Black Women's Portrayals on Reality Television

The New Sapphire

Contributions by Antwanisha Alameen-Shavers, Allison M. Alford, Patrick Bennett, Mia E. Briceño, Chetachi A. Egwu, Evene Estwick, Adria Y. Goldman, Rachel Alicia Griffin, Johnny Jones, Ryessia D. Jones, Madeline M. Maxwell, Angelica N. Morris, Donyale R. Griffin Padgett, Tracey Owens Patton, Shavonne R. Shorter, Siobhan E. Smith, Elizabeth Whittington Cooper, Julie Snyder-Yuly Edited by Donnetrice C. Allison

Not available to order

Publication date:

14 January 2016

Length of book:

292 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498519335

This book critically analyzes the portrayals of Black women in current reality television. Audiences are presented with a multitude of images of Black women fighting, arguing, and cursing at one another in this manufactured world of reality television. This perpetuation of negative, insidious racial and gender stereotypes influences how the U.S. views Black women. This stereotyping disrupts the process in which people are able to appreciate cultural and gender difference. Instead of celebrating the diverse symbols and meaning making that accompanies Black women's discourse and identities, reality television scripts an artificial or plastic image of Black women that reinforces extant stereotypes. This collection's contributors seek to uncover examples in reality television shows where instantiations of Black women's gendered, racial, and cultural difference is signified and made sinister.

High Tea, Church Hats, Pastor Wives, and Friendships: A critical race feminism analysis of Black women in Preachers of L.A. by Elizabeth Whittington Cooper

The God in Me: Faith, Reality TV, and Black Women by Chetachi A. Egwu

From 90s Girl to Hip-Hop Wife: An Analysis of the Portrayal of Tiny as Black Mother in Reality Television by Ryessia Jones, Johnny Jones & Siobhan E. Smith

Are Black Women Loud?: Neoliberal and Postfeminist Protagonists in OWN’s Televisual Sphere by Mia E. Briceño & Evene Estwick

Can’t Have It All: An Analysis Of Black Motherhood On Reality Television by Allison M. Alford, Madeline M. Maxwell, Ryessia D. Jones & Angelica, N. Morris

Is She Strong or Just a b!@*#? Discussions of Black Women’s Anger in the Reality Show Bad Girls Club by Adria Y. Goldman

The “Tyra Tyrade”: Reinforcing the Sapphire Through Online Parody by Tracey Owens Patton & Julie Snyder-Yuly

A Critical Analysis of Black Womanhood in NBC’s The Apprentice by Donyale R. Padgett & Donnetrice C. Allison

Dehumanized and Empowered? Black Women, Reality Television, and Love and Hip Hop Atlanta by Patrick Bennett and Rachel Alicia Griffin

The “Down Ass Bitch” in the Reality Television Show Love and Hip Hop: The Image of the Enduring Black Woman and Her unwavering support of the Black Man by Antwanisha Alameen-Shavers

Real Housewives or Real Lies? New Constructions of “Housewives” on The Real Housewives of Atlanta by Shavonne Shorter

Conclusion: Discussion and Implications by Donnetrice C. Allison

This book is an engaging discussion of reality television. It is a pleasure to observe how young communication scholars have come together to critically analyze Black women's various roles in reality television. What is especially appealing is the variety of topics covered and the direction it has given us: “future research in this area must move toward examining viewers' responses to the identified portrayals of Black women.” This impressive collection is likely to revive interest in researching the impact of portrayals of Blacks and Black women in the media. Interdisciplinary in nature, the analysis is sure to become a resource for scholars, researchers, and graduate students in media studies, communications, sociology, and women's studies. I look forward to assigning Black Women’s Portrayals on Reality Television as required reading in my African American Issues in Communication course.