Reviews tagging 'Biphobia'

True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us by Danielle Lindemann

3 reviews

ferdie's review

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hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

3.25

While True Story doesnt reveal any shocking new conclusions, it does offer a reflective deep dive of what reality TV offers and perpetuates. Reality tv is a comfort because of the way we see ourselves in the stories but in an exaggerated view. We can learn about others,  but in their most digestible/ stereotyped forms. Rather than parsing out if it is real or not, Lindemann instead argues that it is more important to see the imprint of us within the simple story and the marks it makes on each of us when we turn the TV off. It can be a tool of awareness.  

There were some parts that seemed to drag and get repetitive, but I did appreciate the earnest hopefulness and realism Lindemann balanced throughout the book :)
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maddiearthur's review against another edition

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medium-paced

2.5

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bookedbymadeline's review

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challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.0


“Reality TV is important to understand, not only because of what it can tell us about our lives but because of what it does to us. The experience of watching these shows, like looking in any mirror, is interactive. We see ourselves, and then we groom ourselves accordingly.”

Thank you netgalley and Farrar, Straus, Giroux  for the eARC of True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us by Dr Danielle J. Lindemann!

I’ve had a love-hate relationship with reality TV through the years. I’ve started enjoying it more recently, and been intrigued by the people and show concepts. When I heard about True Story, I knew I wanted to read it because it combines my love of Sociology with my interest in the reality genre.

Mainly focuses on reality shows from the US. Really interesting look at various reality shows, highlighting both the positive and negative aspects. Some of the shows talked about include The Bachelor/Bachelorette, Real Housewives, Toddlers & Tiaras, Cops, Survivor, and Real World.

Each chapter focuses on a sociological theme or principle that reality TV illuminates: the self, couples, groups, families, childhood, class, race, gender, sexuality, and deviance. As someone who studied Sociology, I enjoyed seeing the theories I learned about in school being applied to this form of media! 

A lot of us, whether we watch reality TV or not, may view the genre as a “guilty pleasure” since we don’t “get” anything from these shows. I liked that the author pointed out that the same is true of professional sports: “[they] don’t have intellectual value either, and we don’t regularly refer to them as ‘guilty pleasures.’ There are other potential reasons for our disdain for reality TV: because, unlike sports, it’s a genre associated more with female viewership than male and we tend to devalue cultural products geared toward women.”

It could be slow and overwhelming at times, but I found that it was much more interesting/attention grabbing when I read it while I was in the right headspace!

Pub day: February 15 


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