Geordie shore (My primary text)
- The main text
which I will be focusing on will be Geordie Shore, Geordie Shore is a British
reality television series broadcast on MTV it was realised on 24 May 2011, and is the British spin-off of the American show
Jersey Shore. The series follows the lives of eight housemate spending
their summer at the Geordie Shore in the UK. The original
cast members were: Gary "Gaz" Beadle, Charlotte-Letitia Crosby, Jay
Gardner, Holly Hagan, Greg Lake, Sophie Kasaei, Vicky Pattison and James
Tindale.
- This episode shows me how females are represented in reality TV programmes so therefore would be a great primary text for me to use for my critical investigation which is 'To what
extent are Females within reality TV shows represented in negative
aspect and what affects does it have on its viewers.' From this text, I can take plenty of good examples of negative stereotypes of women and the way they portray females in society today.
Americans next top model (Secondary text)
- My secondary text that I have chosen to analyse and usefor my critical investigation is American next top model. This programme is an American reality
television which was premiered on May 20, 2003. It originally aired on UPN, whose
merger with The WB created The CW in 2006. The program has aired nineteen
cycles, and sees several women compete for the title of "America's Next
Top Model", providing them with an opportunity to begin their career in
the modeling industry.
- This particular reality TV programme will help me gather great examples of the way this show humiliates and degrades women's. This show has many negative feedback from its views as many females thought 'it promotes racial division' and its 'demeaning to women' .
Article :
The Hills ( secondary text )
- The programme 'The hills' is an American reality television series that is aired on MTV from May 31, 2006 until July 13, 2010. The series aired six seasons and focused on the personal and professional lives of several young women residing in Los Angeles, California. Its premise was conceived by Adam DiVello.
Academic texts/books
- Rediscovering Reality ( article) :
“Big Brother,
thanks to the online feed, was both a TV show and a webcam site, with four live
camera feeds available at all hours online.” P63 – reality TV link to
new/digital media. Perhaps discuss how reality TV is new phenomenon? Has it been
driven by social media and online content?
Reality Bites Back- The Troubling
Truth about Guilty Pleasure Tv Jennifer L. Pozner
“When Hollywood pushes the limit, it’s usually bad
news for women. That has been the increasingly truth with reality TV.”pg.112
“Reality tv attacks on women’s social, sexual,
political power.” pg. 112
“The influence of all media is systemic and affects
how we think and feel in ways we don’t even recognise.”
“So, what do reality TV producers want us to
believe about ourselves and about ‘our place’ in society
?”pg.142 - allows me to back up my points
on that reality TV has its affects on the audience and what it makes
us think about ourselves.
“Social beliefs ...women are conniving, deceitful
and vicious and all men should be aware that they are money –grubbing gold
diggers.” pg.142
“Perfect-picture reality TV women” - what the
characters within
“Men are unworthy of love if they are not
rich.”pg.142
Portraying the female population as ditzy, inept
workers, wife’s and mothers. pg.142
“They have created a universe were women not only
have no real choices but don’t even want any.” pg.156
“Single women are seen as they could never be happy
or flourished financially without husbands.”
“Unreal world” pg.156 &“Misleading to the
viewers”.pg. 156- these quotes show that reality isn't so real.
“Probably a little bit of truth to what you see but
reality TV producers are manipulating everything.”pg.187- producers in this
book are letting us know that reality tv only has a little bit of truth.
“Women in reality TV are moulded into predetermined
stock characters such as “The bitch”, “The weepers” and “The Angry black women”
the strong, independent women are typically excluded.” pg.187 - the
typical sterotypesof each character and what are to expect in
reality TV shows.
“Reality TV include stereotypes that most people
would assume got left behind 35 years ago”
One Dimensional women (zero books) by Nina power
“feminism was at one time a great generator of new
thoughts and new modes of existence but for a generation
growing up with this in their eye-sight an impression that this is what they
should aspire too.”
pg.69
- Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (Culture, Media and Identities series); Stuart Hall – (talks about representations in the media industry in general)
pg.69
- Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (Culture, Media and Identities series); Stuart Hall – (talks about representations in the media industry in general)
“Language and representation produce meaning.”pg 18
“To represent something is to describe or depict
it, to call it up in the mind by description or portrayal or imagination, to
place a likeness before in our minds or in our senses.”pg. 18
“Two
systems of representation” pg18
Representation & Reality: Portraits of Women's Lives in the Western Cape 1948-1976
“emphasis on sexism both divides men and women and distracts them from
the issue of race.” pg23
- proves that its not just women that are being represented negatively and that its also men, but at the same time suggests that having a negative representation allows us to ignore the issues of race, so could this be one of the reasons to why women are potrayed negatively.
Different articles,
quotes and internet links that relate to representation, reality TV
“how sure are we that this new generation of young
women can distinguish fact from fiction or real life from reality?”
“The media constantly reminds us that we’re not good
enough, we need to be fixed, and that our value lies in our youth and beauty.”
“When watching these shows
the resounding message is that “ordinary” may as well be synonymous with
“worthless”.”
“Women are becoming desensitized to their emotional
needs and instead use beauty as a temporary band-aid and reality TV secretly
promotes this. Statistics report that depression, eating disorders, and low
self-esteem are at an all time high in young girls and women.”
“These particular shows have been masterfully orchestrated to depict
a cultural norm that directly impacts women’s value to society with the promise
that the thinner you are, the prettier you are, and the more outrageously you
behave the more successful and happy you will be.”
“With reality shows like these dominating the
primetime airwaves we have to be vigilant and heighten our awareness to what
exactly our children are watching.”
“For young women the false illusion of beauty has
proven to be damaging to their perception of themselves and the world they live
in.”
http://www.msmagazine.com/fall2004/unrealworld.asp
; Feminist News
“No one wants to see a brainiac in a bikini in
reality televsion. In this unreal world, women aren’t just stupid — they’re
also catty and bitchy.”
“the reasons that this group of people that are represented in this way is because it is more entertaining for the audiences"
“stereotypes can be good and being able to represent women to be the same in reality makes it easier to stereotype these people to the particular place that these women are from.” - reasons to why the females in Geordie shore are represented negatively
Books-
Feminist Media Studies by Liesbet Van Zoonen
"Feminist
have drawn attention to the under representation of women
in higher education and as scientists"- Relates to Pennys role in the Big
Bang Theory
Sexual Teens, Sexual Media: Investigating Media's Influence by By
Jane D. (Jane Delano) Brown, Jeanne R. Steele, Jane Delano Brown Jeanne R.
Steele Kim Walsh-Childers
"seventeen and teen
vogue reveal that they are designed primarily to tell girls that
their most important function in life is to get sexually attractive"
Feminist
Media Studies by Liesbet Van Zoonen
"Feminist
have drawn attention to the under representation of women
in higher education and as scientists”
This is
a great quote that totally supports my point on that women in US sitcoms are
still being underrepresented in education and characters which are scientists.
For example Penny in Big bang theory is the best example of how female
characters are being shown as these “dumb” characters as we see her character that
has dropped out of college and works in the cheese cake factory who dreams big
to be in Hollywood, her character really doesn’t aspire to achieve something
academically. This really shows how in US contemporary shows have a norm of
where the main female character should be just this “attractive idiot”, as if
she falls into an opposite characterisation she will be isolated and treated
differently from the rest of the characters. For example in 30 rock Tina fey is
this confident intelligent woman and that is supposed to be the funny aspect
about her, as this doesn’t fit in the norm of “attractive idiot”
characterisation.
“In media, male characters are defined more by what they do
rather than who they are. Female characters, on the other hand, are defined
more by their attributes, the most primary of which is their femininity. ‘
This
quote shows women will be negatively represented if they do not fit the agenda
of the “perfect” female characters. As how over the years TV Shows have shown
this broadcasted this image of the perfect woman who is highly feminine and
follows the man rules. And if the TV show shows the opposite of these
characteristics the audience would consider that weird and sometimes even see
them as the villain. 
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