http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/10/21/are-reality-shows-worse-than-other-tv/reality-tv-exploits-women-minorities-and-children

“Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,” TLC’s poverty voyeurism comedy tour (er, “reality series”), achieved more than twice the ratings of Fox’s Republican National Convention coverage. Both audiences might find similarities in the way reality TV producers and Governor Mitt Romney think about gender roles.

During last Tuesday’s presidential debate, Romney answered a question about pay equity by saying that he made sure his chief of staff could leave work in time to cook dinner for her family. “The Bachelor” has resurrected the same regressive view of relationships, showcasing bubbly babes promising to “make the best wife” for ABC’s husband-in-chief “because I would be a servant to him. And if he comes home from a long day at the office, I’ll just rub his feet and have dinner ready for him!”

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Where was this hand-wringing when “The Apprentice,” “America’s Next Top Model,” “Millionaire Matchmaker,” “Basketball Wives” and countless others advanced the tropes above? Or when VH1’s modern-day minstrel show, “Flavor of Love,” portrayed black and Latina women as ignorant “ghetto” “hos,” and men of color as clowns, thugs and criminals?

And where’s the outrage about the “Honey Boo Boo” precursor, “Toddlers and Tiaras,” hypersexualizing kindergarteners in itty-bitty bikinis, Vegas burlesque costumes and, in the case of one 4-year-old, the outfit of the prostitute played by Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman”? These prepubescent girls cannot possibly understand or consent to what TLC is doing to and with their images, making “Toddlers and Tiaras” the most exploitative reality show of the decade. Viewers are complicit in celluloid child abuse.

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