How “Real Housewives” Have Made America Better
by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Resistance is futile, America. Almost everyone with a television has sampled from the deliciously naughty snack bar that is reality television. Those who refuse to watch, based on some misguided cultural snobbery, aren’t just missing great entertainment, they are overlooking the best social insight into the American psyche since Huck Finn and Jim explored the soul of America on a raft of lost innocence.
Good news, Huck and Jim. We found that lost innocence and we’re hanging it out to dry on cable TV.
I’m not being sarcastic. I’m a fan. I think that Andy Cohen, the brains behind Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise, is the Andy Warhol of the 21st Century. His version of Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans and multi-colored Marilyns are the table-flipping divas and surgically-buoyed breasts he puts “on display.” (Followers of the shows will appreciate that musical inside reference.)
First, I need to make a distinction and a disclaimer. The distinction is between the two main types of reality programs: competitions (Survivor, Project Runway, Top Chef) and daily-life “documentaries” (Real World, Real Housewives, Basketball Wives).
For the rest of this article, click here.
