Fallen Women on Reality TV: A Pornography of Emotion
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2009
Keywords
pornography, emotion, money shot, The Bachelor, melodrama, reality TV
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1080/14680770903068324
Abstract
The display of emotional women is a hallmark of many reality shows. Through the analysis of a woman in the reality TV show The Bachelor, who is originally presented as an attractive romantic prospect, but ultimately revealed as frighteningly over-emotional, the article suggests that this emotional display is akin to the “money shot” in film pornography (shot of the man ejaculating). The argument draws on feminist scholarship in pornography studies to illustrate how the representation of women's emotions—of female bodies unable to contain intense bodily responses—provides the climactic moments of a story about women who fail at love. The work examines what is at stake in this process, asking: what is the threat posed by emotional women and how is this threat situated in a genre that claims access to the “real”?
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Feminist Media Studies, v. 9, issue 3, p. 353-368
Scholar Commons Citation
Dubrofsky, Rachel E., "Fallen Women on Reality TV: A Pornography of Emotion" (2009). Communication Faculty Publications. 423.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/spe_facpub/423
