A particular recurrence of gendered tropes
It’s because we trigger such strong feelings.
Female reality TV contestants are far more likely to be targeted for abuse by online trolls than men, research reveals.
Women of colour are particularly vulnerable to extreme and violent threats online, according to a report from the Demos thinktank, which looked at contestants on reality shows Love Island and Married at First Sight.
…
The researchers noted a particular recurrence of gendered tropes in the social media posts, including those which characterised women as devious, mentally unstable, emotionally volatile, evil, annoying or attention-seeking. Women were also much more likely to be “the subject of extreme misogynistic sexualisation and objectification” than men, they said.
And much more likely to be called cunts if they express an opinion.
Cindy Southworth, the head of women’s safety at Facebook, which also owns Instagram, said: “Women should feel safe everywhere, no matter what space they’re in. We don’t allow gender-based hate, misogynistic attacks or any threat of sexual violence on Facebook or Instagram, and just last week we announced stronger protections for female public figures, journalists and activists.”
Is that a fact?!
Spoiler: no.
Not a fan of the genre, but I have been subjected to snippets of MAFS when dining out (UGH!)
From the small sample I have seen, many (most) of the women do act out as the stereotypical devious, mentally unstable, emotionally volatile, evil, annoying or attention-seeking women. This is the unreality of the “reality genre”. I am sure all these “bitch fights” are scripted and rehearsed.
It truly saddens me that our national publicly funded broadcaster was one of the creators of this genre. We expected better from them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvania_Waters_(TV_series)
I’ve never seen those, but I’ve seen bits of some trailers for various “Real Housewives” serials and every single thing about them is insulting. Admittedly I see only a few seconds at a time because I change the channel as swiftly as I can, but since the peak-insulting bits are chosen for trailers I’ve seen a lot. They look like cartoon characters but more evil.
No, women should be safe everywhere. Feeling safe will follow.