We Are What We Watch

I recently caught an episode of Celebrity Apprentice. I stopped watching the show a while ago, but I do remember one season with a woman named Omarosa. She was hated on the first season I watched her in and was consistently getting into arguments with the people on the show. I believe she came back in a few more seasons after her first, yet she never seemed to change. This made me think of the types of celebrity and how she is definitely a celeactor. We don’t really know if she’s always like that in real life, but her TV persona has characteristics of its own. We as an audience expect her to act out and argue with people and that has become who she is on TV. I think because we give her this attention, it is more reason for her to continue to act in this manner. Acting rude is what made her famous and will continue to keep people entertained with her. She is expected to act in a certain way even though she could possibly be kinder in real life. This also made me think of how the stereotypes we see on television tell us how to act. Girls and boys are constantly fed images on television of how they are supposed to act and when it comes to real life, there is a mix between what we really are and what society has crafted us to be. We want to play up to these stereotypes because they are what is normal and what we know people are attracted to. This is probably one of the biggest things I’ve taken away from this course. As a society, we see television shows as something natural; something that we aspire, in however little form, to have or to be. Once we can get away from “normal” representations, as a whole, we can decide what is reality and what is fiction. By far, this course has definitely been something that can be applied every day. I never really thought about everyday things as being part of greater structural theories. It’s something that has been fascinating to me and a joy to learn about.