Portrayal of Black Women in Reality TV
The most misunderstood and misrepresented person in the United States is the black woman. Having earned their place on the tv screen after decades of no representation, they still have to face the stereotypes forced on them. With shows like “Love Island”, “Bad Girls Club”, “Dance Moms” and more, black women are often put into a box that usually shines a negative light on them. From the “angry black woman” to the “jezebel”, reality television is always quick to attach a trope to them. On top of the stereotypes, black women face all types of colorism and racism from not only their cast members but the production team itself.
Holly Frazier, one of very few black mothers to appear on the hit Lifetime reality tv show “Dance Moms”, has faced many racist encounters with Abby Lee Miller, the choreographer on the show.
“I remember in this one episode, Abby told Holly, she was like ‘I want her (Holly’s daughter Nia) in an afro.” Jasmine, a black girl and an avid fan of reality tv, said about the show. “And Nia only ever gets solos if it’s a jazz or hip-hop song that the other girls can’t perform. And on top of that, she put her in a leopard print costume but the rest of the girls had on sparkly costumes. It felt so racist to me.”
Love Island, one of the most famous dating shows in the world, is known for their mistreatment of black women in their shows. Each season, the cast usually consists of majority white contestants with a few Black men and one or two Black women.
“So in the first episode, the guys usually pick which girl they wanna match with. So they go one by one and, of course, the one Black girl is always picked last.” Jasmine said, “It’s so aggravating because this happens every season. And it gets even worse when you see how the darkskin women who struggle all season to find a match get edited to look like they’re the problem. As if they’re the reason they can’t get a match.”
More so than being a traumatic experience for the contestants who face this racism, the people who watch the show and relate to these characters can also be affected by this.
“Watching this show as a darkskin girl can be really bad for your self esteem. All the girls on this show are beyond attractive. So sometimes it’ll make me feel like ‘Damn, if Yewande is a 10/10 and she still gets passed up by these men, what chance do I have?’ So it’s like, not only is it bad for the Black girls on the show but it’s bad for the Black girls watching the show.”
Bad Girls Club, a finished reality show that used to air on Lifetime, features 7 different girls each season. The girls would have to live in the same mansion for about 3 months and all types of fights and drama would occur. Most of the girls, both black and white, were portrayed in a way that made them look problematic. But often times, the Black girls were portrayed as the aggressors.
“On Season 7, somebody had put bleach in Nastasia’s eye contacts. So eventually she just went downstairs and beat the white girl Shelly up, even though it really could've been anybody.” Chanya, a reality tv fanatic who’s been watching Bad Girls Club since 2009, recalled. “At the time I was thinking she had no reason to beat that girl up. I just don’t like how she went out looking like the angry Black girl!”
It wasn’t until years later when it came out that Nastasia was told by production, off camera, that Shelly was the one who put the bleach in her contacts. But when the episode aired on tv, she was portrayed as if she just assumed it was Shelly. An example of how Black women can look like the aggressors even when they were provoked first.
The show started with a majority white cast but over time, once this “angry black woman” trope proved to earn the show high ratings, more and more Black girls took over the cast each season.
“They started getting mostly Black girls and then they would get like the white girls who used to say they grew up in the hood.” Chanya said, noticing how the cast didn’t have as many white girls as it used to. “It’s like they wanted the show to be ‘blacker’ because they thought it would start more drama. I think it makes us look bad in the end.”
From the stereotypes to colorism, the world of reality tv has proven to be one that is not inviting to Black women. The impacts this can have on the girls watching from home can be detrimental and it only seems to be getting worse. The first step Hollywood should take is to stop putting people into boxes and to start putting the “real” in reality tv.