What Message is Reality television sending to Young Girls?

[Tamara-B]

In the 1950's and 60's, TV women were depicted as wacky, yet wholesome housewives like "I Love Lucy" character Lucy Ricardo or lovable "The Brady Bunch" housewife Carol Brady.

Fast forward to the 21st century and television paints women in a much different light. Gone are the family-friendly Thursday night sitcoms replaced by reality shows. Shows like "Jersey Shore," "Teen Mom," "Basketball Wives," "Bad Girls Club," "Mob Wives," and Bravo's "Real Housewives" franchise depict hair-pulling, foul language, drink-throwing, restaurant brawls, domestic violence, arrests, drunkenness, and scandalous gossip.

Though this may send a negative message to young girls, audiences cannot seem to get enough of it.

Nowadays, if it is fame a young girl dreams of, it seems she doesn't need to work very hard for it much less have talent. All it takes is responding to a casting call or being married to the right kind of man. These popular shows have pulled in million of viewers, spin-offs, magazine covers, and endorsement deals.

Television personality Kim Kardashian, who gained notoriety through a 2007 sex tape with then-boyfriend R&B artist Ray J. Norwood, is reportedly worth thirty five million dollars through her hit reality show "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," clothing lines, books, fragrances, weight loss product endorsements, magazine covers, and movies.

So, are young girls of this generation corrupted?

"Those shows are simply for entertainment and most of them are scripted anyway," says 20-year-old college student Chloe Ortiz. "Life really isn't like that."

What do parents think of how their daughters are being affected by these shows?

"The media isn't responsible for raising our kids, we are," says Mother of one, Mary Ann Thomson, 41. "My daughter knows right from wrong, no matter what Snooki does or who slept with what famous person."

While these reality shows don't seem to be stopping anytime soon, the livelihood of today's female youth starts at home.

What do you think?

[KenFSU]

A couple of things pop to mind:

1) In the 1950s, families had one television in the living room. Broadcasts were extremely limited and tended to focus almost exclusively on family entertainment, news, and sports. Housewives and teenager daughters may have been portrayed as wholesome women, but that certainly wasn't a reflection of reality. Teenage pregnancy peaked during what we consider the most wholesome period of our history. And for all the talk about Teen Mom glamorizing pregnancy, teenage birth is now at a 40 year low (even adjusting for abortion).

2) I think you may be oversimplifying things when you limit the argument to reality television. I'd argue that things like Sex and the City (that glamorize promiscuity and alcohol abuse without bothering with the messy consequences that reality TV portray) do more harm than shows like Jersey Shore. Or HBO's Girls. Or Gossip Girl.  Or Big Bang Theory (where the female protagonist is gleefully ignorant of almost everything, and is self-admittedly easy). Or 50 Shades of Gray. Or Cosmo, and the newsstand full of other magazines with 30 lb. girls on the cover and articles about how to gain all your self worth from shopping and pleasing yo' man.

3) I'd also take into account the numerous examples of positive female portrayal on reality television. Wife Swap. Dancing with the Stars. American Idol. Top Chef. Made. So You Think You Can Dance. Oprah. Ellen. And even some of the shows you listed all have strong female positive influences (Macy on Teen Mom, Carolyn on NJ Housewives, etc.) In that sense, there's a combination of both positive and negative portrayals, which isn't entirely inaccurate from real life.

For all of reality television's grossness, I think it does a pretty good job overall of showing (read: exploiting) the horrific consequences of poor behavior. Whether it be arrest, pregnancy, suicide (Real Housewives of BH), drug abuse and alcoholism (Celebrity Rehab), infidelity, etc. Kids are smart these days, and I hope they'd be able to learn from these fools rather than emulate them

[mtraininjax]

With Facebook allowing pre-teenagers to sign up, Reality TV is about to go more viral than it ever has.

[KenFSU]

I guess the most vital question then would be:

Does pop culture mirror society, or does society mirror pop culture?

I would side far more with the former, personally.

[copperfiend]

I don't watch any of that stuff and neither does anybody that I associate with. Which leads me to believe that I surround myself with fairly intelligent people.

[fsquid]

With Facebook allowing pre-teenagers to sign up, Reality TV is about to go more viral than it ever has.

a pre-teen could always sign up by just lying about their age, right?

[KenFSU]

So, are young girls of this generation corrupted?

P.S. No more than kids in the 1950s were corrupted by Elvis, kids in the 60s were corrupted by Rock N' Roll, kids in the 70s were corrupted by drugs and casual sex, kids in the 80s were corrupted by MTV, and kids in the 90s were corrupted by video games

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

If your daughter isn't able to figure out on her own that Kim Kardashian or Snooki are worthless skanks...well then...

They are both millionaires because of their, er, talent, so  I fixed your quote for you.

[Tamara-B]

So, are young girls of this generation corrupted?

P.S. No more than kids in the 1950s were corrupted by Elvis, kids in the 60s were corrupted by Rock N' Roll, kids in the 70s were corrupted by drugs and casual sex, kids in the 80s were corrupted by MTV, and kids in the 90s were corrupted by video games

Corrupted by Elvis? You mean catching the dancing fever? Lol

[Bridges]

Yeah!  Whatever happened to those good old 50s shows.  Ones where domestic violence was treated as laugh-track fodder. 

[Jason]

Reality TV, social media, the internet, etc are all kept in check when partents actually do the jobs they opted to take on when the gave birth to their child.  IMO, the media is not the problem with our society, the problem is the absentee parenting that has run rampant because of the notion that someone else is responsible for raising our children.  "Its the teacher's fault my son is failing algebra."  or "It's television's fault my 12 year old daughter dresses like a stripper."

Gimme a break.  If parents were responsible parents, these issues would be almost non existent.

"The media isn't responsible for raising our kids, we are," says Mother of one, Mary Ann Thomson, 41. "My daughter knows right from wrong, no matter what Snooki does or who slept with what famous person."

Precisely.

[Tamara-B]

Yeah!  Whatever happened to those good old 50s shows.  Ones where domestic violence was treated as laugh-track fodder.

Come again?

[MusicMan]

I have never seen the shows mentioned but we must assume the responsibility of bringing up our children.
As the father of two, a 8 y.o. girl and son, 6, I personally find it incredibly challenging, sometimes extremely frustrating, but eventually joyful. We are on "free tv" right now (digital antenna) and my kids watch very little tv.