One thing I’ve observed from living overseas and then coming back home is that Americans are uniquely obsessed with Reality Television.  Not just that we enjoy watching it, but that reality television stars have reached iconic status.  Just look at The Kardashians, any of the “Real Housewives,” or The Jersey Shore.

I’ve written before and discussed publicly how damaging shows like The Jersey Shore or Real Housewives of New Jersey can be for stereotyping Italian Americans.  The label “reality” can have a particularly damaging impact because even though we know the show is “fake,” there is an expectation of seeing “real” people that can therefore reinforce ugly stereotypes.  Refinery 29 explains:

That’s the truth of reality shows: While they are meant to capture real life with everyday people in extraordinary situations, the fact that these are extraordinary situations means it’s not real life. “On a show you’re in a false reality,” Dr. Reef Karim, psychiatrist and founder of The Control Center, tells Refinery29. And that false reality heightens and amplifies everything, from conflicts to reactions to, yes, emotions.

So as a result, we do not see “everyday Italian Americans,” but rather a group of people who happen to be Italian placed in a false reality and encouraged to react outrageously as possible for the camera.  I would also argue that shows like The Bachelor and The Real Housewives stereotype women in an incredibly destructive way.  The Artifice articulates why this is so harmful:

The basis of the show surrounds the housewives, whom live extravagantly wealthy lives due to their husbands’ line of work. Filming generally takes place in the home which is done to confine them there and perpetuate their roles as beautiful yet incapable housewives. However, contrary to much of documentary style reality television, the women are the main focus and are the ones mainly on camera; their husbands scarcely make appearances. This would seem like a great leap for female stereotypes in reality television, but the surrounding theme of making women the main focus is to define them as dependent and vapid.

Even more soul crushing and a pretty definitive reason to move away from reality television is that it can lead to aggression.  A study mentioned in the August 20, 2015 edition of the Toronto Sun found that watching reality television can “increase aggression in viewers even more than exposure to violent media, like crime dramas.”   The article continued to discuss that reality TV is particularly damaging to teens because it normalizes “real people behaving badly” and getting what they want.  People are literally getting paid to act inappropriately.

On this one, we might want to take a hint from other countries and reduce our reality television – especially the shows that stereotype races and women.