Continuing Women’s HERstory Month, students got a chance to hear a critical analysis on the portrayal of women in reality TV.

Jennifer L. Pozner was the guest speaker brought in by the Women’s Coordinating Council. While her presentation “Project Brainwash: Why Reality TV is Bad for Women” was highly critical of reality television, Pozner stressed that she wasn’t trying to eliminate reality TV, but rather to get people to view it with an analytical mind.

“The goal is not to stop watching reality TV,” Pozner said. “I want to get you to stop using the term ‘mindless entertainment.’”

The presentation is part of her larger body of research covering reality TV’s portrayal of men, minorities and economic classes. Due to time constraints, however, she narrowed her lecture to focus primarily on women.

The lecture focused on two areas. The first was Pozner’s explanation on why reality television has proliferated the medium to such a degree over the past decade. The second was looking at how women are negatively portrayed within the genre of “reality.”

Pozner said that the reason so many reality shows exist is not because they’re always in high demand, but rather that such shows are very cheap to make and can pull in millions of dollars in advertisement and product placement.

“I want to debunk reality TV’s first biggest myth of all, that these programs simply exist because there’s a public demand,” Pozner said. “They’re giving us what we want … but that’s a lie.”

Pozner quoted several interviews from individuals such as the creator of “Survivor” and “The Apprentice,” Mark Burnett, where the individuals claimed that reality TV was perfect for advertisers and a wise financial investment.

Pozner also backed her argument by noting several reality shows that remained on air despite having ratings lower than other shows on the same network that were canceled despite higher ratings.

“I begin with this financial picture because it is important to understand that reality TV was created for advertisers’ needs and not our needs as viewers,” Pozner said.

Pozner then began the bulk of her lecture by going into the negative stereotypes that women are portrayed as.

The first of which was how women can only be successful if they fit into a particular version of beautiful. Pozner pointed out instances on “American Idol” where host Simon Cowell would compliment female contestants’ voices but then state that they could never make it in the industry unless they lost weight or changed their hair style. Pozner also noted shows like “Bridalplasty,” where the show’s prize was to win massive amounts of plastic surgery.

Pozner was the most critical of the romance/dating shows like “The Bachelor,” which she claimed promoted the “fairy tale princess” stereotype.

Pozner showed dozens of clips from such shows that implied that a woman’s worth is only determined by her ability to have a successful marriage. The women in these shows are depicted as being subservient, vindictive, materialistic, money-grabbing and ultimately exist for nothing but for the approval of one man.

Pozner said that such shows not only hurt woman, but also belittle what it takes to have a successful relationship.

“These shows have a simple equation,” Pozner said. “Fat wallets plus skinny women equals love!”

Pozner also criticized minority women’s portrayal in reality TV. She pointed out that white women typically get the “Cinderella fairy tale,” but everyone else gets shows like “Flavor of Love,” where black women are depicted as “violent” and Asian women are either “extremely submissive or hyper sexual.”

An audience of more than 30 gathered in the UC Auditorium to see Project Brainwash. Al Wong, a grad student studying clinical psychology, enjoyed the presentation but felt that there was something lacking.

“I really liked it,” Wong said. “But I felt that she left out some of the positive things that reality TV can have. There have been some positive portrayals of Asian men. And what about Susan Boyle?”

Overall though, Wong said Pozner brought up many good points.

Students can learn more about Pozner and her research on reality TV in her book “Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth about Guilty Pleasure TV.”