Depicting Disability on Reality Love TVMain MenuIntroductionWhy study disability on reality love TV?Chapter 1: Not EnoughDisability is underrepresented on reality love television.Chapter 2: The Wrong WayDisability is being improperly represented on reality love television.Chapter 3: InauthenticallyDisabled narratives are being co-opted by able-bodied exploiters.ConclusionAuthor's Note"As Good As it Gets" could do so much better.Reference WorksTedi Beemer510bbe08373b24594fad542f475bf8c1cabfd73d
Why study reality television?
12017-06-21T09:37:25-07:00Tedi Beemer510bbe08373b24594fad542f475bf8c1cabfd73d189504plain2017-06-21T10:00:45-07:00Tedi Beemer510bbe08373b24594fad542f475bf8c1cabfd73dBut why examine disability through the medium of reality television? Though reality television may appear to be a useless by-product of low culture, a vapid medium consumed by an even more vapid audience, reality television actually has great cultural value and academic significance. In her book Reality TV, author Jane Deery concludes, “To dismiss reality TV because of its often trivial content would be to miss its significance…it is impact, tenacity, and cultural resonance, not profundity of content, that make reality television worth analyzing.” The discourse on reality television is certainly not devoid of critique or criticism, however; in Reality Bites Back, Jennifer L. Pozner attacks the troubling implications for women and the inherent sexism of this particular genre. Regardless of reality television’s positive or negative features, setting aside its implicit goodness or badness, and discarding any author’s personal feelings on the category at hand, reality television is a phenomenon worth studying purely due to its sociocultural and economic repercussions.