Date of Award
8-2013
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Legacy Department
English
Committee Chair/Advisor
Skrodzka, Aga
Committee Member
Field , Jonathan B
Committee Member
Morey , Sean
Abstract
This essay focuses on a critical analysis of the reality television program The Real Housewives, using the biblical story of Eve to illuminate the ways in which myths of femininity are perpetuated and reimagined within popular culture. Bridging reality television scholarship with post biblical scholarship surrounding the figure of Eve, this essay seeks to approach how both mythology and spectacle intertwine within the mass consumed genre of reality television to reiterate and recreate notions of the eternal feminine in ways that disarm and disengage audiences' critical thinking and response to these representations. By focusing on conspicuous consumption and bodily alteration and adornment within The Real Housewives, this essay provides insight into how this show presents femininity as a continuous cycle of reaching for perfection and perpetually falling short due to the myth of inherently flawed femininity, which begins with Eve's story and can be carried forward to her modern counterpart, the real housewife.
Recommended Citation
Hurst, Victoria, "The Real Housewives of the Garden of Eden" (2013). All Theses. 1695.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/1695