College Writing Assignments

Detrimental Deception: The Portrayal of Black Women in Modern Reality TV

The reality TV genre has been booming in the entertainment industry for the past three decades. The black women casted on these TV shows played an important role in the genre's increased popularity thanks to their big personalities and iconic moments on screen. There were black women with different complexions, characteristics, and social backgrounds. Therefore, providing a diverse representation of black women. Although each lady has unique qualities all were usually perceived as witty, strategic, knowledgeable, meek, and more private about their sexuality. Many of them continue to be admired and imitated by their strong fan bases on social media today. As the genre evolved, the image of black women also changed and narrowed. It became noticeable that black women were casted less or type casted from the western perspective on most reality shows, especially the dating ones in the mid to late 2010s. However, the VH1 and Zeus networks have become well known for mostly having black women representation in popular modern reality TV shows. Although this may first be seen as a great thing, questions regarding the accuracy and influence of the black women portrayal arises. The popular reality TV shows Love & Hip Hop, Baddies, and Joseline's Cabaret perpetuate the harmful stereotypes of black women being aggressive, hypersexual, and ignorant.

All three of these shows consist of black women being aggressive towards each other both verbally and physically. The scenes involving heated arguments and actual fights get the most views on YouTube. These moments capture the women yelling and throwing things such as beverages, chairs, tables, or shoes at each other. A lot of the outrages are provoked by shady remarks that reveal passive aggression. In an episode of Love & Hip Hop Atlanta, a heated discussion over lunch quickly escalated into a physical altercation ('Season 11, Episode 12, 2023'). The reality star Erica Mena is triggered by the music artist Spice's comment "with your son that don't like you," which was said after the two compared and insulted each other's motherhood. That statement alone sent Erica into a complete spiral and she proceeded to flip a table. She makes inappropriate and colorist remarks while being taken away by security, calling Spice who is of a darker complexion "a blue monkey" and wishing death on her. The scene has been discussed across all social media platforms and now has over 2 million views on YouTube. Zeus' Baddies is another show that has multiple fights throughout each season. On the first episode of Baddies West (season 3), reality stars Chrisean Rock and Lo London get into a brawl after Lo simply confronts her about being late to a group photoshoot. Chrisean charges at Lo on the couch before security guards also escort her away. The camera pans to Lo afterwards revealing a huge knot on her forehead from Chrisean's punches. Vulgar language is exchanged while fighting again a few minutes later. Most fights on the show are dragged on for ⅔ of each episode's run time. Joseline Cabaret is no different. During the summer of 2021, Zeus network posted the first episode of season two on their YouTube channel for free that currently has over 3.1 million views. Most of the audience focus on mentioning the arguments and fights that occur in the comment section. Two cast members named Big Lex and Aqua Baby quarreled over the controversial topic of abortion after Aqua admitted to having one right before coming on the show. Lex repeatedly makes facetious remarks about Aqua aborting her twins such as "Oh double homicide" and "your loose pussy ass…clearly you can't hold a baby in it…" ('19:13 & 26:10'). Her insensitive comments have actually been turned into memes online. Another fight breaks out among two other castmates right at the end of the episode. These reality shows reinforce the angry black woman stereotype as many of them are perceived to be bad-tempered when inflicting some form of violence on one another.

Not only are Black women portrayed as aggressive in modern reality TV, but they also often appear as hypersexual too. A lot of the fights on these particular shows are triggered between two or more women who discover they have all simultaneously been engaging in sexual activities with the same man. Even if the argument does not turn physical, they still manage to exchange comparisons or insults, about sexual performances and traits. In Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta (Season 5 Episode 2), two cast members have an intense discussion about a man named Scrappy who was Tommie's boyfriend at the time and the father of Tiarra's children during the second episode. Tiarra was not aware that Scrappy was in another relationship while still sexually intimate with her. However, Tommie did know about Tiarra and pretended to befriend her only to admit at the table shortly after, "I know your kid because I know your baby daddy, I know your baby daddy because I sit on his dick almost every night." Drinks are thrown and the club becomes a combative environment for the women. This clip has around 700,000 views on Love & Hip Hop's YouTube channel but over 3.5 million views in total on the platform. The black women featured in the Baddies West and East auditions were willing to do whatever it took in order to be chosen as a member of the seasons cast. Those episodes show contestants dancing provocatively while sticking their tongues out and removing undergarments in hopes of standing out from the crowd. The judges at these events rarely ever give attention to the women who carry themselves in a classy more sophisticated manner that acknowledge their degrees, businesses, and other accomplishments. They are dismissed and called "boring" or "lame" by the judges who are the former cast. However, these same judges cheer on the other women and hand them a ticket, condoning the overtly sexual behavior. Joseline's Cabaret is intended for the cast members to show off their stripping skills, but even in between dance rehearsals and competitions the conversations had among the women are mostly about sex. Arguments on there literally start over things like sexual gossip such as "did you not DM me saying you wanted to eat my pussy," ('Joseline's Cabaret: Atlanta S2EP1, 45:55'). The audience is introduced to one of the second season cast members named MZ Natural who starts her interview off with bragging about being a former porn star and her oral skills due to being born without a uvula to the other girls. Many of the women in these TV franchises promote promiscuity and make it seem like all black women are just as open about their sexuality.

The pointless fights, overuse of profanity, and inability to effectively communicate or regulate emotions on these shows make black women appear very ignorant on screen. In Baddies South, one of the most viewed scenes from the season was of reality stars Chrisean Rock and Persuasion altercation that led to one of the girls being violently shoved into a sink, because she told the other "you don't clean up after yourself." Instead of calmly addressing the situation, Chrisean decides to handle it by basically throwing a tantrum and getting physical yet again. On the cabaret show, Joseline gets offended when cast member Aqua coughs in front of her after drinking water. She hovers over Aqua while degrading and shouting at her. "While I was talking she started coughing like I was some fucking germ or something." Joseline told the producers interviewing her. She never considered the cough to be genuine due to the water going down the wrong pipe and instead jumped to conclusions. On Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta, reality star Shekinah starts bickering with castmate Bambi during a dinner accusing her of fasting for the "wrong" reasons. These petty arguments reveal the lack of critical thinking and maturity from the black women in these shows. Something so small can set them off.

Regardless of how toxic these shows are, many people still find them entertaining and tune in every week. According to Parrot Analytics in August of 2023,"the audience demand for Baddies West is 8.7 times the demand of the average TV series in the United States…2.7% of all shows in this market have this level of demand." The show Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta follows close behind with "8.2 times the demand of the average TV series" within the past month. The Miami season alone of Joseline Cabaret has ranked "at the 79.4th percentile in the Reality genre" meaning "Miami has higher demand than 79.4% of all Reality titles in the United States" within the last 30 days. Clips and audios of each argument or fight per episode on all three shows regularly trend online. Based on the amount of users who share, comment, and/or reenact the scenarios on social media apps, it is assumed that these shows are mostly popular among young black girls and women. With no signs of viewership declining in any of the shows, this image of black women continues to be presented to the younger audience. Although disclaimers are displayed at the beginning of each episode, warning that the content is not suitable for younger viewers under 18, it does not really prevent some from still watching. There is a high chance of these young black girls being negatively influenced by the shows' portrayal of black women who are slightly older than them. They may mistake the toxic behavior and infamy as cool or aspiring. Less likely to question if the black women stereotypes are true and possibly mirror these harmful actions.

Although these popular reality TV shows reinforce the negative stereotypes of black women being belligerent, licentious, and uneducated, is this really the "reality" for all or even most black women across the U.S? Are they being misrepresented on screen by a small percentage of black women? Regardless of the answer one thing is certain, the portrayal still has a negative impact on its viewers.