Basketball Wives is a reality television
show on the VH1 (Video Hits One) channel.
In its fourth season, the series follows the lives of eight women, who
have all been in some way romantically involved with professional basketball
players. In the video clip, “Basketball
Wives Miami Photo Shoot,” you can see all the women, a part of the recent
season, participating in a photo shoot that took place before the fourth season
of the show premiered. The women are
taking several pictures, followed by interviews with characters from the show other
people involved with the production of the show such as, Sean Rankin and Angie
Castro, being interviewed by interviewer, Elizabeth Black. As pertaining to our class discussion on ways
the body is represented in reality genres, focusing on ideas surrounding, femininity,
and the gendered gaze, internalized gaze, male gaze, social and racialized
gaze, I believe the video clip best illustrates these topics and engages the
ideas of such gazes.
The eight African American women whose lives are followed in this reality
show are, Shaunie O’ Neal (the ex-wife of former Shaquille O'Neal, NBA
superstar), Evelyn Lozada (ex-fiancé of Antoine Walker and current fiancé of
Chad Ochocinco), Jennifer Williams (the wife of former NBA player Eric
Williams), Suzie Ketcham (ex-girlfriend of Michael Olowokandi), Royce Reed
(ex-girlfriend to Dwight Howard), Tami Roman (ex-wife to NBA player Kenny
Anderson), Kenya Bell (wife of Charlie Bell), and lastly Kesha Nichols (ex-fiancé
to Richard Jefferson). I would like to
point out that these women are not only known for being involved romantically
with basketball players, but also for their own personal achievements. Achievements such as how, Shaunie is the
executive producer of the Basketball
Wives reality show and has her own shoe line; Evelyn is in charge of a
Miracle Mile shoe store called Dulce; Jennifer has a developing business venture
in a lipgloss line; Royce was an NBA dancer for Orlando Magic and Miami Heat
basketball teams; Kenya is pursuing her dream of becoming a singer; and lastly
Kesha is a former New Jersey Nets dancer, has a master’s degree in dance
education and is currently in charge of a New York City dance group. The accomplishments of these businesswomen
and the way the women portrayed themselves in the photos taken of them during
the photo shoot defines what gendered gaze is.
The gendered gaze produces knowledge about how gendered bodies should
act. These women act professionally at
the photo shoot and on the show, and they showed confidence in themselves. The audience looks up to these women for
their self-reliance, which leads into the internalized gaze.
The internalized gaze involves the ways in which the relations of looking
are internalized and then re-enacted by individuals. In the video clip, Elizabeth Beck ask Angie Castro
if she was surprised in how big the show became over the years and how
influential it is from style/fashion to how so many people are fascinated by
the women in the show. The Basketball
wives do have privileged lives and the photo shoot shows this. The women are wearing expensive brand name heels
and showing their jewelry off to on-lookers as photos are taken. This is seen in the particular portion of the
clip when the women are taking pictures wearing jeans and black tank-tops. These actions are wearing such accessories shows
the ethical or moral gaze relation of looking.
The ethical or moral gaze is a relation of looking that determines a body’s
social value or moral worth by its appearance.
The women are showing their luxurious belongings that they have been
able to receive because of their professions.
The women are also wearing a lot of make-up at the photo shoot so they
can have blemish-free and perfect skin tone faces in their pictures; this not
only goes to show the kind of standard the women in Basketball Wives are held
up to, based on just who they are, (Basketball wives), and the reality show,
but also how each women portrays their self-concepts. As stated
in the article, “You Need a Makeover!”: The Social Construction of the Female
Body Image in A Makeover Story, What Not
to Wear, and Extreme Makeover,” by Amanda Hall Gallagher and Lisa
Pecot-Hebert, “Makeup is a primary means by which women transform their bodies
and generate self-esteem with their “new and improved” looks,” (58). So in a way the massive amounts of makeup,
including the clothes and accessories, the Basketball wives wear on the show
and during the photo shoot explicitly show and express their own female identities,
and also what they think beauty is, and lastly what the show and photo shoot influence
the audience’s view on such things.
Fans who are women perceive the eight female characters and see the photos
differently than males, who just look at the photos with a male type gaze. The male gaze
is a gendered way of looking where the female body is positioned as a passive
object in a male-dominated gaze. This
type of gaze could be seen mostly in the portion of the video clip when the
women were taking pictures dressed in toga-like clothing, just as Greek
goddesses would. The first thing you can
notice is the amount of clothing the Basketball wives are not wearing. Also some of the women are in submissive positions
of either lying down or sitting down with their legs crossed to the side of
them. They have seductive smiles and also
piercing eyes such as a, “come and get me look,” as a male would portray the
look to be. Also while taking pictures dressed
in the black tank-tops and jean, the photographer told the Basketball wives to
act playful; the women were touching each other’s legs, had their hands on
their heads and stood to the side showing their profiles. All of these poses are what the male gaze encompasses
and what men usually pay attention to when looking at photos such as these. (Check out the link below Photo Shoot
Pictures to see the actual photos I am discussing above.)
The last gaze I will be discussing is the social gaze. This gaze is the relations of looking that
determines how certain bodies should interact in social relationships. The social gaze is greatly shown through the commenting
portions of the video clip. Sean Rankine
stated how fans know the show is always dramatic, over the top and always
amazing because of the Basketball wives.
Rankine respects the women because they live open lives 24/7 for weeks
at a time, just to make a good show for the audience. Loyal viewers of the show know the conflicts
each character has with each other and know that fights can occur at any time,
whether physical or not, or that a drink could be thrown. Angie Castro had commented to Black, “get any
six women together; especially six women with big personalities, there will be
a story.” This goes to show that regardless
of the season or the episode, the Basketball wives are expected to have some
kind of encounter happen.
The constant drama, the gossip, the crying, the laughing, and all the
drink throwing does make the show seem as if the audience is watching the everyday
lives of the eight women. This reality
show becomes familiar to the audience and the audience begins to relate their
lives to the lives of the Basketball wives.
In a way this blinds the audience to the possibility of the show being
scripted and all the conflicts not being real.
I feel fans of the show need to be careful as to not get too consumed
with the Basketball Wives or any reality television show so they can save
themselves from being disheartened when they find out that what they found most
interesting on the show was untrue.
"Basketball Wives Miami Photo Shoot" video clip:
Photo Shoot Pictures:
In this case with VH1's "Basketball Wives Miami Photoshoot," social class differentiates from a lot of other reality shows with every actress being of the upper-class. Frequently with shows like this I've noticed that it depicts the "low brow culture" aspect of social class with its association with sexuality of the women and the lower half of the body. The main focus of viewers is the rich social class, for instance in the reading "You Can't Buy Class," it depicts that audiences vicariously consume the wealthy lifestyle portrayed in this show. On another note, this show reaffirms the desirability of heteronormative romance, as every women is or was in a romantic relationship with a male. Furthermore, I agree with you on the Gendered Gaze and how the women depict themselves as sexual objects to the male viewers with the usage of facial expressions and specific body positioning. Also, the showing off of jewelry in this case reveals the commodity image-system, as what they have is the gateway to "the good life." Lastly, I do like the way the show mixes up social norms, yet deviates from the social norms in the case of the cast being all females of colored skin.
ReplyDeleteI am a personal fan of this reality show and I love it. Like you were saying men tend to look at the women differently then women do. For the photo shoot you are talking about where the women are dressed as Greek goddess I would look at that as the producers putting them in apparel that matches their "boss" like attitude. But a male would easily look at them and miss that considering since they are probably focused on the small amount of clothing they are wearing. I also agree that the audience gets blinded that the drama that goes on with the ladies isn't always real but I also feel that their lifestyle blinds the audience as well to reality. Yes all of them have something going on for them other then previously dated NBA super stars but the majority of these women were ex-fiances or ex-girlfriends which means they would not get any money from their previous NBA super star's so I have always felt that the way they present the ladies is fake.
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