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Reality TV shows are far from real, a New York advocacy journalist and executive director of Women in Media and News, said March 3 as part of this college's Women's History Week observation.
"Producers want women who think like June Cleaver, have sex like Madonna, and look like Miss USA … It's like Donna Reed meets Pamela Anderson," Jennifer Pozner said to a crowd of about 150 during a presentation titled "Bachelor Babes, Bridezillas and Husband-Hunting Harems: Decoding Reality TV's Twisted Fairy Tales."
The event was sponsored by the women's center and the office of student life.
Women in Media and News is a media analysis, training and advocacy group that promotes equity for women. Pozner is a widely published journalist and media critic who graduated from Hampshire College in 1996 with a concentration in journalism, media criticism and women's studies.
Pozner said the majority of successful television shows in recent years have been reality TV shows such as "The Bachelor," "America's Next Top Model, "American Idol," "The Swan," "Extreme Makeover," "How to Marry My Dad," and "Joe Millionaire."
She used humor to expose how "reality" TV reinforces negative stereotypes of love, marriage, men, women, sexuality and class in America.
"Studies have shown that the more advertisements women see, the worse they feel about themselves. This psychological exploitation becomes more insidious and more dangerous when woven directly into the content of our shows," she said.
Pozner said producers cast mostly Anglo men and women to be on these shows.
"The only major exceptions to the mostly white casts are on makeover and beauty pageant shows," she added. "But even in those programs, ethnic features are portrayed as a liability."
Pozner showed clips from "The Swan" and "Extreme Makeover" to emphasize the way media encourage plastic surgery.
"For example, a black woman's mouth was described as looking like a monkey on the WB's 'America's Next Top Model,' and an Asian woman's eyes were 'softened' on Fox's 'The Swan,'" she said.
She used a clip from Season 2 of "American Idol" in which Kimberley Locke, an African-American singer, was criticized by judge Simon Cowell for not being attractive enough to win the competition.
In other clips from "American Idol," healthy looking young women auditioning for the show were criticized by Cowell for being overweight.
Judge Paula Abdul argued that what he was telling the young girls to do could lead to eating disorders.
"This is an image-selling business. This has nothing to do with eating disorders," Cowell remarked.
In clips from "America's Next Top Model," scantily clad young women were photographed wearing boots.
"These girls are commodities being sold alongside cars, cell phones, shoes and shampoo hawked in the product placements ..." Pozner said. "Is this liberation?"
She explained that liberation can come in the form of plastic surgery.
In clips from "Extreme Makeover," a housewife was given a makeover and said she finally felt free to do whatever she wanted to do in life because she looked beautiful.
Pozner said women face double standards in the media.
"These double standards are not only insulting to women, they are also a poor underestimation of men's inherent worth as individuals."
Pozner challenged the audience to question whether sexism still exists today and to be critical and analytical viewers.
"It's not only important to be critical of what's being said, but also of what's not being said such as what's being left on the cutting room floor.
"For every hour of reality TV, there are dozens of hours of material that producers don't include. Material in which women are intelligent, supportive of one another, and other behaviors that could contradict the stereotypes these shows promote," she said.
"Media owners and network producers often say this is what the public wants, but the truth behind the myth is that they give us what advertisers want, not necessarily what viewers want, because product-placement advertisements within the content of reality TV shows often bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars even when ratings are poor," she said.
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