Stereotypes In Reality Shows

In today’s modern society, television has become a platform that can largely influence the minds of millions of people. Some of the most popular TV shows on the air are reality shows, like” The Real Housewives of Atlanta”. However, most of these reality TV shows have one very unfortunate factor in common. A majority of these reality shows display certain racial and ethnic groups in a negative light by expressing and exploiting negative stereotypes for views. These stereotypes in reality television are very harmful to the groups affected and to society in general and should not be shown on television because they degrade the group being targeted, make people believe that those stereotypes are actually true, and will promote the popularity …show more content…
A couple representations are the shows, ”Honey Boo Boo” and “Duck Dynasty”. These reality television shows spread multiple negative stereotypes about southern whites, such as the stereotypes that all southern whites are lazy and uneducated. Some people may say that since these shows are “obviously fake” that no one would actually believe the things being portrayed during the show. Nevertheless, if you do not know a white southerner and you see these shows on air, there’s a possibility that you will believe that that’s how all southern whites are. The same goes for the stereotypes directed towards Italian-Americans that were shown on the reality show “Jersey Shore”. Most people who do not know any Italian Americans would think that the stereotypes of Italian Americans, which in this show are being depicted as ”sun tanned, alcohol drinking, drama seeking, and sex craving”, would have some truth to it, when in reality these stereotypes are being extremely harmful exaggerated, and untrue. However, despite the fact that these shows are portraying these groups horrendously, these shows are gaining more traction on the cable platform and are becoming more