Kate Leaver
TonyKPrime Time Polygamy: The Case of Reality TV Romance
January 9th 2009 02:20
Prime Time Polygamy: The Case of Reality TV RomanceEven if you're a staunch crusader against Reality Television, I know you still manage to vaguely keep up with at least one of the following: Big Brother, Idol, The Bachelor, So You Think You Can Dance, Hell's Kitchen. At the very least you are begrudgingly aware of their existence.
There are three different types of Reality TV viewers: 1. The die-hard fan who knows names, backgrounds, interests and cup sizes of all contestants. 2. The reluctant watcher, who protests and likes to remind fellow viewers that they are more intelligent than this, while guiltily getting totally into it. and 3. The angry, anti-reality-TV activist, who passionately believes America's Next Top Model signals the apocalypse.. but might still watch it for academic reasons.
Whichever camp you belong to you must admit that the social experiment inherent in all these programs, while it may not always be ethical is hugely watchable.
The Case of Reality TV Romance
If you've not heard of MTV's Shot At Love then you're in for a treat. It began with a household of male and female contestants, competing through humiliating and bizarre tasks, for the affections of bisexual Youtube sensation Tila Tequila (hence the name of the show; a shot of Tequila). Since then Double Shot At Love has come into our lives, with the 'Ikki Twins', Rikki and Vikki - identical, buxom, blonde and bisexual twins - both looking for love.
Of course a tournament in which people are sent home on the basis of their very personality and where the ultimate prize is a lifetime love is rife with complications. The implications for fidelity and interaction are huge, and I can only speculate as to how this influences people on our side of the television screen.
The protagonist of any Bachelor/Bachelorette style program dates a whole bevy of people at once, they develop feelings for more than one person in that group and they are free to cut off any romance they tire of, all in the pursuit of real love.
But how real can it possibly be, when intimacy is televised internationally, when they are always trailed be cameras? Is this the same strain that makes celebrity marriages falter? Only this time the people involved are not media-savvy, media-spun celebrities with the insurance of good PR and fans to deflect vitriol. These people are (somewhat) ordinary people, suddenly splayed across the screen, at the mercy of the editors of the show to represent them authentically.
Monogamy is expected from contestants, who become attached but usually launch straight into bitchy rants upon being asked to leave the show. Something so abruptly terminated is efficient and dramatic for the sake of the show, but rarely do we see the real aftermath of this type of emotional abandonment in these brutal games to win someone's heart. If on-screen love is transient, public and constructed within the confines of a show, is a person entitled to mourn its loss? When rejected contestants return home, are their tears to do with pride or to do with heartbreak?
On Double Shot At Love recently (screens on MTV, replayed many times during the week) a man was emilinated from the race to the Ikki Twins' hearts. he was a big, muscly, imposing guy who insisted he was a gentle giant, but when it came to rejection time he got into a rage, manhandled one of the girls and bellowed at fellow contestants. He believed in his relationship with Rikki implicitly; for him she was the only one. She, on the other hand, had four other men and 3 women on the go at the same time. So the slice of devotion she had for this one guy was simply redistributed among the remaining suitors when he left. With such a group of people vying for one person (or 2 as the case may be) it becomes a really odd blend of monogamy and polygamy.
My question is this: Are the Ikki Twins and other such love-seekers doing the very same thing people do in their lives when searching for their mate, only in a condensed period of time, with ruthless honesty, a game-show environment and in front of millions of people? Do these shows appeal to us because we recognise the carnival-like, tactical search for one person when attraction can spread over many?
Reality TV Romance: A contracted, terrifying fracture of our own love lives?
I don't know.
Either way, I'm not going to switch off.
There are three different types of Reality TV viewers: 1. The die-hard fan who knows names, backgrounds, interests and cup sizes of all contestants. 2. The reluctant watcher, who protests and likes to remind fellow viewers that they are more intelligent than this, while guiltily getting totally into it. and 3. The angry, anti-reality-TV activist, who passionately believes America's Next Top Model signals the apocalypse.. but might still watch it for academic reasons.
Whichever camp you belong to you must admit that the social experiment inherent in all these programs, while it may not always be ethical is hugely watchable.
The Case of Reality TV Romance
If you've not heard of MTV's Shot At Love then you're in for a treat. It began with a household of male and female contestants, competing through humiliating and bizarre tasks, for the affections of bisexual Youtube sensation Tila Tequila (hence the name of the show; a shot of Tequila). Since then Double Shot At Love has come into our lives, with the 'Ikki Twins', Rikki and Vikki - identical, buxom, blonde and bisexual twins - both looking for love.
Of course a tournament in which people are sent home on the basis of their very personality and where the ultimate prize is a lifetime love is rife with complications. The implications for fidelity and interaction are huge, and I can only speculate as to how this influences people on our side of the television screen.
The protagonist of any Bachelor/Bachelorette style program dates a whole bevy of people at once, they develop feelings for more than one person in that group and they are free to cut off any romance they tire of, all in the pursuit of real love.
But how real can it possibly be, when intimacy is televised internationally, when they are always trailed be cameras? Is this the same strain that makes celebrity marriages falter? Only this time the people involved are not media-savvy, media-spun celebrities with the insurance of good PR and fans to deflect vitriol. These people are (somewhat) ordinary people, suddenly splayed across the screen, at the mercy of the editors of the show to represent them authentically.
Monogamy is expected from contestants, who become attached but usually launch straight into bitchy rants upon being asked to leave the show. Something so abruptly terminated is efficient and dramatic for the sake of the show, but rarely do we see the real aftermath of this type of emotional abandonment in these brutal games to win someone's heart. If on-screen love is transient, public and constructed within the confines of a show, is a person entitled to mourn its loss? When rejected contestants return home, are their tears to do with pride or to do with heartbreak?
On Double Shot At Love recently (screens on MTV, replayed many times during the week) a man was emilinated from the race to the Ikki Twins' hearts. he was a big, muscly, imposing guy who insisted he was a gentle giant, but when it came to rejection time he got into a rage, manhandled one of the girls and bellowed at fellow contestants. He believed in his relationship with Rikki implicitly; for him she was the only one. She, on the other hand, had four other men and 3 women on the go at the same time. So the slice of devotion she had for this one guy was simply redistributed among the remaining suitors when he left. With such a group of people vying for one person (or 2 as the case may be) it becomes a really odd blend of monogamy and polygamy.
My question is this: Are the Ikki Twins and other such love-seekers doing the very same thing people do in their lives when searching for their mate, only in a condensed period of time, with ruthless honesty, a game-show environment and in front of millions of people? Do these shows appeal to us because we recognise the carnival-like, tactical search for one person when attraction can spread over many?
Reality TV Romance: A contracted, terrifying fracture of our own love lives?
I don't know.
Either way, I'm not going to switch off.
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