Flavor of Love...& The Bachelor

The Bachelor is a reailty television show where a man is introduced to a large group of women from which he is to pick his future soul mate.  The bachelor decides which women stay by handing out roses.  In the final episode one women recieves an engagement ring.  Another reality show entitled, Flavor of Love also focuses on a man discovering love through meeting a group of women.  The main character of this show stays the same, his name is Flavor Flave.  Flavor of Love is the only black focused love story in reality television. An article, Performing Race in Flavor of Love and The Bachelor, by Rachel E. Dubrosfky and Antoine Hardy analyzes the differences in these two reailty television shows focusing primarily on race.

As mentioned before the bachelor chooses his women by handing out roses whereas Flavor Flave chooses his women by handing out giant clocks.  Dubrosky et. al. reflecting on how in Flavor of Love's women prove themselves through multiple challenges and displaying roles of identification and actively claiming the role.  The opposite is for The Bachelor because women reveal themselves through unseen race and unmarked.  An example of this is when Flavor gives out names to the participants based off of their personalities and physical attributes.  This moment is an opportunity for the women to stand out.  When the women on the Bachelor are introduced to the bachelor they arrive in a limo and formally introduce themselves. Furthermore the women who are of white race on Flavor of Love are nicknames reflecting this such as "Vinella".

Flavor's Nicknames and introduction:
http://www.vh1.com/video/shows/flavor-of-love-3/208358/in-flav-we-trust-full-act-2.jhtml
The Bachelor's introduction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdzZZTAQTco

Another aspect of the article, which intrigued me, was the confession and authenticity references.  The women on Flavor of Love mention the other women, references the show as a competition, and question other women’s realness.  Realness in the article is related to the term ghetto in that it reflects hip- hop culture diverging into the reality television genre.  These references are viewed as gatekeeping in which the audiences are opened to the ghetto references such as “keeping it real”.  On the bachelor the women focus on their feelings and how they relate to the bachelor.  This is another reference in the article that depicts one show as being more respectable than the other due to down playing the black race.  Also, the Bachelor being predominantly white does not reference their identities through their race yet, the women on Flavor of Love do.

Dialect of the show is another facet to be discussed through there differences.  An intense level of slang is utilized on Flavor of Love unlike that of The Bachelor.  Humor is expressed through the slang which I agree with the other is opposite of the Bachelor.  Feelings of sincerity, empathy, and love are exemplified through the women of The Bachelor. The programs differ in the use of dialect through slang but also in the depth of emotion.  In my opinion this creates a feeling of respect towards the overall message conducted in the Bachelor more than that of Flavor of Love.  Dubrosky et.  al. discuss how the women on Flavor of Love act upon these dialects by seeming as if to be characters acting more than being realistic.  This is a symbol of how media creates Caricatures from minorities such as African American women.  

Media Changing

According to class it is not so much numbers that may put a minority into the background of media, rather it is the pure issue of power.  Minority groups in the media are inferred to be gender, race, age, disability, religion, and sexuality.  With the ever-growing diversity of America, terms have been developed to understand the changes.  The first term created to define the culture and diversity of America was “the melting pot”.  This reflected the people who traveled to America for a home and the act of melting or assimilating their own cultures’ values, beliefs, traditions, and norms to be ideal for an American.  These people strived to lose their cultural identity in order to achieve the American lifestyle and acceptance of others.  As time moved on a new term for the diversity of America came about in part because of the 1960's Civil Rights movement.  The melting pot became the salad bowl meaning each culture has their beliefs, values, traditions, and norms that should be accepted, embraced, and practiced in a diverse America.  This is easily said but not always done especially in the media; a money making machine. 

One minority portrayed in the media is women.  Women in the past and currently are presented as the typical gender portrayal of a cooking, cleaning, well kept mother as well as wife.  A few examples of this would be shows such as; Father Knows Best, All in the Family, Family Days, The Wonder Years, The Brady Bunch, Everybody Loves Raymond, That 70's Show, and Brothers and Sisters.  As the typical gender portrayal of women is more prominent some others series displayed women in other lights such as; single, working, divorced, and independant.  Some of these shows are; The Partridge Family, Three's Company, Charlie's Angels, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Sex and the City, Friends, and Dexter.  More than in the past women are portrayed as single moms, or just single independant successful women. For example in Dexter the character Deb is a female cop who is single and independent yet weak because she seeks love and acceptance.  In sex and the City the women are successful, single, and flirty.  The women play dominant women in sexual contexts yet they contiue to question their liefstyle without love, marriage, and children.  Although the lifestyles of the depicted women in T.V. changes one thing is always prominent with the relation of women: The want to be in love.  Women are always searching, desiring love unlike men.  This portrayal in my opinion displays women as less powerful and weak therefore a minority.

Furthermore a minority may be vast in population yet the media may still choose not to display this because in the end money influences the media.  I feel that ideologies in society are created as well as reinforced through depictions of the media.  For example a second minority displayed through the media is homosexual couples.  As media changes programs are displaying not only heterosexual couples but also homosexual couples as well.  I feel the media and ideologies are occurring hand in hand.  Society is becoming more accepting of homosexual couples therefore the media is presenting the images more often.  Gay couples still do not have the same rights as heterosexual couples creating less power towards homosexuality and therefore less portrayed in the media. Also the ideaologies reflects the power struggle of the minority to fight stereoypes reinforced by the media.  Most of the couples are displayed as caricatures, or as playing heterosexual roles in a homosexual relationship.  The flamboyant gay man who is fashion and design savvy, loves diva singers, and knows anyone who is someone are ideologies or stereotypes in my opinion created by the media.  An example of these would be from the television series Sex and the City with Stanford who is Carries gay best friend. Modern Family displays the charcteristics of a homosexual couple displaying stereotypical heterosexual roles. The media chooses what aspects of a minority are scene or on the other hand, seen at all.  

In addition to the media changing in context of minority depictions, African American portrayals have improved but still have much more change to go. In the past African Americans were shown through a black mask on white actors.  This was referenced as the black face and usually utilized through vod-a-vil movies or acts by comedians through music and dance performances. In the past African Americans were presented as ignorant, lazy, musically inclined, and purely for entertainment purposes in an extremely condescending light. After the Civil Rights movement the minority began being portrayed in another light but still not true to all realms of reality.  For example The Adams Family, a television series of the sixties has a butler who is African American.  Once again the srtuggle of minority and power is examplified in the media. 

 More recently a performance show in Australia presented an act with the blackface acts being brought back into the light.  After the performance an American guest judge expressed his opinion in claiming that in the United States the performance would not have been aired.  The judge was disgusted with the performance and was not afraid to express this opinion.  In the past, some may have accepted the blackface, but in todays media this portrayal does not receive positive recognition.  All in the Family was another television series were derogatory terms towards minorities was accepted.  As the media changed All in the Family displayed an episode of Archie Bunker shocked to find his doctor is an African American.  In this episode the Black American doctor confronts Archie by mocking the stereotypes of his minority leaving Archie with nothing to say.  This episode reveals media changing although Archie Bunker is not at all a role model for diversity acceptance in society.  As time passed on actors as well as actresses such as Denzel Washington, Bill Cosby, Halle Berry, Will Smith, Whoopi Goldberg, Queen Latifah, Morgan Freeman and Samuel Jackson have made way in the changing media growth of their minority.  Furthermore the minority has a channel entitled Black Entertainment Television as well as sitcomes.  The Cosby Show gained attention by viewers because the show portrayed an affluent African American family living in Brooklyn New York.  This show revealed realities of the minority outside of the typical stereotypes traditional media creates.  In fact according to ABC, the Cosby Show was one of their highest rated show in the 1980's and ran for eight consecutive seasons with syndications still on air today.  In the late 80's and early 90's two more African American sitcomes hit big with viewers.  Family Matters and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air are each examples of how media changed for this minority.  As for today African American are displayed in the media more than other minorities yet still have a battle to   gain the respect and true to life portrayed images they deserve. 

Examples:

Blackface

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ns0jmBaecU

Australian Entertainment Show

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh90w-hbqhI


All in the Family
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW31qCkb-DE

Sex and the City

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTOEp7WQm40

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyuCwCN78lA&feature=related

Modern Family

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI7cjw5JPpg&feature=autoplay&list=SL&index=8&playnext=14

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4wg1Dwsz2k&feature=BF&list=SL&index=35

The Cosby Show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFY0HBkUm8o

90's to now

Ideology stems from the different realities viewed and especially on television.  In the nineties political ideologies may be compared to a reference such as “too big to fail” and taking risks was expected because the government would protect you.  If you purchased to own then success was expected.  Being responsible for oneself and a privatization as well as an entrepreneurship society was in play. Later in time people unfortunately discovered these risks, the housing market, was not so protected.  An example of this being displayed in the media is a show in which is based online by HGTV called, “My House is Worth What?”  The show unveils owners who purchased homes, fixed them up, and now want to sell the homes in hope to earn a profit from the renovations.  Almost always the people see a decline in their overall house value because the housing market is not what it use to be when the owners purchased their homes.  Some of the couples are astonished to discover their renovations did not increase the overall value of their homes.  In fact,  the hoped for increase of value was intended to help some of the owners move into a news location but with the unexpected drop in the housing bubble people were forced to stay put.  


Another example of how television as changed over the periods of changing ideaologies is the aspect of  sitcomes diplaying diverse plots as well as the characters.  For example in the nineties Full House, Home Improvement, and Family Matters just to name a few were popular shows where the families were happy and faced minor struggles. After and as the recession hit the world it also was displayed through shows such as The Office, Parenthood, and Modern Family to name a few.  In the Office, Dunder Mufflin has to lay people off, a new company buys Dunder Mufflin, and the show goes into a new direction. (episode three of season six)  On Parenthhood the same occurs where people are laid off and a a company closes.


Modern Family attempts to reveal change with the ideologies that the tradition family is not always expected in current times as well as homosexual couples are also common.  This show is only a minor step in liberation of changing ideologies but yet is still an attempt.  I realized alothough Modern Family attempts to break a few molds it still sticks to the nuclear family of father, mother, and children are all under the roof.  Also the women who plays and is Latin American is displayed as a caricature of a Latin American women.  The caricature is sexual, loud, street smart, and yet ignorant towards American vocabulary as well as customs.  They display her as dumb towards American values, language, and customs. Also the gay couple has one of the men displayed as a caricature of a flamboyant "typical" gay man and the other representing features of a heterosexual man.  This reinforces the traditional roles of man and women in heterosexual relationships yet displayed through a homosexual couple. Media displays only what expected society of America is to be.  I feel that as generations grow to seek more information and accept diversity our media outlets attempt to show reinforcement of these changes yet only to the extent of the limit of a social norm.  Ideology is not fixed or permeant. Basically change is displayed with traditional values and norms depicted in order to sustain oppression in order to achieve the ideaologies expeted of society.

HGTV

            HGTV Design Star is a highly rated reality competition where the competitors compete to eventually be the winner of their own HGTV show.   These competitors build themselves up; protect themselves, in hopes that it eventually pays off for the winner chosen by staring in their own show as an entrepreneur HGTV host.   The show has three judges and from what I have seen even a guest judge at times who critique the designs creating by the competitors and ultimately choose the winner along with votes from the audience at home.  Each competitor is to prove their own unique styles through their designs as well as display characteristics in which prove they are also the next best host for HGTV.  This show stresses entrepreneurship because the people are competing to host their own show as well as beat out other participants which stresses the characteristics of building yourself up while protecting yourself from the other participants.  Although, in my opinion this show is one of the calmer reality competition, the show still enforces the stereotype of a “dog eat dog world” where someone must win and beat out the others in order to succeed in life.   Those who work really hard will win and those who do not will lose.         

Also on this show and other HGTV shows many of the products, paint, styles, shown are also linked to consumerism because the show points out where items are purchased or where you may go to buy these products at great rates.  In fact some of the competitions on Design Star are hosted or “brought to you by” companies.  For example, Kenmore appliances and the stars built a kitchen around these appliances.  During the commercials Kenmore products and locations to purchase these products overwhelm viewers.  Consumerism plays a vital part in the HGTV segments just as much as the designs itself.   Furthermore HGTV utilizes their popular hosts to emphasize these products in order to play off of the trust in the viewer towards their favorite host.  If your favorite host says Kenmore or reliable then the viewer is more likely to believe in this statement and purchase the products as well. This consumerism leads to instruction because the hosts teach the viewers how to do it at home.  Some shows create a fanstasy such as Color Splash.  On this show David Bomstad creates the idea that recreating a room full of color and themed styles if possible for anyone.  David takes a room and bases it off of another style in which the participants relate too and then he creates it. David expresses showing oneself through their styles of the home or work room.  The viewers follow David from the room to his favorite stores where he purchases products and then even into his workspace where he shows the viewers how "easy" it is to do it youself.  David reinforces, consumerism, sponsoship, expression of the self, and instructionalism.  David creates a fantasy by turning a room into a couple's dream come true while convincing the viewer they too can create shuch a fantasy to come true.

Real Housewives of New Jersey

Have you ever watched Real Housewives of New Jersey?  These women are out of control, and crazy yet I love watching them because there is still an element of suspense.  Drama is never a surprise but to what extent the ladies will take it is never predicted.  The Genre of reality t.v. has many conventions, which are followed in this series.  Besides drama the ladies also have personal dialogue with the camera, real- life settings, fighting, and stereotypes.  The real- life settings consist of footage in their homes, towns, and cities in which they live and travel.  In fact the camera's even go on vacation to Italy with the families giving you an inside look at how other families spend their leisure time.  Except this real life for middle class people may not be the same.  These women spend high amount of money on purses, home decor, clothes, shoes, cars, and vacations.  The women have expense pets and accessories even for the animals.  This upper class take on life helps reinsure the middle class gaze.  The luxuries of expense materials are reinforced and yet the middle class gaze may also see that the upper class women are not role models.  The women fight physically as well as verbally with each other and even go as far as to insult people's children.  These women do not behave as adults.  Stereotypes are reinforced because the women do act as the traditional rich housewife media has created. For example the drama, extreme spending on materials, large houses yet never are cleaning or videoed without makeup or their hair done.  The women attend private catered parties and one episode the ladies even paid five hundred dollars just for a ticket to the party. The gender roles of the women are traditional because the women cook dinner and take care of the children.  The roles are also a stereotype of rich housewives because you never see the women cleaning their gigantic homes therefore you assume they also have a cleaning person or team.  The men are portrayed as working hard long hours and then coming home to relax.  The men are videoed playing poker, drinking alcohol, and almost never watching the children.  The men also set the rules or are pictured as stern italian men.  Also the Italian men are implied to be quiet yet scary and these men follow that stereotype. The women lead the household as far a tpical gender roles as well as the men.  This show lets the camera's in and creates identification as if you are apart of these familes.  The one on one camera scences imply feelings of vulnerability and the women boast opinions of their own so you feel as if they are letting you in as a friend.  The women's obscene behaviors reinforce the middle class gaze.

My Fair Wedding

My Fair Wedding is a show on the WE Tv which mostly focuses on weddings and events that are coherent with weddings.   My Fair Wedding is hosted by David Tutera, who is a well-known and well-established wedding planner for mostly famous or rich people.  Yet, in this series David selects a bride who is lost in her wedding planning and saves her wedding.  David also picks brides who can not afford everything she has dreamed of for her wedding and he makes her dreams come true.  The unique part of the show is that the rides usually have a theme in mind for their wedding.  The theme seems to always be extremly out of the norm for a wedding.  For example one couple wanted a feather wedding, or a casino wedding, or even a miedieval sword wedding. These themes are carried out by David in spectacular ways.  This show takes weddings into the fairy tale outlook.  The women all have "dreams" for their wedding as if they have been planning the wedding their whole lives.  Furthermore David treats the brides as if their wedding is the one and only even in their life and the women are super stars.  This takes the moral values out of the wedding, such as love, religion, and life in the future for the couple.   Not only are the women put on platforms but never is the man taken for special treatment or even asked for his opinion, leading to the assumption that the wedding is entirely the brides day and event in life not so much a step for the couple to take together.  As David purchases cakes, dresses, jewlery, flowers, and decorations all of the brands, designer, and stores are mentioned specifically for marketing and advertising reasons.  The show features brand placement, advertising, and marketing throughout each and every epsiode.  The outcome of the wedding creates an image almost impossible to achieve without an endless budget to spend.  The amount of decor and money spent is never mentioned.  The show leaves the implications that creating this out of thw world wedding is in hands reach or at least you want it to be!  I can only imagine how many women dream of having David coming in and sweeping away the wedding into a fairy tale.  Also, at the end of every episode the brides thank David for giving them a dream come true or answering all of their prayers and yet nothing about the family or husband is mentioned.  Its as if this is the only day that has mattered.  Consumerism floods these shows and I know it was successful on me because while helping my sister plan her wedding a few of David's episodes came into play for purchasing decor and designing her cake.  In fact, my sister and I would reference his episode on wine decor to help create my sister's wedding.  The show also examplifies the norm of heterosexual couples with a homesexual man plaing the typical stereotype as the designer behind it all.  Some of the women also have minor break down when they find out David is taing away their bridal dress and replacing it with a brand new designer dress.  I do feel this is a representation of how the dress is culturally a representation of the identity of the bride because this is the onl part of the show I have ever seen a bride become angry.  The dresses are always replaced with top of the line designer dresses and yet the women still become frazled with the thought of letting go of their original weddding dress.  This show emphazises that women should have their own tale wedding.  Also in the aspect of David following whatever the theme desired may be could be a post- modern view on wedding.  No longer do cultures completly down grade on out of the norm weddings yet ironically David takes the theme and makes it as close to the norm as is possible.  Yet still this may be a suggestion of how a women is expressing whatever kind of women she wants to be!

HgTv

After the class where we watched clips of the Food Network while paying attention to the gender roles I began thinking of other networks like this one.  An obvious network for me was HGTV.  I am a consistent viewer of this network and the various shows that are aired.  Gender difference are among these shows as well.  In fact the men on HGTV usually are known as carpenters, realtors, professionals, experts, "the go to guy", and hosts or co-hosts.  I phrase these terms from the descriptions of the actors on the HGTV website.    The women are hosts or co-hosts of interior deign shows more than the men and are not referred to as much as professionals, carpenters, or even references as the saver of a trait.  The titles of the men's show are more masculine for example, Disaster DIY.  Traditionally in gender roles men are in charge of the yard work and the shows on HGTV reflect this as well.  One show is entitles, Landscape Smart, with the host as a man.  After viewing other shows I also concluded the men in shows such as, Devine Design and Design on a Dime, who are in shows with women hosts are still portrayed as the masculine man with traditional male roles and even are usually filmed outside or with large pieces of wood behind them.  There are women who break some gender molds on the network because they are in shows in which they are realtors or carpenters.  For the most part, the females on HGTV are interior designers, painters, realitors, and consultants.  Daid Bombstad is one of the only men on HGTV who is portrayed as a designer but he is openly gay therefore playing a stereotypical role for a homosexual male.  In fact, in m  opinion is he is becoming ore flamboyant than before and I feel this is only to fill the televisioned stereotype.  Another man name Antonio is a male interior designer but the descriptions the networ uses to describe his show are different than the women.  FOr example Antonio's designs are said to be artistic, creative, prop styled, carpentered, shabby, western, modern, cave dwelling, medieval, and sheek.  Yet, the women describe themselves and their work with more gender typical roles such as, soft, warm, fluffy, news, kid appropraite, family apporoved, modern contemporary, bright, happening, and welcoming for guests.  The women, like HGTV, talk one on one more to the camera and open up to the viewers where as the men are more focused on the work and people in their series.  You can witness more of a home or family oriented outlook from the women and not as much from the men.  Gender typical roles are put in place on the HGTV Network but i will admit that the network does at least have a signifcant amount of both men and women viewed in the shows.