The negative impact of reality shows

 Sarah Elgohary Professor Shih 

 2/11/16 Soc 181

Sociology Reality TV and Body Image Research Paper

Introduction 

There is a saying “True beauty is only skin deep,” but if this saying were truly the case then why is it that an individual’s appearance is the first thing that people in our society judge when we first meet them? A person grows slowly. They need family, friends, teachers, and social groups to help gain a perspective or worldview. An individual needs to learn about social norms, morals, good and bad behaviors, how to build good character, gain knowledge, a good education, and obtain a large well connected social capital network of friends. This will help an individual achieve their dreams and goals in life and become a successful productive, member of society who knows how to make a good decision that not only benefits himself or herself, but benefits all of society as well. This is due to the way we are socialized in society. As a result, from the time we learn to crawl, there are a set of guidelines, rules, expectations, and images on how a person is supposed to look, act, and interact with other people. These factors are based on an individual’s gender, race, and social class, and can be detrimental to the success of women especially. 

The media in society today has portrayed the expectations of women with regard to body image and gender roles negatively especially through the interpretation of reality television shows. Reality television has dominated the airwaves since the turn of the century. Cheap to produce and popular with viewers, reality shows cover nearly every aspect of human life from work to play. Some shows, such as “Big Brother,” pit competitors against each other to win a prize in a highly constructed setting. In others, such as “Hell’s Kitchen,” participants compete for a job in their chosen industry. Others, for instance “Jersey Shore,” depicts life, albeit a tightly controlled version, as it happens. While the shows are diverse in content, all are predictably packed with conflict and stress.  

Literature Review 

Competitive reality shows give women negative body image and poor self-esteem due to how they internalize the negative characteristics of the women on reality shows, such as violence aggression, and artificial beauty. “Reality Bites: An Investigation of the Genre of Reality Television and Its Relationship to Viewers’ Body Image” a study by Nichole Egbert and James D. Belcher (2012) explored all of the different subtypes of reality TV shows to determine the influence of reality TV shows on body image. They used four subcategories in reality shows, Docusoaps, Main Shows, Flavor of Love, and Network Television Competition, shows such as Dancing with the Stars. This study asked three research questions; what are the distinct subcategories of reality TV, how do different reality show relate to viewers body image, and how does exposure reality TV as measured by a weekly self-report relate to body image (eg body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness). There were two main variables to answer these questions; they were predicting body dissatisfaction and the drive for thinness.

 There were many important findings in this study. First, the researchers found that exposure to competition reality shows, like Hell’s Kitchen, leads to increased body dissatisfaction and increased drive for thinness. In contrast, the weekly self-report of reality shows did not reveal any relationships between consumption of reality shows and body image. In addition, for body dissatisfaction, women with a higher body index tend to have lower self-esteem and watch more network television shows. They have more of a desire to be thin. These results prove that there is a strong need for media cultivation studies that include specific genres to capture the effects of reality shows

Although actors on reality shows are presented as average, everyday people, reality stars sport expensive hairstyles, perfectly applied makeup, and expensive clothes. According to a 2011 "Time" magazine article, the Girl Scout Institute study shows 80 percent of young teen girls who watch reality shows believe that they are mostly real rather than scripted. Most young women believe that the girls on TV are naturally picture-perfect. This leads to pressure on the girls to look as polished as their reality star role models. About 72 percent of teen girls who watch reality television spend a significant amount of time on their appearance, compared to 42 percent of non-watchers. Some girls even believe that outer beauty is more important than inner beauty (Fritscher 1). 

This study does not only prove my theory that higher exposure to reality television leads to women having less self-esteem and less confidence in their abilities, but they also spend a majority of their time focusing on having the “perfect Barbie Doll” image. It also proves the effects of gender socialization of men and women in society. Parents frequently give young children toys designed to allow them to practice for roles they will take on as adults. That’s why women have housekeeping toys, such Barbie dolls, pots and pans and baby dolls so they can learn to be “caregivers.”Through play, children learn about the world and their place in it. This study showed that girls who played with Barbie reported lower body image and a greater desire to be thinner than the girls who played with a curvier doll or no doll at all. So what do Barbie dolls teach children about the world? They teach children that it is desirable to be thin, white, and blonde. They encourage children to strive for an unrealistic body image.

  A recent study, Gurari et al. (2006) explored the relationship between advertisements of women in media and their attitudes towards their own body image and self-worth. The hypothesis of the study was that women know their portrayal in media is derogatory, and they may feel bad but they do not show how they feel. They do not correct or protect themselves against the awfully inappropriate images, social comparisons, and other threats that the media gives to young women. The results of the study show that the women were able to recognize the differences in response to the media advertisement images. They were able to recognize the difference between advertisements that have unrealistic expectations for a woman’s mind and body, and the ones that celebrate women’s identity and strengths. People know that the media and body image are closely related. Particularly, body image advertising portrays affects our own body image. Of course, there are many other things that influence our body image such as parenting, education, and intimate relationships. However, the popular media does have a big impact on it.  

This is a very important point because it shows that the results supported my hypothesis. This study is proof of the way society has made so many rules and guidelines regarding the expectations of women’s appearance and behavior. This is because women are socialized to internalize the message of beauty ideals and that appearance is more important than intellect or education. Society has guidelines that hinder women’s ability to be successful in professional careers. From childhood, she is forced to internalize the fact that her worth lies in beauty and not in intellect—she’s internalizing these things from media and from these advertisements. 

Willgosh (2001) conducted a similar study that represents historical and social influences on expectations, occupations, and gender roles for women. The hypothesis of the study is that the media influences women and girls. In addition, the study also represents the negative effects of media on their educational achievement and their career choices. They had to watch a video of women from 1950, and then watch another video of women today and compare the differences. Then they had to complete a survey on the different expectations of women in the 1950s compared to today. The researchers discovered how quickly women are socialized to act a certain way. The results of the study did not support the hypotheses. This is because the researchers discovered that the expectations, occupations, and gender roles for women were the same in the 1950s as they are today, with the exception of women having to work to make their living while they support their families. In the 1950s and today, women are taught by society to maintain the role of traditional wives and do all cooking, cleaning, laundry, and child care. Today most people do not have traditional families any more like they did in the 1950s, a man and woman married with three or more children. 

This study is important because it reflects the results of how children are socialized differently based on their gender. Boys learn to play with action figures like GI Joe army toys and Legos. Society teaches boys to be strong, join the military, be good at math, build buildings, be engineers, and provide for women in society. On the other hand, young girls are trained by society and their parents to play with dolls, makeup, and easy bake ovens. Later on, in school girls learn that parents only want their sons to do better in math, so as a result, a girl’s attention in math decreases because they have internalized this message from their parents. In addition, society teaches young girls to be nurturing, to cook, clean, do laundry so they can learn to be good mothers and take care of children, while the men are only the providers in society.The study made women aware of the fact that society wants them to be what society thinks they are supposed to be rather than what they want to be in order to be successful. This study made women conscious of the fact that this was happening. This study shows how the media representation of women dictates what women are expected to be in society. As a result of this, media influences women to have a negative self-perception of themselves.

This study intends to expand upon the results of many past studies. The proposed study will examine the issue of the media sending the wrong messages to society that emphasize the wrong ideals for women, such as supermodel ideals and impossible beauty expectations. As a result, society today has portrayed negative expectations of women with regard to body image, occupation, and gender roles through the interpretation of reality television and magazines. From the time we are in our mother’s womb, there is a set of guidelines, rules, expectations, and images on how a person is supposed to look , act, and interact with other people, that every individual in society is trained to follow and obey. It has been hypothesized that societal rules, guidelines, and expectations are based on a person’s gender, race, and socioeconomic standing which can inhibit forward progress for any marginalized group, especially for women. These guidelines are detrimental because they create an unrealistic expectation that women are forced to follow in order to be considered valuable or worthy of respect. By way of magazine advertisements and reality television shows, these forms of media project a negative image of woman in that they produce a stereotype of what a woman should be instead of what a woman is, 

Based on my research findings, it has been hypothesized that women who are exposed to reality shows will have more negative perception of their image and self. The independent variable of this study is consumption of reality shows. Women who watch a lot of reality shows, more than six hours a day, will have higher negative body image. The dependent variable of this study is effects of reality shows on body image. My theory is that the more young women watch reality television shows, the more women internalize the images and behaviors on reality television shows. As a result, these images change how women feel about their own body image. The goal of this study is to prove women will have more of a negative body image if they watch a lot of reality television. The unit of analysis of my study is Hofstra University students. My study population is women at Hofstra University from freshmen to seniors. This study does not meet the criteria for Nomothetic research because this study is only focusing on one relationship between negative body image as a result of too much consumption of reality shows. There are no other factors to explain why women have a negative body image in this study at this time. 

Data and methods 

The operational definition of reality shows is any television program in any genre like adventure, skills based, or fashion based in which real people are continuously filmed and designed to be entertaining rather than informative.The operational definition for body is image the way each individual perceives their own body My study is unidimensional because there is only dimension for each variable. My independent variable consumption of reality TV shows questions one- two are about reality TV for my independent variable questions three to ten in my survey are about body image for dependent variable. I know that my survey is reliable and valid. Reliability refers to how consistent a survey is, Therefore I know that my survey questions are consistent with my research because all of my questions address my concepts, consumption reality shows and body image not my favorite food. 

Validity refers to the accuracy of the study. There are four types of validity in a study; they are content validity, face validity: criterion related (predictive) validity, and construct validity. Construct validity is when a survey measure is related to other variables as expected within a set of theoretical relationships in your study. (i.e. scale of marital satisfaction. In other words, construct validity is when a scale accurately measures what it is supposed to measure. For example, my survey has questions on what it was designed to measure. As a result I have construct validity because my survey addresses what it is designed to address and I have content validity. Content validity is when the questions of a survey in your study cover the range of meanings of your independent and dependent variables. My survey has content validity because my questions cover the range of concepts for consumption of reality shows with questions one and two of my survey( my independent variable).

  Moreover, my survey also covers the meanings of concepts for my dependent variable, the effects of reality shows on body image with questions numbered three to ten. Face validity is the principle that any survey questions have to make sense in terms of your research, and they have to directly answer each dimension of the independent and dependent variables in your study. Therefore, my survey also has face validity because my questions are reasonable indicators for my independent and dependent variables. Criterion related validity, which is also known as predictive, validity is when the measure in your study relates to external criterion (i.e. SAT scores and college GPA). My study does not have criterion validity because there has not been any data collection for my study yet and I am not going to compare my research to other studies. 

Conclusion

A limitation of this study is the small sample. A study needs a large sample size to produce accurate and reliable results. This means that the results cannot be generalized from all women; this study needed a larger sample of women from many different universities to generalize the results. Another limitation of this study is the fact that all of the participants were only limited to women students from Hofstra University. The results of this would have been very different and they might have significant results if a sample of 300 people from five different universities were asked to complete survey on the media’s influence on women and body image. Participants need to be all females. In future studies the same experiment should be conducted with a larger sample. .

 

 

 

 

  References

 

Egbert, N., & Belcher, J. D. (2012). “Reality Bites: An Investigation of the Genre of Reality Television and Its Relationship to Viewers’ Body Image. “Mass Communication and Society, 15(3), 407-431. Retrieved February 2, 2016.

 

Fritscher, L. (2013, June 27). Does Reality Television Have a Negative Impact on Teenagers? Retrieved March 05, 2016, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/1005161-reality-television-negative-impact-teenagers/

 

Guarari, I., Hetts, J. J., & Strube, M. J. (2006). Beauty in the "I of the beholder effects of ideals media portrayal on implicit self-image. Journal of basic and applied Social Psychology, 28((3), 273--282. Selves. Journal of Communication Research, 4(6), 739-759. 

Wills, L. (2001). Enhancing girls and talents of women and Girls. Journal of High Ability Studies, 12(1), 45