11.1 Gender dynamics in competition-based reality shows

Reality TV competitions often reinforce gender stereotypes through casting and challenges. Women are frequently sexualized and portrayed as catty, while men are shown as aggressive alpha males. These shows perpetuate harmful gender norms and cater to the male gaze.

Editing and storylines further entrench gender biases. Women get less airtime to explain themselves, and their competence is downplayed in favor of interpersonal drama. Intersectional issues compound these problems for contestants with multiple marginalized identities.

Gender Representation and Stereotyping

Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes through Casting and Characterization

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• Reality competition shows often cast contestants that conform to traditional gender stereotypes (alpha males, catty females)
• Contestants are frequently portrayed in ways that reinforce gender stereotypes
  • Women shown as emotional, catty, focused on appearance
  • Men depicted as aggressive, competitive, less expressive
• Challenges and storylines play into gendered tropes and expectations
• Stereotypical gender roles are used for comedic effect or to create drama

Problematic Representation Practices

• Tokenism involves including a small number of marginalized individuals to give the appearance of diversity without meaningful inclusion
  • LGBTQ+ contestants often tokenized or portrayed stereotypically
  • Contestants of color underrepresented and subject to stereotypical storylines
• Sexualization of female contestants is common, with focus on their bodies and sexual appeal
  • Revealing clothing, gratuitous bikini shots, sexual storylines
  • Reinforces objectification of women and prizing of conventional attractiveness
• Male gaze refers to the assumption of a heterosexual male viewer and portrayal of women as sexual objects
  • Camerawork, editing, and storylines cater to the male gaze

Gendered Dynamics in Challenges and Editing

Performative Gender Roles in Challenges

• Challenges often designed to highlight stereotypical gender strengths and weaknesses
  • Physical challenges favor male contestants' assumed superior strength and athleticism
  • Styling, cooking, and design challenges play into assumption of women's domestic skills
• Contestants feel pressure to perform gender roles in challenges to avoid negative portrayal
  • Women downplaying abilities in physical challenges to avoid being seen as butch or aggressive
  • Men hesitant to show aptitude in feminine-coded challenges for fear of emasculation
• Success and failure in gendered challenges used to reinforce gender essentialist narratives

Biased Editing and Manufactured Storylines

• Editors have immense power to craft narratives through selective footage use and juxtaposition
  • Frankenbiting splices audio to create artificial dialogue and misleading impressions
  • Villainous or heroic storylines created through editing rather than organic dynamics
• Women given significantly less confessional airtime than men to explain their perspectives
• Gendered stereotypes inform editing decisions and storylines
  • Women's relationships and conflicts central to storylines
  • Competence of female contestants downplayed in favor of interpersonal drama
• Uneven editing creates skewed, often sexist depictions of contestants' characters and dynamics

Intersectional Issues and Microaggressions

Intersectionality of Gender, Race, and Sexuality

• Intersectionality highlights the overlapping, interdependent systems of discrimination and disadvantage
  • Contestants with multiple marginalized identities face compounded stereotyping and bias
  • Black women portrayed as sassy, aggressive, and hypersexual in contrast with demure white femininity
  • Asian men desexualized and emasculated through nerdy stereotypes and lack of romantic storylines
• LGBTQ+ contestants' storylines center heavily on their identities, often in stereotypical ways
  • Gay men portrayed as sassy, fashion-obsessed sidekicks to straight women
  • Lesbian and bisexual women fetishized and depicted as sexually aggressive
• Normative whiteness, heterosexuality, and binary gender identity centered as default

Microaggressions and Double Standards

• Microaggressions are subtle slights or insults that communicate bias against marginalized groups
  • Tokenizing comments that other BIPOC contestants and center whiteness as the norm
  • Deadnaming or misgendering of transgender contestants by hosts, judges, or other contestants
  • Expecting LGBTQ+ contestants to be spokespeople for their entire community's experiences
• Marginalized contestants held to different standards than privileged counterparts
  • Women criticized more harshly for assertiveness or competitiveness praised in men
  • BIPOC contestants' emotions and reactions policed more than white contestants'
  • Transgender contestants' gender identity treated as a novelty rather than accepted