Caleb Covington (University of Cincinnati)
Jeff Bruinsma (North Carolina State University)
This panel will discuss and argue how reality shows such as RuPaul’s Drag Race, We’re Here, Survivor, The Rehearsal, and Nathan for You challenge expectations and limitations of narrative and media, and how these shows impact social and cultural understanding of underrepresented communities through spectacle, queerness, race, and gender.
Caleb Covington will explore selected episodes of Drag Race using Queer of Color critique to examine how the participants of the show are charting a path for LGBT+ youth in terms of representation and advocacy through its inclusion of non-binary, transgender, and two-spirit identities. This essay is especially prescient considering the recent trend of anti-LGBT+ legislation and anti-trans sentiment growing in America.
LeTriece Calhoun will discuss the representation, treatment, and framing of Black contestants of the competitive reality show Survivor. Calhoun will argue that Survivor does achieve the goal of representing a “microcosm of America” through illustrating racist ideologies that manifest in the wider society and within the game of Survivor. This presentation will focus on three Black contestants of Survivor and their experiences both in and outside of the show, and how the participants in game and fanbase outside of game display racist ideologies that shape the perception of race.
Jeff Bruinsma explores the relationship between (re)generative meme culture and the non-normative comedy of the docu-reality series Nathan for You and The Rehearsal. Bruinsma investigates the intersections between the attention economy, social media platforms, and cringe comedy, discussing how the pervasiveness of awkward comedy memes drive viewership and engagement between platforms. He argues that Nathan for You and The Rehearsal are unique in their affective potential due the shows’ ability to blend various formats of humor, genre, and reality. Ultimately, these shows represent a subversion of expectation that lend themselves well to alternative representations of comedy that are popular in digital culture.This panel welcomes papers, presentations, and works-in-progress (?!) on reality television and how this genre intersects with critical race and gender studies, critical media studies, fan studies, and digital fandom subcultures.