"Why Reality TV Is Bad for Women (...and men, people of color, the economy, love, sex, and sheer damn common sense!)"
Monday, February 23, 2009 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
DO YOU EVER WONDER…: why “reality” TV frames humiliation of women as “ideal fairy tale romance”? if Prince Charming would really make his “true love” bend over so he could kick her in the butt? if
men should be valued for more than just the size of their…wallets? Then don’t miss this rousing, multi-media presentation! With humor, razor-sharp analysis and provocative clips from shows like The
Bachelor, America’s Next Top Model, American Idol, Extreme Makeover and Flavor of Love, media critic Jennifer L. Pozner exposes how “reality” TV reinforces regressive stereotypes about women and men,
race and class, and sex, love and marriage in America. She skewers the lack of ethnic and physical diversity in a genre where women are sold right alongside soda and cell phones, and reveals how
reality TV glorifies eating disorders, derides female intelligence, demeans people of color, and reduces Prince Charming to any jerk with a firm butt and a firmer financial portfolio. Students will
never see dating, mating and makeover shows the same way again… and they will laugh—a lot! Jennifer Pozner founded Women in Media and News in 2001 to increase women’s presence and power in the public
debate through media analysis, education, advocacy and reform. She formerly directed the Women’s Desk at the national media watch group FAIR, where she was a staff writer for Extra! Magazine and the
organizer of the national Feminist Coalition on Public Broadcasting. Pozner’s freelance work on women, media, politics and pop culture has been published in Newday, Chicago Tribune, Arizona Republic,
Ms., Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, among other publications. Pozner has appeared on ABC News Now’s “Top Priority,” Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” and several other
television programs. And because laughter is both a powerful weapon and an activist’s best medicine, Pozner served for several years as volunteer coordinator of the NYC chapters of the “Billionaires
for Boush (or Gore)” and the “Billionaires for More Media Mergers,” political satire groups using humor to call attention to the corruptive influence of money in politics and media. She is a graduate
of Hampshire College. Pozner will speak at 7:00pm in the Austin Auditorium at the LaSells Stewart Center on Monday, February 23, 2009. For additional information or accommodations call the OSU
Women’s Center at 737-3186.
