INTERVIEW: Taking reality TV seriously (with Danielle Lindemann)

Issue 45: What reality television can reveal about social identities in 2022

This week, we are excited to feature an interview with Professor Danielle Lindemann, whose new book, ‘True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us’, comes out today!

Danielle is a sociologist at Lehigh University and an expert on gender, sexuality, and culture. She argues that reality TV, a guilty pleasure for many, holds up a mirror to our societies. The images of human relationships and behaviors these shows reflect back to us are, to be sure, often exaggerated—but precisely because they are magnified, they can reveal dynamics that play out more subtly in ordinary life.

In a recent piece in The Atlantic, for example, Danielle notes that although reality shows’ depictions of motherhood are generally zany and over-the-top, they also expose how societal expectations for mothers remain quite conservative and demanding. “Indeed,” she writes, “the moms on reality TV are not as different from other mothers as they initially appear: They are judged by—and often fall short of—the same rigid sta…