Essay plan

To what extent are females represented as sex objects in reality TV shows such as ‘Love Island’? (What impact are these objectified representations of women having on female audiences? Is this an example of negative role models?)

Main text : Love Island 

Migrain- highlighted in blue
Wider Context-  highlighted in pink

Key Theories

• Mulvey - Male Gaze- Mulvey claimed that women are turned into sex objects through how they are shot in the media. By showing only body parts they are turned into objects for male pleasure. She called this fragmentation that leads to objectification.
• Hypodermic Needle Model- Younger girls may be influenced by the content they see on reality TV which could manipulate them.
• Uses and Gratifications- Diversion: escape from everyday problems
  Personal Relationships: using reality TV for emotional interaction
  
  

  Personal Identity: finding themselves reflected in texts and learning behaviour- (negative role models for young girls)
• 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 casualised industries and jobs. In no small part because of this, women continue to be more likely to be the primary carers of children, dependent at least in part on the wages of male (and less often female) partners or struggling to make ends meet as single parents.
  
• Feminism- Feminists have spoken out against the objectification and stereotyes 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. Some have argued that the feminist movement itself has contributed to the problem of the sexual objectification of women by pushing for an end to the so-called oppressive patriarchal 

Main stereotypes of women:

• the dumb blonde
• the bitch
• the mother
• the housewife
• the femme fatale
• the cougar

Introduction: (300)

• 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. 
• Documentary genre- Reality TV .
• Women are being represented as sex objects- reinforcing female stereotypes
• The show was created by ITV and produced by ITV Studios
• Scheduling: aired at 9pm, after the watershed. 
• Targeted at mainstreamers, C2DE working class, 16-30+. 70% females/ 30% males
• The show carries out a linear narrative
• Editing plays a key role within the narrative because they have to cut down 24 hours into 40 minutes
• Dominant ideology- men having authority over women- sex objects/patriarchy/feminism
• Love- makes you value your significant other
• Relationships- trust issues, boyfriend/girlfriend
• Sex- in order to be with someone you have to be willing to engage in sexual activities, its acceptable for a man to have sex with more than one women however when a women does shes spoken about 
• Conveys the dominant stereotype of women in reality tv
• Denotation: girl in a bikini - Connotation: sexually exploited, showing off their body, 
• Denotation: smoking - Connotation: bad health, dangerous, not classy
• Denotation: sex - Connotation: sexual relationship, love, boyfriend/girlfriend
• Denotation: boy working out - Connotation: showing off their body, getting female attention

Quotes:

Daily Star- 'Women like to have sex' Love Island Sophie hits out at Miss GB for Zara de-crowning

 

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/showbiz-tv/hot-tv/524739/Love-Island-Sophie-defends-Zara-Miss-GB-decrowning

 

·         "Life shouldn’t be about judging one another. Say, for example, judging a young woman for enjoying herself. A young woman who hasn’t harmed anyone, but a woman who has faced a torrent of judgemental and closed-minded opinions since leaving Love Island. 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!"

·         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.

Paragraph 1: (600 words)

• In this paragraph I will be focusing the opening scene of Love Island which objectifies the female contestants.
• This will be followed by the textual analysis - linking to Mulvey theory of the Male Gaze and the pleasures the male audience would get out from watching this scene.

Quotes:

Huffpost Entertainment- ‘Love Island’ Is a Lesson in Why We Deserve Better from Reality TV In 2016

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ashley-percival/love-island-we-deserve-better-from-reality-tv-_b_10339138.html

• ·         “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.”
• ·         “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.”
• ·         “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.”

Paragraph 2: (400)

• In this paragraph I will be analysing Other media texts: Geordie Shore and Americas Next Top Model

Quotes:

The Huffington Post- What Has Reality TV Done to Young Women?

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ashley-bush-and-raphaela-sapire/reality-tv_b_1916603.html

 

·         “Among girls who watch reality TV, 72% say they spend a lot of time on their appearance”

·         “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, e.g. (Kardashians).”

·         “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.”- President Obama

The Artifice- Stereotyped: Women in Reality TV

http://the-artifice.com/sterotyped-women-in-reality-tv/

·         “Women are often presented as dependent and subordinate as well as dim-witted and vain.”

·         “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.”

·         “There is also a prominent theme in reality television that confines women to a home setting which renders that the main female roles exist inside the home.”

·         “Women are often judged against men whom serve as the norm in television and in society.”

·         “Women are valued simply for their relationships with men which becomes a chauvinistic motif throughout reality television.” 

·         “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.”

·         The Real Housewives- “The wives in the program are always dressed to the nines and made up heavily, adorned in expensive jewels and sporting designer shoes. This makes them seem almost as if they are dolls or toys; property that their husbands dress up.”

·         “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.”

·         “Over forty percent of prime time reality television programs are sexually oriented.”

·         “The increasing sexual connotation of reality programs 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.”

·         “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.” 

·         “Not only do reality television programs relay the appropriateness of the confinement of women, but they also promote over-sexual attitudes in teens and young adults.”

Paragraph 3: (400)

• In this paragraph I will be exploring key issues/debates

Representation and stereotyping:

Studies have shown that women have been underrepresented and stereotyped in TV programs. The representation on Love Island is accurate in some aspects due to the fact that female celebrities usually exploit themselves in the sense that they dress quite revealingly or openly engage in sexual relationships and since its a reality TV show its expected since similar behaviour is seen on other shows, e.g. Geordie Shore, Towie, Big Brother etc. The major values in this text make the audience assume that relationships are all about sex, being physically attractive and having trust issues. There is also friendship values shown which show the contestants being fake to one another and not being loyal.

Reality TV:

In reality TV women presented as dependent and subordinate to men, as well as vain. The women are generally young and physically attractive displaying them as sex symbols.This stereotype is not only confining but offensive to female progress. Women are also judged against men who serve as the norm in television and society. This is seen on the show Love Island when fellow contestant Zara Holland was stripped of her Miss GB title after having sex on-screen.

Moral Panics:

Feminists who oppose sexual objectification are generating a "moral panic".Feminists who organise against pornography are not arguing that sexualised images of women cause moral decay; rather that they perpetuate myths of women's unconditional sexual availability and object status, and thus undermine women's rights to sexual autonomy, physical safety and economic and social equality. The harm done to women is not a moral harm but a political one

Ownership and control:

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, they are all standing in a line wearing bikinis while single men look at them and 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. Furthermore, 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. 

Quotes:

Iowa State University- Portrayals of women in prime time reality TV programs

http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2395&context=rtd

·         “Studies have shown that women have been underrepresented and stereotyped in TV programs.”

·         “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”

Eastern Kentucky University- Reality television and its impact on women’s body image

http://encompass.eku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1049&context=etd

·         “Research has indicated that body dissatisfaction can be seen in studies with girls as young as six years old”

·         “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”

·         “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”

·         “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.”

Paragraph 4: (600)

• In this paragraph I will talk about my historical texts

In 1975, McNeil tested a 7-point critique outline (as following), and he found out that most of them are true.

• Female characters are fewer in number and less central to the plot.
• Marriage and parenthood are considered more important to a woman’s than to a man’s life.
• Television portrays the traditional division of labour in marriage.
• Employed women are shown in traditionally female occupations, as subordinates to men and with little status or power.
• TV-women are more personally-and less professionally-oriented than TV-men.
• Female characters are more passive than male characters.
• Television dramatic programming ignores the existence of the women’s movement.

The American Sportsman

The show 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. 

Up Series

The Up Series 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.

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. Coming of age in the 80s and early 90s, my education came through books and especially television. It is only when considering the developments in television in the 00s that it becomes apparent we enjoyed something of a golden age of social realist drama starting with Delaney and co and leading to the socially aware 80s and censor-bothering 90s.

• audiences are now more accepting of the content produced by explicit scenes within reality TV shows
• we are now socialised to except these norms and values surrounding women and their sexuality.    
• feminism has contributed to this social change as it has meant that women are now considered men's equal and therefore women are liberated and empowered by their sexuality 
• before it was seen as disgraceful to embrace your sexuality as a woman
• the gaining of rights for women has meant that they are now seen as equal 
• studies of gender roles on prime time programs suggest that women in the 1980s were portrayed as working individuals. Still under-represented in prime time shows in the 1990s, they appeared to hold lower status positions than men. During that decade, women were portrayed as having a greater focus on domestic issues. 
• media is a product at the end of the day and women are used to sell that product 
• women's earnings- they are still payed less than men 
• media institutions 
• laws have been passed to help women gain rights, however, that doesn't mean that women in society are seen or treated equally, despite the laws that have been passed 
• the feminism movement has contributed to the change in laws and has enabled women to be empowered by their sexuality 

Quotes:

Hooks, B. (2000). Feminism is for everybody: Passionate politics. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.

·         “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.” (31)

·         “The sexual exploitation of women’s bodies had been a common occurrence in radical movements for social justice.” (25)

·         “Girls today are often just as self-hating when it comes to their bodies as their pre-feminist counterparts were.” (35)

Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV by Jennifer L. Pozne

 

·         “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.”

·         “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.”

 

·         “It creates cultural biases promoted by reality TV about gender, race, class, sexuality, and consumerism, and those biases shape and reflect our cultural perceptions of who we are, what we’re valued for, and what we should view as ‘our place’ in society.”

·         “According to reality television, women in general are golddiggers, bimbos, and bitches, and women of color are violent, ‘low class’ whores. Straight, single gals are pathetic losers and, we’re led to believe, it’s hilarious when they get mocked, dumped, or punched in the face.”

·         “Throughout the first decade of the twenty-first century, our most popular form of media has erased all signs that the women’s rights, civil rights movement, and gay and lesbian rights movements ever occurred.”

Conclusion: (200)

• Sum up my argument
• link back to question

Quotes:

Media Preferences, Sexual Attitudes and Gender Stereotypes among Adolescents

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-010-9815-1/fulltext.html

·         “Youth media—TV, music, music video, internet—are saturated with sounds and images of a sexually explicit nature. When frequently exposed to these media, or when actively seeking for this type of content, both girls and boys may receive confirmation that permissive sex is the norm, that looks and sexiness count for women, and that men are sex-driven creatures whose cool and tough looks enhance their pick-up skills.”

·         “Media may present a rather unrealistic and skewed account of human romance and sexuality leading some commentators to raise concerns that youth media, with their formulaic portrayal of gender roles and sexuality, is developing and sustaining stereotypical gender-role schemas; for example, ideas that, for women, looks and sexiness are all important and, for men, sexual obsession is normal, and sexual prowess an asset.”

Forbes- What Reality TV Is Doing To Women

http://www.forbes.com/sites/worldviews/2012/04/20/what-reality-tv-is-doing-to-women/#7b39cfcd719f

·         “Women might have an even tougher time, especially moms who may try to get their teenage daughters to refrain from being objectified.”

Reality TV and Women's Self Esteem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdAuOYB8dUI

·         “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.” 

Elle Canada: “The Surreal Life…Reality TV: Harmful fluff or a humorous escape?“ 

·         “Women are bitches. Women are stupid. Women are incompetent at work and failures at home. How do we know? Because reality TV tells us so.”

·         “The media shapes and informs our ideas about people, politics and public policy.”

·         “When it comes to women, the ‘social beliefs’ that reality producers, writers and editors exploit are both anachronistic and toxic. So, what does reality TV want us to believe it means to be a “real” woman? According to a decade of “unscripted” (but carefully crafted) television, we’re desperate, pathetic gold diggers who aren’t happy without husbands.”