The Exploitation of Reality TV

Jenna Lawrence | Managing Editor

“Watching an Event on Television at Home” by MyLove4Art, Licensed by Envato

As more reality TV shows are aired, specifically dating ones on Netflix, the more exploitation is created. And I mean exploitation in literally any sense you can think of. I recently started putting these kinds of shows on as background noise while I do other tasks, and when I’m not looking for something too serious to watch. The most recent ones I watched were Temptation Island, Love is Blind, and Age of Attraction. 

The first season of Love is Blind was a completely different experience from the latest one. People used to really go on that show to find love, but this most recent season was absolutely absurd. The men on the show were complete liars and, honestly, losers. Between Alex’s lies and botched timeline and Chris’ delusions, it was hard to watch. It is becoming increasingly obvious how much men think they can get away with, especially when it hurts their partners’ feelings on the shows. On the show, both Jessica and Ashley were pretty, nice, and successful women. But the way the show framed and exploited what they were subjected to by those two men was off-putting. 

I don’t know if I’ll be watching the second season of Temptation Island, solely for the fact that I don’t think I can take watching the men give in to lust and harm the women they came with for a second time. Truthfully, this show and the cast glorify lust and cheating. The people on the show don’t arrive as a couple are called singles, but are literally referred to as temptresses/tempters. And the men fold so quickly without even bothering to consider how their girlfriends will feel. Then they go to confessionals and say all they want is for their girlfriend to be happy, and her feelings were the only ones they were considering. The women have to literally watch their boyfriends physically cheat on them, and we’re supposed to watch this and view it as fulfilling entertainment? All I see is women getting their feelings exploited and lust being glorified. I didn’t even mention how everyone is basically naked, men and women, and goes around saying the most bizarre and corny sexual things. 

Lastly, Age of Attraction is the weirdest of them all and borderline pedophilic. The premise of the show is something I can kind of understand; like Love is Blind, they’re testing the limits of love. However, age gaps get to a point where it’s no longer acceptable, and all the couples they focused on were far behind a normal situation. Trying to normalize 20-30-year age gaps is extremely alarming; they stop being unconventional and start raising ethical concerns. The power imbalances were what really got me: how are you going to have a 60-year-old man reprimand a 27-year-old woman? The older individual in these couples seemed to feel as though they had authority over the younger one, which created weird dynamics. It’s beyond me how this was renewed for another season. 

All these reality shows are doing is creating unrealistic expectations about relationships, including what people should look like, what acceptable behavior is, how to treat your partner, power dynamics, and the list goes on and on. And not only does reality TV reflect toxic relationships, but it is attempting to normalize them and package them as entertainment, even though it is at the expense of real people’s dignity.