Real Bodies?

Part Two: The Real World 

"This is the true story... of seven strangers... picked to live in a house...work together and have their lives taped... to find out what happens... when people stop being polite... and start getting real...The Real World."

Since 1992, viewers have tuned in to MTV to watch their longest running show, The Real World. The show is one of the first commercially viable reality television show and was created by Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray. The show just wrapped its 22nd season and MTV has signed on for four more seasons. 

The premise of the show is simple: strangers who auditioned with MTV are selected to live in a house together. They have some sort of job, but the main action is with all of the drama that ensues when these people "start getting real". 

At first the show displayed a wide assortment of body types in both the male and female cast members, however in the last couple of seasons that trend has changed. All of the cast seems to fit in perfectly with the American ideal of body and image. 

Some past casts of MTV's The Real World

Although the show does showcase a very diverse group of races, ethnicity's and sexual orientations; it seems to only focus on casting people with "ideal bodies". All of the men have well defined or overly defined muscles; the women on the show have skinny frames and ideal body types as well according to American standards. 

Conclusions: Real Bodies?

From analyzing several reality television shows including the ones showcased in the blog it is very

clear that the body images displayed in these shows are not "real" in terms of what the body of an

average person would look like. Rather these people are selected because their bodies meet the

ideals of American society as being attractive and desirable.