A review by ramossnr
True Story: What Reality TV Says about Us by Danielle Lindemann

3.0

This is a good overview of how reality TV reflects our societal values, and I liked the progression from individual to society. If you've read other structural critiques of reality TV (say a feminist critique of the Real Housewives series), then Lindemann treads familiar ground. Overall, I found her prose insightful and engaging, without any academic pretension. However, there is an anti-fat bias that runs through the text that I hope Lindemann can address, at least in her teaching and any future books. She takes it as a given that smaller bodies are better, healthier bodies and does not explore societal responses to fat people. That's a big miss in my opinion and only reinforces dominate societal views instead of interrogating them.