When Betty Friedan diagnosed 'the problem that has no name,' housewives were confined to the family home. Today, 'real-life' housewives saturate media culture as reality TV performers, microcelebrities, savvy entrepreneurs, and brands. This lively collection analyzes the contemporary gender, race, class, and sexual politics of Bravo's Real Housewives franchise, and situates the televisual performance of housewifery within debates over commercialization, feminine cultural forms, and the new media landscape of the twenty-first century. Scholars and fans alike will appreciate this book.
(Laurie Ouellette, Associate Professor, University of Minnesota; Co-editor of Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture)
The Fantasy of Reality: Critical Essays on The Real Housewives explores the series and the women of The Real Housewives through the lens of race, class, gender, sexuality, and place. The contributing authors use an expansive and impressive array of methodological approaches to examine particular aspects of the series, offering rich analysis and insight along the way.This collection insightfully and systematically reveals the ways in which The Real Housewives franchise holds up a funhouse mirror to issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality in contemporary America. It sorts through the distortions and reveals both the underlying flaws and the lurking potentials that fascinate fans and critics alike. This is an engaging read and an important contribution to the academic literature on reality TV.
(Mark Andrejevic, Associate Professor, Pomona College; Author of Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched)
When Betty Friedan diagnosed 'the problem that has no name,' housewives were confined to the family home. Today, 'real-life' housewives saturate media culture as reality TV performers, microcelebrities, savvy entrepreneurs, and brands. This lively collection analyzes the contemporary gender, race, class, and sexual politics of Bravo's Real Housewives franchise, and situates the televisual performance of housewifery within debates over commercialization, feminine cultural forms, and the new media landscape of the twenty-first century. Scholars and fans alike will appreciate this book.
(Laurie Ouellette, Associate Professor, University of Minnesota; Co-editor of Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture)
The Fantasy of Reality: Critical Essays on The Real Housewives explores the series and the women of The Real Housewives through the lens of race, class, gender, sexuality, and place. The contributing authors use an expansive and impressive array of methodological approaches to examine particular aspects of the series, offering rich analysis and insight along the way.This collection insightfully and systematically reveals the ways in which The Real Housewives franchise holds up a funhouse mirror to issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality in contemporary America. It sorts through the distortions and reveals both the underlying flaws and the lurking potentials that fascinate fans and critics alike. This is an engaging read and an important contribution to the academic literature on reality TV.
(Mark Andrejevic, Associate Professor, Pomona College; Author of Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched)
