boys
indicated that they liked. Boys showed no desire to be thinner.”[[51]]
To
conclude, with the media containing so many
images of women and men, and messages about men, women and sexuality today,
“the representation of women almost inevitably involves an invocation of
sexuality/sexual performances.”[[52]], it is highly
unlikely that these ideas would have no impact on our own sense of identity,
“media and communications are a central element of modern life, whilst gender
and sexuality remain at the core of how we think about our identities.”[[53]] Love Island is
just another example of how despite the multiple feminist movements, women will
always be perceived as an object and men will always hold authority, “Boys will
be boys” is an idea that many have been socialized into believing. It serves as
an excuse for men to look at/talk about women in a sexual way. “It has been
internalized by both me and women.”[[54]]
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Reality TV In 2016-
Daily Mail- TV watchdog to investigate ITV's
Love Island sex scene aired just ten minutes after watershed
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The Problem With Women on Reality TV-
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[1] Love
Island, 2016
[2] The
Huffington Post- What
Has Reality TV Done to Young Women?
[3] Worell, J. (2001)
[4] Love Island,
2016
[5] Daily Star- 'Women like to have sex' Love Island Sophie hits out at
Miss GB for Zara de-crowning
[6] Forbes- What Reality TV Is Doing To Women
[7] Love
Island, 2016
[8] Ibid.
[9]
Daily Mail- TV watchdog to investigate ITV's
Love Island sex scene aired just ten minutes after watershed
[10] Newsweek- THE PROBLEM WITH
WOMEN ON REALITY TV
[11] Mulvey, L. (1999)
[12] Tessa Perkins- Stereotyping
[13] The Huffington Post- What Has Reality TV Done to Young Women?
[14] Love Island, 2016
[15] Iowa State
University- Portrayals of women in prime time reality TV programs
[16] Love Island, 2016
[17] Watson, J. B. (1930)
[18]Eastern
Kentucky University- Reality television and its impact on women’s body image
[19] Cohen, S. (2011)
[20] Hooks, B. (2000)
[21] Eastern Kentucky University- Reality television and its impact on
women’s body image
[22] Women as Sexual Objects and
Victims
[23] Ibid.
[24] Levi-Strauss, C. (1969)
[25] Huffpost Entertainment- ‘Love
Island’ Is a Lesson in Why We Deserve Better from Reality TV In 2016
[26] Newsweek- THE PROBLEM WITH
WOMEN ON REALITY TV
[27] Chelssrep- How Are Women Represented In Reality TV Programmes?
[28] Gauntlett, D. (2002)
[29] Dubrofsky R. E. (2011)
[30] Blumler, J. G. & Katz, E. (1974)
[31] Reality TV and Women's Self Esteem
[32] Daily Mail- TV watchdog to investigate
ITV's Love Island sex scene aired just ten minutes after watershed
[33] The Artifice- Stereotyped: Women in Reality TV
[34] Ibid.
[35] Eastern Kentucky University- Reality television and its impact on
women’s body image
[36] The Problem with Women on
Reality TV
[37] Hooks, B. (2000)
[38] The Artifice- Stereotyped: Women in Reality TV
[39] Pozner, J. L. (2010)
[40] Ibid.
[41] Huffpost
Entertainment- ‘Love Island’ Is a Lesson in Why We Deserve Better from
Reality TV in 2016
[42] Love Island, 2016
[43] Huffpost Entertainment- ‘Love
Island’ Is a Lesson in Why We Deserve Better from Reality TV in 2016
[44] The Artifice- Stereotyped: Women in Reality TV
[45] The Girls of Geordie
Shore: Unlikely Paragons Of Sex Positivity
[46] Geordie Shore, 2011-ongoing
[47] Blog- My Love Hate Relationship with Women in Reality TV
[48] Reality TV—The real effects of Gender Stereotypes in the
media on our girls’ self-esteem
[49] Ibid.
[50] Iowa State University- Portrayals of women in prime time
reality TV programs
[51] Eastern Kentucky University- Reality television and its
impact on women’s body image
[52] Tasker, Y. (1998)
[53] Ibid.
[54] Vanderbilt (feminism and
film) - Representations of Women in Reality TV
