If This Is a “Real” Housewife, Who Are All These Women Around Me?: An Examination of The Real Housewives of Atlanta and the Persistence of Historically Stereotypical Images of Black Women in Popular Reality Television. Dominique Bunai Thesis submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science In Sociology Ellington T. Graves, Co-Chair Anthony K. Harrison, Co-Chair Rachelle Brunn-Bevel March 19, 2014 Blacksburg, VA Keywords: black women; stereotypes; reality TV; Real Housewives If This Is a “Real” Housewife, Who Are All These Women Around Me?: An Examination of The Real Housewives of Atlanta and the Persistence of Historically Stereotypical Images of Black Women in Popular Reality Television. Dominique Bunai ABSTRACT Stereotypical images of blacks have persisted throughout multiple forms of media for decades, with one of the most recent arenas being reality television programming. This study examines the Bravo Television network series The Real Housewives of Atlanta to consider the impact of reality television on the image of black women in America today. This increasingly popular show is the most viewed in The Real Housewives franchise, and demonstrates that black women in America do not embody any one historical or contemporary stereotype of black women in particular, but rather are a compilation of these stereotypes depending on the situation at hand. iii DEDICATION This is for all the women who taught me how women are supposed to act, because life will always be a stage. Corinne and Jessica Maginsky, Dawn Best, Alethea “Swanie” Morris, Cheryl Toussaint, Lorna Forde, all my Atoms sisters, my partner in crime Niree Martin, her mother Rhonda and sister Nefia, my rock Elizabeth Reyes, my sister Catherine Clark, my sweetheart grandmother Alma Harris, my godmother Shirley Mitchell, and last but never least, my tireless mother Geraldine Bunai. This was impossible without you all. For those who showed me what perseverance is supposed to mean: my life coach Fred Thompson, and my mental guru, the late Dr. Hayward “Woody” Farrar. For the men in my life who gave me the broad shoulders to support the world on: my father Mihai Bunai and my brother Mihai Matthew Bunai. For the men in my life who guaranteed that I would live forever: Kendall Nunn and our son Michelangelo Marcel Bunai-Nunn. My heart belongs to you all. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND THANKS First, I would like to thank my department for nurturing and supporting me throughout my educational career. The journey from 2003 to now has been a long and storied one, and the characters who have contributed to my storyline are very dear to me. To my committee: Dr. Ellington Tyrone Graves, thank you for supporting me from day zero and helping me believe this was worth it. Dr. Anthony Kwame Harrison, thank you for helping me to see where my voice should be loudest. Dr. Rachelle Brunn-Bevel, many thanks for being my New York connection and sticking this out with me from the beginning of this project through moves, name changes, and new additions. To my cohort: guess who made it? Courtney and Ian- I birthed the baby! Literally! To my fellow graduate students: Cheers to all the laughs and jokes that got us through the classes and mounds of papers graded, written, and otherwise. DOCTOR Johnson! Never would have made it (you know the rest)! Thank you for laughing at me on a nightly basis. Njeri! Thank you for being a welcoming party my first week back and your awesome friendship throughout. Miss Wyse! High five to you (and a couple of snaps) for the late nights and early mornings full of candid conversations that got me through those first couple of years. McDonough! I have far too many words that I can’t find to thank you enough for being you. HIGH FIVE! Brenda Husser: You’ve supported my academic process since 2003 and for that I thank you immensely. Thank you for always having a door open for me to saunter through. To everyone who helped me survive this process mentally, especially my loves in the NRV, DMV, North Carolina, and New York City locales: Thank you for being my biggest fans. I made it! Cheers! TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 1 Problem Statement ........................................................................................................................................... 1 Literature Review .................................................................................................................................. 1 Media Representations of Blacks in the United States ............................................................................. 1 The Expansion of Reality Television ............................................................................................................ 3 Why people like reality television ............................................................................................................................... 4 How people are affected by the images they see on television ......................................................................... 5 Race and Reality Television .......................................................................................................................................... 6 Reality Television and the “other” .............................................................................................................................. 7 Stereotypes of Blackness ................................................................................................................................. 8 Typical stereotypes of black women .......................................................................................................................... 9 Bravo TV ................................................................................................................................................ 16 The Real Housewives Franchise .................................................................................................................. 16 The Real Housewives of Atlanta .............................................................................................................................. 17 Methods .................................................................................................................................................. 18 Importance ............................................................................................................................................. 19 Data ......................................................................................................................................................... 23 NeNe Leakes ..................................................................................................................................................... 23 Kandi Burruss ................................................................................................................................................. 24 Phaedra Parks ................................................................................................................................................. 25 Cynthia Bailey ................................................................................................................................................. 27 Kenya Moore ................................................................................................................................................... 29 Porsha Stewart ................................................................................................................................................ 32 Kim Zolciak ..................................................................................................................................................... 34 Discussion ............................................................................................................................................... 35 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 54 References .............................................................................................................................................. 57 Appendices ............................................................................................................................................. 61 Appendix A: Detailed notes from each episode ........................................................................................ 62 Appendix B: US Census Bureau data ..................................................................................................... 119 1 Introduction Problem Statement The purpose of this study is to examine reality television shows, in particular Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Atlanta, to determine to what extent they contain stereotypical representations of blackness in regards to black women. My main source of data is the 5th season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta. In my examination of this data, I considered how the representations of the cast members throughout the series present stereotypical portrayals of black women, and how situations portrayed in the show influenced the perception of stereotypical traits. Over the last 20 years, the sheer number of reality television shows has virtually