Reality TV Analysis: The Real Housewives of Atlanta

I don’t watch TV at all, so I had people point me towards a reality show to watch. Probably thinking it would be funny to have me watch it, I was pointed to “The Real Housewives of Atlanta”, a show about 5 women in Atlanta Georgia. The women are all affluent and part of the city’s social elite, and as far as I can tell from one episode all 5 women interact on some level. In this episode Kim and NeNe and Sheree are in a friend triangle with everyone making everyone else feel bad. In the end Kim and Sheree decide that they are much better than NeNe, while NeNe feels that both are immature. It’s all very meaningless. Meanwhile, DeShawn plans a fundraiser for her foundation that helps girls with low self esteem, and Lisa works on getting her line of jewelry into department stores by inking a deal with a large jewelry distributor. The main event of the show is Deshawn’s fundraiser, where she attempts to raise 1 Million dollars through a charity auction. Everyone who is rich or important in Atlanta is invited to attend, with the most professional security firm in Atlanta keeping out undesirables. Unfortunately Deshawn spends 30,000$ on the fundraiser itself and only raises 10,000$. She feels bad, but because she has a loving husband she can “make these expensive mistakes”.
The show airs on Bravo, a cable network that as far as I can tell deals mostly in these type of inane reality tv shows. As far as audience, these seems to have the usual reality tv tropes. Drama between participants, “glamour”, “fashion”, ect… there was a huge emphasis on clothing, jewelry, and bodies. This seems to be a part of the more general societal obsession with a certain narrative of beauty, in this case a beauty explicitly associated with money and affluence. Quote, “The beauty is worth the money”. That sums up much of what I saw in this episode. There are also references to jewelry, especially a 1.5 million dollar necklace that Kim puts on for a party, and a 15,000 necklace that Kim purchases on a whim. To me, that kind of jewelry is criminal, but obviously the show targets people who think a bit differently than I do.
The most salient topic in this show is class. Affluence and upper class privilege is waved around and sticks the air like a miasma. The main focus of the show is that these are 5 women who in one way or another have enormous wealth at their disposal. A very immediate connection to be made is Deshawn’s fundraiser, which as a model for activism meshes with the readings from the book about non-profits. DeShawn’s fundraiser is by and for the upper class; it allows people to indulge in activities such as purchasing expensive jewelry and eating gourmet foods that exclude the majority of society and do not address the problems of wealth distribution or young girls self esteem. DeShawn’s foundation is portrayed in the show as something that “the rich” gift to “the poor”, without ever discussing why such a social chasms exists. The discussions in Women’s Lives about growing economic inequalities is played out in this show. “The richest 20 percent of the world’s population receives 80 percent of the world’s income. Northern industrial counties use 86 percent of the world’s resources”. (Women’s Lives 394) These sorts of inequalities are exhibited in the show, and the benefits are assumed as a natural part of being upper class. The purchase on a whim of 1 15,000 dollar piece of jewelry is portrayed as something to be excited about; there is no critique of the consequences of this wealth.
As far as gender relationships, the show focuses on women and only in one case highlights the role of a man. 4 out of the 5 women are portrayed in the show as financially independent, in the sense that there is no discussion of where wealth is coming from. 1 woman, Kim, makes it very clear that she finances her lavish lifestyle thanks to “big poppa”, a mystery man she is in a relationship with. The show enforces heterosexual normality by portraying all of the characters in heterosexual relationships; the only queer character is “the gay boyfriend” of Nene. I felt like the “glbt tourist” image was being displayed, as theorized by Kellner in the section on “Popular Culture and Queer Representation”. The gay man is attached to the purchasing of commodities, in this case a suit; he is not valued by the show as an individual but in his relationship to goods and fashion. His “gayness” allows him to be an fashion adviser; the result being the purchase of a 6,000$ piece of clothing for a teenager.
This reality show was hard to watch, it presents a voyeur-like gaze into the world of the upper class, a class maintained by this systems social and economic inequalities. From DeShawn’s fundraiser to Kim’s million dollar jewelry, wealth is squandered in an ostentatious display of class privilege. Excuse me while I go back to not watching television at all.