Reality on MTV: Gender Portrayals on MTV Reality Programming

In a new report, the Parents Television Council examines the good, the bad and the ugly of MTV’s most-watched reality programming. PTC’s new study is based on a content analysis of the most popular primetime cable reality shows among children and teens ages 12 to 17 during the 2011 TV season. The top four programs all aired on MTV and include: “Jersey Shore,” “Real World,” “Teen Mom 2” and “16 and Pregnant.” The overarching question PTC sought to address was, “What messages are being communicated to young viewers through the lens and language of reality television?” The findings suggest a disturbingly unrealistic portrayal of “reality” with harsh, demeaning, degrading and sexualized dialogue. While women were routinely the recipients of denigrating language, they also were more likely than men to be negative to themselves and to other women.

Major Findings:

• Only 24% of what females said about themselves was positive across all shows combined.
• Positive dialogue between females focused on their appearance, sense of accomplishment and emotional resilience.
• Overall, women were more disparaging than men when speaking of themselves or someone of their own gender.
• While terms men used for each other were often viewed as complimentary (e.g., big man, dawg, superhero, MacGyver, winner), women used far more degrading language when talking about other females (e.g., b*tch, c*nt, rodent, skank, trash bag, slut, trick, ho).
• Females talked about sex acts more than men, talked about sex more graphically than men, mentioned sexual body parts more than men, and talked about intercourse and foreplay more than men.
• Although 88% of the sexual dialogue between females and males across all shows focused on intercourse and preliminary activities leading to intercourse, the topics of virginity (0.2%), contraceptives (1.4%) and STDs (2%) were only mentioned 4% of the time.
• “Jersey Shore” made up 47% of the disparaging remarks and 59% of the sexual references across all four shows.
• The majority of disparaging language on “Jersey Shore” came from Ronnie and Sammi. Collectively, the two accounted for almost 21% of the disparaging language across all shows.