Bad Girls: Wanna Join the Club?

We’ve all seen reality television shows where men and women are put into an uncomfortable and totally unrealistic setting and are forced to interact with each other. Usually, these shows follow the “Real World” format, putting young, attractive, drunk people into one house and allowing the audience to vicariously experience the kind of trouble they get into. Last week in class, we discussed Chia & Gunther’s (2006) study “How Media Contribute to Misperceptions of Social Norms About Sex,” and learned about the incredibly complex ways in which media and social norms about sex may have an influence on an individual’s beliefs and attitudes towards sex. As discussed, the perceived realism of a show or finding a relevance in media figures could possibly make an individual more likely to agree with the norms or attitudes that certain media figures have towards sex. In other words, the more real the media seems to someone, the more likely they are to agree with the kind of norms, attitudes and behaviors they see on television. When it comes to sex, it’s harder to find a show without it then with it on television, but the audience isn’t stupid. I’m sure most people watching shows like 90210 are aware that it is all scripted. But what about the reality television genre? Do people flip on the television, see Jersey Shore and think “wow, they are real people, doing what they always do, but in front of a camera?” Does watching a supposedly “real” situation on these shows influence the audience to agree more with the kinds of social norms being practiced by these media figures? When it comes to “trashy television,” I would hope not.

The Bad Girls Club website chronicles the
members' wild nights with pictures.

As we discussed in class, according to Chia & Gunther’s (2006) study, teens tend to overestimate their peers’ sexual permissiveness and overestimate the influence media has on their peers’ sexual permissiveness. This was interesting to me because I started to wonder if whether or not media figures could be somehow seen as peers if the individual has a strong parasocial relationship with the media figure. Parasocial relationships, a term coined by Horton & Whol in the 1950s, describes when an individual has an intense connection to a media figure, and begins to think of the media figure as a sort of friend.  By the logic presented in Chia & Gunther’s (2006) article, if an individual is likely to see a media figure as a friend, and then overestimates their sexual permissiveness, this could potentially have an effect on that individual’s own attitudes towards sex. Since reality television is the most “realistic” media, it makes sense that an individual could become strongly attached to a reality television figure. The potential problem here is, reality television is very liberal when it comes to attitudes towards sex. For example, Oxygen, a network specifically aimed at women, has fairly successful and long running show called The Bad Girls Club. Believe me when I say this show does not go any deeper than following a group of self-proclaimed “badass” women who do nothing but drink excessively, fight, and hook-up with men, women, and sometimes each other. If you don’t believe me, here is a clip of the show. As you can see, this show does not do a very good job of promoting sexual responsibility. In fact, I would argue that it does the exact opposite by showing that sexual promiscuity has no negative consequences, and that it is fine to be promiscuous because you are drunk. Not only that, but the show creates an ideal world for these young women by putting them in a (relatively) safe, controlled and monitored environment where everything is paid for and given to them. This reminded me of the movie we watched this week, Spin the Bottle. The movie discussed how the media has created this norm that doing irresponsible things is all fine and dandy, as long as you can justify it by being drunk. As you can clearly see in this clip of the show, that is exactly what these women do. They get drunk, make mistakes, and blame it on the alcohol. So what is the problem with this?

 I would argue that Chia & Gunther’s (2006) study sort of leaves room for interpretation about how this kind of show could affect someone. Imagine you were a young, intrigued adolescent (particularly a female), and none of your friends were interested in sex. You look to the media for advice (because your parents won’t give you any) and you see this channel specifically for women, is promoting sexual promiscuous behavior without showing any negative consequences. Since you don’t exactly fit-in with your friends when it comes to sexual beliefs, maybe you find the women on this show a little bit more relatable? And they are part of a “club!” Maybe you want to be a member? Maybe you want to do what they do so you can have fun friends like them and be part of a group? You think to yourself, “this is a reality show! Sex must really be like this!” OK, so maybe that is a stretch. Maybe not every young girl watching this show will automatically assume it’s fine to get belligerently drunk every night and sleep with the first guy that catches your eye. But when thinking about the sorts of connections that Chia and Gunther (2006) lay out, it makes sense that shows like this could at least have some influence on the development of social norms and the level of sexual permissiveness that an individual has, especially if the media figures laying out these norms have a high potential to be seen as “real,” or even as a “media peer.”

There is really not much going on in The Bad Girls Club besides drinking, partying, and getting into trouble, but hopefully the audience for the show is one that is old enough or experienced enough to know that this show does not present a “real” view of sex, especially for young women.