“It’s a beautiful villa for beautiful people” [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 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 carries out a linear
narrative therefore editing plays a key role within the narrative because they
must cut down 24 hours into 40 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
spoken about. 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: “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!"[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 just 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 Mulveys theory about the male gaze
as it appears that the girl is presented merely to look at. This scene also
relates to Perkins theory 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).” [11]
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; "lets meet the group of gorgeous young singles."[12]
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.”
[13]
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."[14]
This portrays her as a sex object and according to the hypodermic needle model,
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.”[15] This is damaging and rises concern for moral panic 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.”[16] 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.”[17]
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.” [18] 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.” [19]
There are many binary oppositions 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.”[20] 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.”[21] 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.”[22] 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.”[23] 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.”[24]
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 Katz and
Blumlers uses and gratifications theory 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.” [25]
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.” [26] 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 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.” [27] 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.”[28] 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.” [29]
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.”[30] 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.”[31] 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,
its 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.”
[32] 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.”[33]
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.” [34] 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.”[35] 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.”[36] 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.”[37]
Furthermore, since its a reality TV show its 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.” [38] 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.”[39]
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.”[40]
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!”[41]
When
exploring historical reality television I came across 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 I came across 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.”[42] 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.”[43] 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.”[44] 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.”[45]
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 and
invocation of sexuality/sexual performances.”[46], 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.”[47]
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.”[48]
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Bibliography
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Webpages cited:
Blog- My Love Hate Relationship with
Women in Reality TV
Moving
texts:
