Elliot Nounou Writing 2 Erica Halik 4/24/2013

A Different Kind of Dating

There comes a fine line between what is reality in television shows compared to reality in everyday life. Professor of Sociology, Emily M. Drew, deciphers racial segregation in her article Pretending to Be Postracial:The Spectacularization of Race in Reality TVs Survivor. According to the article, Survivors race wars season tried to show that race is irrelevant in America, but instead reinforces racial stereotypes through references to specific occurrences in the show. Particularly, Drew argues that African Americans have the least amount of contestants in reality television creating situations where one member of the minority group comes to symbolically represent the entire racial group(Drew 330). As a result, this tokenization leads to misinterpretations of racial groups, creating stereotypical labels. Such labels associated with people of color include *being+ headstrong, tough, and having musical talent (Drew 335). While the Survivor touches upon racial experimentation, another reality television show focuses on the roles of race and gender.

Featuring women as competitors for a mans affection, reality-dating shows follow a set

of guidelines which are often not as genuine since they present gender inequalities and present racial pigeonholes promulgated by male figures such as the producer or main character. Composed mostly of African American women attempting to win over a hip-hop legend, Flavor of Love is a different kind of reality television show in comparison to white dating shows. In these shows, caucasian women are presented to be pretty, successful, and in search of a real man who is young Prince Charming. In turn, the women presented in Flavor of Love are sassy, audacious, and belligerent and Flav is a 42 year old with a mouth full of gold teeth. Conflicting with todays collective standards, Flavor of Love exploits women of color as subordinates while identifying men as dominant figures in society.

From the introduction to every episode, women are displayed in an outlandish manner, exhibiting American society in a misogynistic way. To introduce the show, contestants appear as baby blue faced figures in flamboyant bikinis. However, the women are faceless and dont resemble any contestant in particular as they pose to the camera with their legs widespread or laying on the grass. As the camera travels by hearts follow Flavs pathway to a stairway of bluefaced figures looking up at the only real figure, Flavor Flav, posing at the top of the stairs with a cigar in his mouth. Flav is posed above all the contestants, portraying men as superiors to women. In essence, the blue figures represent the women in the show in their mission to please and win Flav. On the other hand, Flav represents mans role to be in charge over the women.

Following reality datings continuous presentation of mans domination of women, in

episode A Friend of Flav Is a Friend of Mine, Flav chooses a group of women to go see some of his old friends who end up being elderly in a convalescent home. Just like a s cientific experiment, Flavor sits in a limo and spectates as the contestants attempt to cater to elderly demands, while wearing skimpy outfits. As a result, New York refuses to assist helping an old lady put her dentures on and fails to win a date with Flav because she mistreated the old lady. In reality, Flav is seeing which contestant will go out of their way to please him. Following the gender ideology that a woman must fulfill a mans needs as the dominant figure, man scrutinizes the women and if they pass the test they are more likely to be chosen for an exclusive date or progress through elimination.

Catering to the ideal characteristics of reality-dating shows, women are labeled with names generated solely by their appearance. The women are named in relation to their cultural identity or even their physical attributes. Flav takes away their real name and replaces them with names like Hottie, Pumpkin, Peaches or Red Lobster. Specifically, Flav names one lady Tik and goes on later to explain that she has a tiny head and a big ass just like a tick. By calling Tiffany Pollard, New York, the show shows a society where man is in control and can adjust things the way he wants. Not only are the contestants labeled, but they are viewed by Flav as sexual objects. Before the contestants help the elderly, Flav makes a sexual reference stating rub my friends the right way so later on you can rub me the right way and I could rub you the right way too followed by touching one of the contestants in appropriately as they exit the limo and then smiles at the camera. The role of women in the show is reassured as Hottie tells the camera if i'm not being physical, then Im out the door, signifying that they are

meant to satisfy men in a physical manner in order to succeed.

Producing representations that both reflect and maintain racial misunderstanding and inequality *for+ profits, producers of Flavor of Love strived to do so by labeling people of color in an audacious and belligerent manner (Drew 343). At the end of the episode A Friend of Flav Is a Friend of Mine, two of the contestants must be eliminated. New York, an African American contestant, abominated Pumpkin, the only white contestant left, by saying to the camera Pumpkin, she needs a facelift. Afterwards, she continues scolding other contestants as they receive their enlarged clock chain signifying that they survived elimination. As Hottie gets called up, New York tells the camera Hottie is here for the money. She nev er cared for Flav. Shes a gold-digger, shes a slutt, shes a whore. Um and shes totally fake. By making these claims, she is portraying women of color as belligerent and only in things for the money. Complementing to the false representation of African Americans values, Serious is on the show with the sole intentions of promoting her modeling career.

In essence, the way Flavor of Love exploits women of color and men as dominant figures in society is not frank. Women of color are not sexual objects that need to be treated in a misogynistic manner. Similarly, black men should not be presented to society as perverted rappers who objectify and thrive on power. However, since reality television falsely represents women of color and gender roles, American society is prone to racial prejudice and devalued through viewing artificial representations of people in the name of show ratings and profit.

Works Cited

"A Friend of Flav's Is a Friend of Mine." Flavor of Love. VH1. 2006. Web. <www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi3602683929?ref_=tt_pv_vi_1>.

"Biography For Flavor Flav." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2013. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0281318/bio

Emily, Drew. "Pretending to Be Postracial: The Spectacularization of Race in Reality

TV's Survivor." N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2013.

"Sociology." : Faculty & Staff. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2013.www.willamette.edu/cla/sociology/faculty/drew/