Exploring MTV’s ‘The Real World’

An interesting thing about MTV’s “The Real World,” besides all the melodramatic whining, conflict and hooking up, is how it exposes us to ignorance, such as racism and homophobia, just in case we don’t encounter enough in real life. Don’t worry, “The Real World” has got you covered.

So far this season, we’ve been introduced to the seven carefully typecast strangers who will live in the outrageously luxurious loft in Chicago while being too self-absorbed to truly appreciate it. This season, MTV has managed to combine many stereotypical qualities they often save for several characters all into one cast member. For example, Chris is the token gay guy AND the recovering alcoholic, while Aneesa manages to be the lesbian, the loudmouth drama queen and the extremely comfortable-while-naked-on-camera girl all rolled into one. (Sidenote: Dear Aneesa, We are not as comfortable with your nudity as you seem to be. Please tie your robe in the future. Signed, the MTV audience.) And that still leaves the token black guy and the token upperclass white guy. The season is young, but we have already had multiple cast members showering together, the promiscuous girl, Cara, managing to have three dates in one episode, and, of course, plenty of ignorant comments to go around.

For some reason, probably because they are encouraged to do so, the “Real World” kids feel the need to spout off their views on race, religion and sexuality the second they walk in the door, all while greedily eyeing the nicest bedroom in the house. Before they had even unpacked their things in the first episode, we knew Tonya’s (who can’t stop reminding us she’s from Walla Walla) first impression of Theo was simply and so tastefully stated, “He’s black.” In the second episode, Tonya assured us all that her ignorance wasn’t limited to racism alone, but also included severe homophobia declaring that her “impression” of a homosexual relationship was “a lot of drugs and a lot of sin.” Theo hopped on the homophobia bandwagon, declaring he finds “two dudes” together to be “disgusting,” and in a later episode, phoning home to Dad to make sure homosexuality was still considered a sin in the Bible.

I honestly try to understand where these people are coming from. I try to be as open-minded about hate and prejudice as I can possibly be. On the promo for this season, before Tonya even graced us with her presence in the season premiere, we heard her declaring, “I don’t agree with homosexuality.” I guess that statement is probably as common as it is ignorant, but for some reason, the way I heard her say it just made me laugh. It just sounds so ridiculous. It’s like how the Catholic Church doesn’t “recognize” divorce; you can disagree with it as much as you want, it’s still going to exist. I consider that opinion to be about as valid as someone who says they don’t like people with freckles. You can disagree with freckles all you want, but they aren’t going anywhere. And there’s going to be some people whose freckles cover their whole face, and some people who just cover them up because they’re only on their back so people don’t see the much, or people who have them but just don’t even think about freckles as a very important part of their identity. But the main fact is freckles and gay people and black people and fat people or whatever group of people you choose to “disagree” with or hate are here to stay.

In that respect, “The Real World” is actually beneficial, because it exposes viewers to different types of people they might not actually encounter in everyday life. Though I’m sure some groups might not be entirely pleased by the cast member chosen to basically represent them to the MTV audience, it’s still worthwhile for viewers to see these characters interacting and often breaking many of the stereotypes society has created around them. Also, though many times the conversations on the actual show about issues such as race or religion aren’t always the most deep or intelligent discussions ever to grace television, the real-life discussions it inspires among the actual viewers during commercial breaks at least have potential to be more significant and valuable.

So, in the “Real World” house, ignorant — but more importantly, controversial, and therefore entertaining — comments are very welcome because they usually result in an interesting episode where all fights are quickly resolved before the ending credits roll. Ignorant cast members are suddenly enlightened as MTV edits in an uplifting song in the background. So after Chris came out as gay to everyone in the second episode, Theo instantly became open-minded, even though he would flip back to his original homophobic views in later episodes. But at least we could focus on more important things, like Cara hooking up with a rock star or people throwing up in the shower.