Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Take Me Out- Are the "Rules of Love" Really Changing?

You may or may not be familiar with FOX's new reality/dating/game show Take Me Out,but in case you haven't, I put a link to a short run-through of the show. The show purports itself on being a "dynamic and fast paced" dating games show that "changes the rules of love" (the actual tag-line of the show) by making men and women decide in two seconds whether or not they want to date someone. You may have noticed that I used a few quotation marks in that last sentence. That's because the producers of the show and FOX claim that this show puts a new spin on dating dynamics, but in reality the show relies heavily upon common romantic scripts and stereotypes.
The show features 30 "eligible" bachelorettes of different (yet, extremely close) ages, styles, ethnicities and interests, and a few bachelors that compete for a chance to take one of the women on a date. All the women stand on the stage behind an illuminated podium, and when the bachelor up for grabs comes out on stage, he makes his plea for a date. If a bachelorette is not interested in the man, they can hit a buzzer and their light goes off, symbolizing her lack of interest. When the numbers of women willing to take the man on a date dwindle down to a certain few, the man then gets a chance to choose which woman he would like, and hits the buzzers of those who he doesn't like, saying "bye bye" to those who don't make the cut. All the while, the host, George Lopez, goes from woman to woman asking them why they chose to hit the buzzer and pass on a chance to date the bachelor at stakes. This scene is an all too familiar one, in which dating has become a sport. Ward (1995) talked about how a common romantic theme found in television is that sex is recreational, meaning it is used for either pure sport or pure entertainment, not to better a relationship or to procreate. This has been turned into something literal by making men and women compete for a "summer fling," as the show's website puts it.
Although the show is aware that it is treating sex in a competitive manner, it may however be unaware that it is also employing another set of stereotypes that have been commonly found in romantic portrayals on television instead of actually "changing the rules" of them. Like Kim (2007) also points out, many portrayals of sex in the media follow certain scripts like men only value women based on their appearances, women value men based on their strength, wealth and power, and men are the sexual aggressors. Take Me Out certainly seems to be abiding to these rules, not changing them. For example, the way the show tries to promote the idea of "ladies choice" when it comes to choosing a partner, being that they have the power to decide whether or not they want to date someone, however it is the men that have the final say in who they get to date. During the last round of the show, the man goes to each remaining bachelor still interested in dating him, and decides which one he would like to go out with. During the show, the women say very little if anything about themeselves, so it is assumed that the man would pick a woman based solely on what they see before them (i.e. their physical appearance). This not only shows the stereotype that men value women based solely on physical attractiveness, but also goes along with the stereotype that men have to be the ones to initiate a relationship. The men are not the only guilty ones when it comes to judgement: the women judge the men, too. Although the bachelors get a chance to say something about themselves, it is usually limited to where they are from, what they do for a living, and where and how they live. Based on only this knowledge, one would have to assume that the women are making their choices based on appearance, wealth, and power, going along with the stereotype that women only value men based on these aspects.
So while this incredibly cheesy dating show treats sex like a competition for both men and women, it also prides itself on being a different spin on the dating game. As you could see, in reality, it is following the same set of scripts seen in many other television shows out there.

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