The Love & Hip-Hop series has been airing for a while now. From what I have seen thus far from the previous season, I have noticed a couple of things that have stuck out to me; for instance, the common idea of femininity here has been drastically distorted when compared to "whiteness". Vulgar language, the lack of self-respect of themselves and others..... Pretty much all around dysfunction all across the board. I find this quite problematic because this show is solely focused on implicitly enforcing the stereotypes of the African American female, typically the single women who have children out of wedlock or just the average African American woman who were labeled as angry, bitter, vengeful, wild, etc. The main thing that I have noticed is how the females were open to disclosing their sexual preferences and encounters to the public, but in actuality one of the main stereotypes of Black women was over-sexualizing them; along with that, one of the cast members had allegedly leaked a sex tape knowing that she was a mother of a young daughter (Yeah. Doesn't look too good right now.) which is clearly adding fuel to the fire.
Not only are African American women are negatively portrayed, but also the typical African American male as well. As far as being masculine is concerned, this ideal is pretty much spot on with how universal the perception of manhood is regardless of race; unfortunately, there were certain instances where race has pointed out specific specific stereotypes of Black men who have multiple children by multiple women (baby mama drama) and do not create a sense of stability for a family. You will hear numerous accounts of the male cast members having numerous kids and issues with ex-lovers and current love interests which provides a negative tension or incentive that there is chaos within the familial setting.
Love & Hip-Hop is one of the most highly rated reality television programs that negatively portrays African Americans and strengthens the power of the misconceptions of familial life within the Black community. There are many African American families that do not display any of these negative characteristics, but today's society are more easily distracted and attracted to the negatives due to entertainment purposes. Positive portrayals of Black families do not get as many ratings because they do not fit the criteria and are only displayed on particular networks that exemplify and encourages a positive reputation like OWN or Centric.
Domesticity, femininity, & masculinity are depicted differently when compared to the "white" standard of the terms. Many ideas are shifted because of the racial distinctions that were constructed to differentiate what was considered "appropriate" or "normal" behavior represented by certain groups of people.
Here is Part 1 of the reunion specials. You will see what I mean once you watch enough of this nonsense. Please brace yourselves if you are not at all familiar with the series.
http://on.vh1.com/1NGgOWl
No comments:
Post a Comment