"I really truly believe that reality tv is the contemporary cultural backlash against women’s rights. I think one of the worst stereotypes in reality tv is this notion that women exist to be decorative. Women exist to be stupid, women are considered gold-diggers, women are considered bitchy, catty, manipulative, vindictive, not-to-be-trusted - especially by other women. This notion that women are natural enemies, vying for the prize of being more beautiful than the rest, or the love of whoever, is so counter to women in real life.
These shows, over the last decade, have tried to portray a world where the only options available to women mimic the 1950s model of femininity, in which a woman’s only power was her beauty, and in which women not only had no choices, but shouldn’t have even wanted any. In which men were burdened with the responsibility of being the prince charming who comes in and whisks women away to happily ever after, then has to provide for their financial security. Nobody wins in this model, but women particularly lose in this model where they’re expected to look like Miss USA, have sex like Samantha on Sex and the City, and think like June Cleaver (Leave It to Beaver)."