30-second-action: Do you think challenging representations of gender and race in entertainment media should be a crucial aspect of media literacy — and of a media justice agenda?

I do. (That’s what there’s a “Fun with Media Literacy” chapter in Reality Bites Back, and section on this site.) And media literacy advocate, novelist and media producer Sofia Quintero agrees. We’re excited to present this session at the 2011 National Conference on Media Reform — but we’ll only be able to do so if you VOTE FOR THIS WORKSHOP, BY THE END OF THE DAY MONDAY, OCT. 25 to make it to the NCMR program:

Keeping It Unreal: Decoding Gender, Race and Reality TV—A Media Literacy Workshop

Weepy, white Cinderella-wannabes in network-assembled harems compete for the attentions of one horny “Prince Charming” on dating shows such as “The Bachelor” (ABC), “Joe Millionaire” (FOX), and “For Love or Money” (NBC), whimpering that their lives will never be complete without husbands. On cable series such as VH1’s “Flavor of Love,” “Real Chance of Love” and “For the Love of Ray J,” scantily-clad women of color are depicted as real-life music video vixens, providing lap dances, sexual favors, and maid services to “win” dates with Black bachelors cast as modern day minstrels, thugs, and buffoons.

How much do I love your enthusiasm? Your pictures keep rolling in, showing that Reality Bites Back readers are a diverse group — women and men, kids and adults, and people from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds and geographic regions. I particularly enjoy the way some of you seem to be having fun with this Readers Gallery community. For example:

It takes a lot to scandalize someone whose work regularly has them negotiating with local politicians in Washington D.C. Nevertheless, here’s historic preservation expert

Kristen Harbeson at the Capitol, shocked–SHOCKED!–by what she’s reading in Reality Bites Back:

As it turns out, Kristen can’t figure out what aggravates her more: sexism and manipulation in reality television… or anything at all on Fox News:

Just outside Los Angeles, professor Melanie Klein’s son, Atticus, wonders which is scarier: reality TV “Frankenbites” (see page 27 in the book, or read my explanation in this Macleans interview) — or little curly-haired skeletons?

If our Twitter conversations have told me anything, I predict that Danielle’s raised eyebrows hint at both the bemusement

Quick reminder: if you’re in New York City, Hunter College is the place to be today, as media literacy activists, media makers, youth educators, girls’ rights advocates, scholars — and, importantly, girls themselves — will be coming together for the SPARK Summit (Sexualization Protest: Action, Resistance, Knowledge).

On behalf of Women In Media & News, I’m thrilled to be presenting tomorrow during the “Shining a Light on Sexualization in the Media” workshop, along with Andrea Quijada of the Media Literacy Project, and Yana Walton and Jill

Marcellus of

the Women’s Media Center. Andrea will be conducting an interactive media literacy game, we’ll show a Spark Summit-produced video about sexualization (including many clips from reality TV shows), after which I will discuss sexualization in reality TV–in particular, stereotypes about women’s sexuality, the differences in how hypersexualization of women of color plays out, how to watch critically.

Media personalities including Geena Davis and MTV’s Amber Madison will be speaking, as will WIMN allies such as Samhita Mukhopadhyay of Feministing, sex educator and young feminist leader Shelby Knox, Emily May of HollaBack, the WMC’s Jamia Wilson, and many others.

See the SPARK Summit agenda.

There’s still time to register.

Wow, you folks are FAST! On the same day that Reality Bites Back became available for the Kindle, the Readers Gallery got a new entry.

Here’s Robert Domingo from Queens, NY, who is reading Reality Bites

Back on his iPhone:

If you’d like to join the Readers Gallery, send a photo of yourself to info[at]wimnonline[dot]org, or upload a photo directly to the Facebook page for the book. (And while you’re at it, “Like” the FB page and talk about the book with fellow readers there.)

And, as always, I’d love to hear what you’re thinking about reality TV and representations of gender, race, class and more in pop culture, whether directly related to the book or not. Weigh in at the Facebook page, or in the comments below.

On Saturday, I introduced you to six people in the Reality Bites Back readers gallery: Andrew from Brooklyn, Veronica from Chicago, the interns of Reel Grrls in Seattle, and a very precocious (or, well, hungry) kid in Los Angeles.

Today, it’s time to meet four new members of our reading community:

Straight from the belly of the beast — Los Angeles, where reality TV stereotypes are carefully crafted — professor Melanie Klein snuggles up on her

couch with the book. Melanie will be teaching from Reality Bites Back this semester, along with many women’s studies, ethnic studies, communications/media studies, and humanities professors across the country. (Which I’m really excited about, by the way.) She is also helping to organize this event:

It seems Seattle-based Jerry Darcy was a bit confused by the book. First, he apparently thought some of the reality show anecdotes I described are so preposterous, they’d made more sense upside down:

Then, he searched in vain for a Reality Bites Back centerfold pinup. (You’ll be looking for a long time, there, Tiger…):

When he finally started reading it right-side up, he was shocked, SHOCKED, by what he learned:

Though Reality Bites Back officially launches on November 1, I’m thrilled to announce that pre-orders began shipping last week. Around the country, folks like you have begun reading it — and amazing feedback has already been pouring in via Twitter, Facebook, and email.

Making it finally feel real? Seeing the book in people’s hands.

On the first night the book began arriving in mailboxes and on doorsteps, Brooklyn reader Andrew Bonjiorno sent this picture of himself reading it at work — note the corporate-approved artwork on the wall behind him:

Andrew’s photo inspired me to start this Readers Gallery. I wrote this book to spark a national, critical conversation about the meaning and impact of reality TV on our beliefs, our behavior, and our culture. The best way to engage in that conversation is within community. So, here are the first few members of the Reality Bites Back community:

Women In Media & News board member and Viva La Feminista blogger Veronica Arreola rushed to pick up her copy the day after Andrew’s arrived. I love that she was so psyched about the book that she started reading it right there in her Chicago post office:

Today at ColorLines Magazine, Neelanjana Banerjee looks at race, representation and reality TV and asks, as per the story’s headline: “Is Reality TV a Revolution for Race or the New Minstrel?”

A smart, nuanced and well-reported piece, Banerjee notes that:

“A series of NAACP reports have tracked the dismal representation of African Americans and other people of color on network television for the past decade. In 2000, the NAACP called for a boycott of the four major networks because none of their 26 new shows featured an actor of color in a lead or starring role. In 2006, the NAACP reported the number of minority actors of any sort in prime-time had declined to barely 300. In its most recent report, however, the NAACP declared reality TV ‘the only bright spot’ in the industry.”

The NAACP could arrive at such a conclusion because, as Banerjee writes, “Today, the mainstream dating shows, such as ‘The Bachelor,’ primarily ignore people of color. But on competition shows and on cable networks, characters of color are much more likely to show up.”

Which

Today on CBC Radio, I spoke with Day 6 host Brent Bambury about the suicide of Joseph Cerniglia, a participant on Gordon Ramsey’s Fox reality show, Kitchen Nightmares. [Listen to the interview at the link above, 17:38-24:05]

When the troubled restaurant owner was trying to prove himself on Ramsey’s show, taped in 2007, the vitriolic celebrity chef told him, “Your business is about to f**king swim down the Hudson.” Last week, his body was found in the Hudson, his death ruled a suicide.

If this was a scripted film, critics would say that connection was a bit too on-the-nose.

This marks the second Ramsey reality alum to take their own life. The first was Rachel Brown, who shot and killed herself in 2007 after appearing on Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen in 2006.

As I told Day 6, I do not blame producers or networks for these suicides–but I also do not consider them shocking, in the least. There should be some accountability from networks for the dangerous game they play when they actively seek to cast just the sort of personalities one would assume would be viewed as untenable for shows in which people live together in high-stress environments. And while not all reality show participants are unstable, even those who start off even-keeled often face taping conditions that are designed to break them down, including: sleep deprivation, limited food, ever-present alcohol, constant surveillance, isolation from the outside world, no communication with friends and family beyond sporadic recorded conversations–all of which have been used by intelligence agencies as elements of torture.

Quote of the day:

“All Scalia is saying is women aren’t persons.” [Especially on The Bachelor.]
— Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, 9/29/10

I have nothing but love for this “The Word” segment about “all the special rights that minorities are asking for these days… if we keep giving them rights, there will be fewer rights left for us. That’s just math…”: