True Story: What Reality TV Says about Us

by Danielle J. Lindemann

We are a country starkly divided by social class. Further, this divide is increasing, not diminishing. The gap between middle-income and higher-income households, for instance, has been widening for decades.66 And class is sticky. By one estimate, it can take ten to fifteen generations for a family to either lose its wealth or move out of poverty.67 Another study found that class is vastly more important than intelligence in determining a child’s future; in fact, a low-income child with high test scores in kindergarten is significantly less likely to attend college and get a good entry-level job than a high-income child with low test scores.68 The fact that a reality star could ascend to the presidency, and that we could tweet at him directly, has not rattled the fundamental structure of the class system. While there are some nuances to this structure (laughable heiresses! redneck TV stars!), and while it may sway slightly, it remains heartily intact. Myths about meritocracy are central to our national discourse. We tell ourselves that Americans, with the right amount of skill and effort, should be able to improve upon the circumstances of their births, and indeed some people do. Yet we don’t have completely meritocratic systems in place. With controlling images as our lodestars, we navigate the gap between our meritocratic national narrative and the reality of life in the United States. We watch these shows, perhaps, because they reinforce the long-standing narratives abo...