The (Un)Real Housewives Of Atlanta: A Post-Feminist, Post-Racial Textual Analysis Of Reality TV's Favorite Housewives
Open Access
- Author:
- Stewart, Sabrina Dahlia
- Graduate Program:
- Media Studies
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- May 05, 2017
- Committee Members:
- Michelle Rodino-Colocino, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Matthew McAllister, Committee Member
Marie Hardin, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Post-Feminism
Post-Racism
RHOA
Housewives
Stereotypes
Reality TV
Atlanta
Textual Analysis - Abstract:
- Reality Television (rTV) has become a staple of network and cable television with images claiming to be of real events, people, and situations. While this content widely constructs stereotypical images of women, it is also helping to develop the problematic representation of a quickly growing new genre of rTV, one that features housewives. From basketball wives to hip-hop wives – ‘housewife’ series have proved popular and profitable. Using Bravo Network’s commercially successful The Real Housewives of Atlanta as a case study, this thesis explores the formation of the Black housewife. Here, I conduct a textual analysis of The Real Housewives of Atlanta to explore the post-racial and post-feminist building blocks used to create Bravo’s take on the popular housewife image. Bravo’s successful The Real Housewives series documents the lifestyles of several sets of housewives from different cities/states across the United States. Of the seven different casts in this series, The Real Housewives of Atlanta (RHOA) is the only one to feature Black women, as well as showcase a majority African-American cast. RHOA is an important case study as it reinforces and challenges the normality of the exploitation of the Black woman in media in return for ratings. Though stereotypical portrayals of women of color are all-too-familiar within mainstream television, RHOA is different because this specific cast, still riddled with racist and sexist stereotypes, is Bravo’s Real Housewives series ratings frontrunner. Thus, this study contributes to media studies research on race and gender. The Real Housewives of Atlanta reflects post-racist and post-feminist ideology, specifically through the show’s character development of the ‘housewife’ and its purported attempt to represent “reality” on television.