Flavor Of Love
Flavor of Love is a reality television show with a very similar premise to that of the popularreality dating show The Bachelor. Both shows have a single bachelor, and agroup of young women competing for his love and attention in hopes of finding true love. There are competitions, drama, romance, and heartbreak in both television programs. Although these shows sound almost the same, after viewing an episode of each, the differences appear to be stark. VH1’s Flavor of Love is considered to be the black equivalent to The Bachelor. While minorities are under represented on reality shows like the Bachelor, Flavor of Love misrepresents the black culture completely. However, there is one thing the shows have in common; while on the surface they seem to be promoting true love, the only thing they seem to truly be selling is, drama, tears, and crazy catty women.
In the book Reality Bites Back, author Jennifer L Pozner, takes a deeper look into the representations of “reality” that romantic reality tv creates. She argues that tv shows like The Bachelor, or Flavor of Love in particular, present women as being in a desperate competition for romance and male attention. VH1 is especially infamous for it’s “minstrel love shows”. Although the purpose behind Flavor of Love is for Flave and one of the “lucky” contestants to find true love, it seems that the only thing being found is drama, raunchy behavior, and a whole lot of crazy women. The problem with this is that it is exploiting women of color in a negative way. The show promotes a misrepresentation of black women to it’s viewers. Since the show is supposed to be “real life and real people”, it implicits that these women have no self-respect, nor a desire for men to respect them. Throughout the series they are seen harassing fellow contestants, stripping naked in front of the cameras, and drunkenly cussing one another out. After all, Flavor Flave takes pride in the fact that his show promotes “a bunch of catty-ass bitches” (Hoopz season 2), and he claims that “there is nothing like a good cat fight”. Due to the lack of representation of women of color in other dating shows like The Bachelor, viewers develop a false sense of reality about these women nationwide. It is unfortunate that “reality tv” is in fact perpetuating the opposite of reality.
One of the most obvious differences in the shows is the casting. Flavor of Love revolves around the romantic encounters between the ex rapper, Flavor Flave, and his “flavorettes”. Unlike the female competitors on The bachelor, the women competing for Flave’s love are predominantly women of color. In fact, in the first two seasons combined, only 5 of the 40 contestants were white. Another detail that is unique to Flavor of Love is the names of the contestants. Each female is given a name that she is dubbed before coming on the show. Names like “Bubblez” and “Hottie” as well as “Nibblez” and “Like Dat” are some of the contestants that made it far in the series. Flavor of Love received quite a bit of backlash from female viewers at this concept, finding it to be degrading and demeaning. An article published in the womens magazine Women in Media and News, claims that Flave “apparently can’t rememeber [the girls] real names”, therefore the women are forced to go by these nonsense names that will somehow help him remember who they are.
While both programs entail a plethora of tasks and competitions the girls must go through in order to win some alone time with their bachelor (how pathetic are we?), after watching both series, the competitions seem to vary in content. The competitions in Flavor of Love tend to be…raunchy at best. On one of the first episodes the girls had to compete in a strip tease for the former rapper. The girl with the best strip tease, won a date with Flave. Because of course, that’s just how finding true love works. Other competitions included performing sexy dances, rapping, pudding pool fights, and “who can give Flave the best massage”. While the women aren’t competing for Flave’s affection, they are busy sabotaging their competitors. One of the most famous Flavor of Love episodes is when cast mate, Pumpkin spit a loogie onto fellow Flavorette, New York. Wendy Wyatt and Kristie Bunton, authors of the book The Ethics of Reality TV, claim that it is stunts like this that epitomize “the crazy black woman stereotype applied to African American women on reality TV contests”. The unethical racial stereotyping that is frequently seen on reality tv, is further promoted through the environment and tasks these women are competing in. Since reality shows such as The Bachelor, underrepresent black people and other minorities, some viewers believe that Flavor of Love is “the black equivalent” for romantic reality TV. However, the show truly is a cultural appropriation of what black culture is not. The show does not promote true love but instead enforces negative and false stereotypes of black women and minority culture.
In the book Reality Bites Back, author Jennifer L Pozner, takes a deeper look into the representations of “reality” that romantic reality tv creates. She argues that tv shows like The Bachelor, or Flavor of Love in particular, present women as being in a desperate competition for romance and male attention. VH1 is especially infamous for it’s “minstrel love shows”. Although the purpose behind Flavor of Love is for Flave and one of the “lucky” contestants to find true love, it seems that the only thing being found is drama, raunchy behavior, and a whole lot of crazy women. The problem with this is that it is exploiting women of color in a negative way. The show promotes a misrepresentation of black women to it’s viewers. Since the show is supposed to be “real life and real people”, it implicits that these women have no self-respect, nor a desire for men to respect them. Throughout the series they are seen harassing fellow contestants, stripping naked in front of the cameras, and drunkenly cussing one another out. After all, Flavor Flave takes pride in the fact that his show promotes “a bunch of catty-ass bitches” (Hoopz season 2), and he claims that “there is nothing like a good cat fight”. Due to the lack of representation of women of color in other dating shows like The Bachelor, viewers develop a false sense of reality about these women nationwide. It is unfortunate that “reality tv” is in fact perpetuating the opposite of reality.
One of the most obvious differences in the shows is the casting. Flavor of Love revolves around the romantic encounters between the ex rapper, Flavor Flave, and his “flavorettes”. Unlike the female competitors on The bachelor, the women competing for Flave’s love are predominantly women of color. In fact, in the first two seasons combined, only 5 of the 40 contestants were white. Another detail that is unique to Flavor of Love is the names of the contestants. Each female is given a name that she is dubbed before coming on the show. Names like “Bubblez” and “Hottie” as well as “Nibblez” and “Like Dat” are some of the contestants that made it far in the series. Flavor of Love received quite a bit of backlash from female viewers at this concept, finding it to be degrading and demeaning. An article published in the womens magazine Women in Media and News, claims that Flave “apparently can’t rememeber [the girls] real names”, therefore the women are forced to go by these nonsense names that will somehow help him remember who they are.
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