Date of Award

Spring 2007

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Humanities

Committee Director

Jeffery Jones

Committee Member

Dana Heller

Committee Member

Anita Fellman

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.H85 B43 2007

Abstract

This thesis is centered on the reality television program The Bachelor. Presenting itself as a modem day Cinderella story, The Bachelor speaks directly to women's fantasies and their familiarity with fairy tales. In the process, women are molded into convenient and stale stereotypes. Furthermore, the show uses melodrama to create suspense as well as sensational episodes and romantic sentiments to keep the viewer tuned in. Instead of "reality" the show highlights a series of marginalized, sexualized, commodified, and pacified women who place marriage at the epicenter of their selfworth. From Queen for a Day to The Phil Donahue Show. The Bachelor is the newest in a continuum of shows for women, about women. The show tells us about women, how we see ourselves, and sometimes reveals more than we want to know about ourselves. The Bachelor is a meticulously crafted device in which fairy tales, fantasies, and melodrama are used to create narrative stories, stories that distort the ways in which men and women interact, and stories that present deceptive conclusions about love, romance, and courtship.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/n547-0b56

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