On Oxygen’s The Bad Girls Club stereotypes are often brought up. Such as “You white trash piece of garbage!” or “Get your hands off my bag they’re worth more than your paycheck!” Notice how both quotes have exclamations because of the yelling that goes on in the house. The Bad Girls Club is a representation of human stereotyping because of the girls that are in the club and how they act towards each other. In BGC, 7 bad girls all live together in a house, all of different place and mostly different races. On the newest season there are 3 black girls, 2 white girls, 1 Latina, and 1 girl who identifies as Lebanese. All the girls stereotype each other and then pick and pull which stereotypes to bring out into the open, most of the time by screaming and yelling.
In the Bad Girls Club, Nastasia (one of the black girls) constantly talks like she has grown up in poverty all her life and resents anyone that has money. She plays into the ghetto black girl stereotype. Angelique (the Latina girl) corresponds to the chola stereotype of having dark makeup and red lipstick on; another characteristic of the chola stereotype is talking with a very heavy latin accent. Angelique plays into the stereotype because when she goes into the confessional booth she suddenly loses her accent… Priscilla (the white girl from Staten Island) constantly plays into the far east white girl stereotype. Priscilla talks with a heavy Staten Island/ New Jersey accent, goes and gets fake tans, and is always clutching her Louis Veton handbag. Every girl fits into one stereotype or another. Like stated previously Nastasia calls one of the white girls “Poor, white trash.” This was on the third night of being in the house, which means all Nastasia knew about the white girl was the stereotype.
On BGC all of the girls can be seen as stereotypes. They all fit into one stereotype or category at some point. Examples of the girls fitting stereotypes can be seen in the paragraph above. It just shows how people play into a stereotype or category in present day. Even though they are all just girls living in a house they see each other as ghetto or trashy or high class. But in the house class or economic level does not matter, they are all on the same level. Even when they are on the same level they still try to belittle each other by picking on insecurities and stereotypes.
Joshua, I think you brought up some really great points about the labels and stereotypes that are publicized on the show. From the first day in the house all the girls are already labeled with "Lesbian of the house", "Hoodrat",and "Creole". Why can't they all just be "Bad Girls" living under one roof? Yes, Shelly is a lesbian however does she have to be labeled "Lesbian of the House"? On a recent episode, a new girl was invited into the house after Priscilla was kicked out. Immediately Shelly was introduced as "the lesbian of the house". These girls should break out of their labels and shells and go past what they've been made to be. Just because someone acts a certain way or talks a certain way doesn't mean that they should be stereotyped into any role. Josh, you did a great job on displaying the negative labels the girls put on one another.
ReplyDeleteJoshua, I definitely agree with what you've said about the girls on the show. The girls all talk bad about each other and they always have to use each others races against one another. Not everything is about our race. They shouldn't be trying to fit into the stereotype, but they should be trying to prove that they are better than what they're labeled as. The girls putting each other down isn't doing anything for them. It makes them just as bad of a person because they are that low to stereotype and make negative comments towards each other. I agree 100% with what you have to say about them picking on each other.
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