Reality TV: What we See and What we Should

My past few months in the U.K. have taught me a lot about British culture. Just my first weekend, I remember flicking through different channels, frowning when I saw shows such as The Secret Life of 4 and 5 Year Olds, which features young children pushing each other but also showing... love interests? I loved the playground when I was the age, because it meant I was free; thanks to reality television, however, there is a whole group of 4 and 5 year olds who see the playground as a set instead of a free haven.

In the U.K., I have also had the opportunity to intern at a television studio that focuses on developing daytime television shows for various renowned channels across the region. My placement has further enabled me to learn about British culture, as I have assisted the research and development team in researching different components for different potential shows, and have also looked into what other daytime television shows around the world are doing in hopes of garnering my own ideas to pitch. One of the biggest trends I found was how many people across the world were willing to give up their ethics and ignore the feeling of others for the sake of gaining more viewership. An alarming amount of reality television shows exist around the globe that dehumanize people just like you and me for the sale of ratings.

To compile my findings, I decided to do a case-by-case analysis on different popular reality television shows I have stumbled upon, both in the U.K. and outside. This analysis breaks down problematic elements in different plots and scenarios in the show, and explains what viewers should really be seeing when they are soaking in the drama.

As a disclaimer, I do not think that all reality shows are severely unethical; many, such as The Voice or Chopped, do help change people's lives for the better and give them a platform where they can succeed. The shows I pick on here revolve more around placing human beings in scenarios that do not try to show their talents and act in a more dehumanizing way.

The U.K.

I only recently became familiar with some U.K reality television shows, as I have had to research them occasionally at my internship to garner my own ideas or compile information for a potential show. The one that I came across most, and that stuck with me the most, was Love Island.

Love Island

Love Island is a popular British dating reality show that essentially lumps a bunch of attractive people on an island and demands that they pair up. Combine that with a bunch of drama, new contestants coming in at times, and people getting booted out because they didn't cut the popular vote. I had already heard of Love Island before I had to research it for my internship, and for the purpose of this blog post, I decided to watch part of an episode from the second season to get a better idea of it.

The show is promoted as a beautiful island for beautiful people", and calls love the game everyone needs to play. First of all, "beautiful island for beautiful people" essentially just says that the contestants are picked for their attractiveness and, in that sense, objectifies them. Furthermore, love is not a game, even though the producers of the show definitely want us to view it as such; no matter how much these contestants are objectified and made to seem like our entertainment, they are people with real feelings at the end of the day. Also, it sadly discourages the idea that it is okay to be independent and if someone does not have feelings for you, if you do not have feelings for someone else; the pure purpose of the show is that people pair up. This is not really an aspect of the show they can change, obviously, considering it drives the entire program, but it's important to note how problematic the heart of the show can be, and the type of message it promotes.

I watched part of the second episode of the second season, and immediately discovered many things that rubbed me the wrong way in terms of ethics. First of all, contestants played a game called "Kiss and Tell", which pitted boys versus girls, and the moderator read one team a secret of one contestant from the other team. Then, the selected member of the team would have to cross over to the other team, select the girl or guy they believed was the keeper of that secret, and kiss her or him. Anyone heard of consent? Also, the secrets that were chosen were really objectifying, such as one which was: "this girl's 32DDs are, in fact, real." The entire episode - and, by premise, show - just constantly objectifies people under the guise of calling it "love." Another one of the questions which angered me was, "which girl do you think has been told she looks like Spongebob Squarepants?" It is already humiliating enough that someone was told this, now you're not only broadcasting this but asking a guy to pick the girl he thinks would be insulted like that?

The rest of the episode, which I take it is generally the norm, consists of contestants testing out the waters with the person they chose to couple up with. We don't get to see that much about people's personalities - lots of small talk is showcased, or just contestants talking about other contestants for the sake of drama. This is definitely a show that really objectifies people and makes a game out of emotions, but I can see the appeal, because for better or for worse, it's a show with attractive people and lots of constant drama.

The United States

Couldn't really write this post without acknowledging the country whose reality television programming I'm most familiar with, of course. When it comes to popular reality shows in the states (again, I am ignoring talent-based shows such as American Idol or Chopped), my mind goes to two shows: Keeping Up With the Kardashians and The Bachelor.

Keeping Up with The Kardashians

I'm pretty sure I've been following the Kardashians since the start of season 3 (to put this in perspective, they just started their sixteenth season), and I get the hype. The Kardashians are celebrities everyone likes to think of as people who are "famous for being famous," and while statement holds a lot of truth, it takes some level of talent to build the type of empire they have.

Kris, Kim, Khloe, Kourtney, Kendall, and Kylie have allowed a public to gain a both comedic and highly sensitive insight into their personal lives. In the past decade, viewers have watched the family cope with Caitlyn Jenner's transition, witnessed Khloe's extremely toxic relationship with Lamar Odom as he succumbed to drug addiction, and even seen Kourtney Kardashian pull a baby out of herself.

Because of how highly publicized the Kardashian's lives have become, people have constantly criticized them, bringing up the old argument that they don't have any talent and are famous for no reason. Even worse, many believe that they have a right to rip the women to shreds, completely ignoring the fact that the Kardashians are real people too.

This concept, that many outsiders tend to forget that the Kardashians are actually human beings, is emphasized in the latest trailer for the sixteenth season of the show.

Here, Khloe is seen sobbing throughout the trailer. Although it is not explicitly stated, context clues tell the viewer that the family is recounting the events that transpired when Khloe's baby-daddy Tristan Thompson cheated on her with Khloe's sister Kylie's best friend, Jordan Woods. When the incident happened just a few weeks ago, thousands of people took to social media to give their thoughts on the matter, and a massive number of media outlets were digging as deep as possible.

Khloe, through tears, acknowledges how difficult it is when the public think they have a claim to the stars' life and refuse to let her deal with her personal life, well, personally.

"It just sucks that this has to be so public. This is not just a TV show. Like, this is my life."

In this specific example, the problem is not necessarily the actual content of the show, but the type of disregard it creates among viewers. I firmly believe that celebrities do have a right to privacy, even the Kardashians, who some think have forfeited that right by having their own reality show. This is one aspect of problematic reality television that we, as the general public, have more control over. We can choose to show empathy and respect the privacy of others; our curiosity and love for gossip does not compare to the real human emotions they are going through.

The Bachelor

I'm honestly not even sure where to start when it comes to how problematic this show is. This is a program that literally pits women against each other for the sake of a man (who, no matter what season, is never worth it ladies!) and profits from their emotional distress.

Disclaimer: Although I am focusing on the awful effects this show has on women, I must acknowledge that similar issues plague the men who fight for affection on The Bachelorette. However, The Bachelor tends to have more viewers, more ratings, and is preferred, so that is what I will be focusing on in this post.

Similar to Love Island, I already find it an issue that a show focuses so much on love and artificial connection instead of focusing on literally every other incredible thing human beings have to offer. Not only that, the "love" the viewers see and the contestants feel cannot possible compare to what it means to have real genuine connection. Granted, I have never been a contestant on The Bachelor, but I'm willing to bet whatever is left of my bank account at the end of study abroad that most sincere human connections don't blossom under cameras and mics.

It's also important to remember that the dates The Bachelor and his selected woman-of-the-episode go on are very expensive, luxurious, and unrealistic. What do Aruba, Barbados, Capetown, and Bali have in common? The fact these are all A. Dates (not honeymoons, CASUAL DATES!) that contestants have gone on in previous seasons, and B. These are also places I would love to go , so if you want to fund me you can find my contact info under the "contact" part of this website. In all seriousness, however, the question does arise whether contestants and The Bachelor are actually falling in love with each other, or whether they're just falling in love with the luxurious lives they are living. There's a difference between having a date in a luxury villa in the middle of a beautiful island versus eating cheap takeout in a small New York City apartment where your view is a dark alleyway and the occasional rat.

At this point, I think it is safe to establish that The Bachelor is really just a show about people kind-of-falling-in-love-but-maybe-not and rampant human emotions all around. Now, I would like to call attention to what Chris Harrison fondly called a ground-breaking part of reality television because it was "the first completely unedited scene in reality TV history." I, on the other hand, call it the most pathetic and desperate exploration in the name of reality television I have ever forced myself to watch.

I am talking about the fiasco that was The Bachelor finale at the end of Arie Luyendyk Jr.'s season. If you are not familiar with this episode, here's a clip that sums it up, although one really has to watch the unedited footage to realize how disgusting this exploitation was:

Again, the video does not accurately convey how gross and prolonged the entire ordeal is, but I can't find any legal clips covering the episode, so feel free to go explore the internet to find it yourself if you wish. What essentially happened was that Arie, after proposing to Becca, realized he had feelings for runner-up Lauren. Instead of being open and honest, he decided to contact Lauren on Instagram and not say anything to Becca. Ultimately, he called Chris Harrison (who hosts The Bachelor) to explain his dilemma. Still no word to Becca, who was living in her fantasy world that she was about to get engaged to the man she loves. Then, producers and Arie decided it was a good idea to have this insanely personal and heart-breaking conversation with Becca on camera. And not edit it. For nearly forty minutes. And then use that as a selling point for the episode.

Becca was clearly thrown off guard and distraught when Arie told her he was still thinking about Lauren. Arie also proved to be a liar at the time because he framed the situation as though he was still thinking of Lauren but was not sure she would reciprocate, but he already had gotten his confirmation from her that she still loved him. Becca then walked away from Arie at least five different times, telling him to leave her alone, but he kept following her through the house as he if he had more to say. Sorry Arie, there is no way you can come out of this situation looking like a hero. I'm not saying it's a crime to realize your feelings about someone or a decision have changed, but respect someone enough to give them the privacy they deserve.

So the whole unedited piece of footage is just a mess (and it's a split screen, so double the mess), and then the day after this episode airs, Becca and Arie meet each other once again, live on The Bachelor stage. While thousands and thousands of people are watching, because by then, everyone had heard about the horror that occurred the night before. And then Arie, once again demonstrating his unawareness of any of Becca's feelings, proposed to Lauren on stage. In front of his ex-fiancé, whose heart he had already shattered on television.

I could go on about how much I hated this episode for ages, but I don't want to spare Arie any more of my thought. By premise, The Bachelor is already a problematic show, but their decision to air that unedited footage and use it as a promotion to garner views was a gross exploitation of a young, smart girl who was forced to process her failed relationship and feelings in front of a camera and in turn, thousands of people.

Japan

For better or for worse, reality TV is a worldwide phenomenon, which means the issues that come with it run across the globe as well. In my research, I discovered that one place particularly rampant with problematic reality television was Japan, which has objectification spelled all over many of its shows. Unlike examples I cited previously on is post, the problem in Japanese television comes more from game shows that scenario-formatted situations such as The Bachelor or Love Island.

Some examples of unethical reality television programs that have run recently include:

AKBingo!

This show comes up with a bunch of different games and challenges for contestants, who belong to a famous girl band, to fulfill. Not all the challenges are too bad, but here is one where two girls had to try and blow a dead cicada in the other's mouth. Nuff said.

Unnamed Sleeping Game

Here, a group of young Japanese female models sleep while two males walk around the room and wake them up. If a female wakes up and the men don't believe she looks cute, she gets pied in the face. Problematic for MANY reasons - this insinuates that the perception of beauty is dependent on a male gaze, and also totally rejects natural beauty for punishing people who don't look like airbrushed models right when they wake up.

Strip the Girl

Not attaching an image to this one because I don't even want to showcase any part of a show that objectifies women to such an extent.

A naked model stands behind a bunch of tiles, and male contestants must throw beanbags at the tiles. The more tiles they knock down, the more of the woman they can see. So, in this situation, a woman is solely seen and used for her body, and is objectifies to become a prize on a game show.

Conclusion

As I said previously, the realm of reality television is large and spans across the globe. Of course, there are some shows that showcase great talent, such as singing competitions or cooking shows and so on. But unfortunately, some of the most-watched reality television shows offer a completely unrealistic sense of what life is, and turns human beings into pawns and objects for entertainment. This spurs a never-ending cycle, because these shows do sell, and as long as ratings soar, programs with such problematic aspects will not cease to air. No matter what, it is important to take a step back and think about how you view the people on these shows and the messages they send; some of the negative aspects of the show are the simple messages they imply (you'll only find love if you're beautiful, you need to be in a relationship to be happy, etc.). Maybe you as an individual cannot stop the broadcasting of this show altogether, but you can at least view it through a different lens and think about the way you, and others around you, consume such entertainment.