The black community has a love-hate affair with reality television. Even the critics who protest the most about the show can be seen secretly watching these shows while munching on some popcorn.
Despite its popularity, VH1 Love and Hip Hop Atlanta has received much criticism and backlash for its negative portrayal of black women.
The show’s female cast has caught a bad rap for using profanity words, being loudmouthed and fighting. Not the qualities one would expect from a woman.
But the current generation has embraced these qualities and calls it the definition of being a “bad bitch.” Reality star Joseline took time out of Love and Hip Hop Atlanta’s Monday night reunion to point out she was a “bad bitch.”
“I had to put on my shades for all you hatin’ a** b****es. I’m the baddest b***h,” Joseline said as she rose from her seat to display her figure to the audience.”
Producer Mona Scott Young told viewers during the reunion the show was not meant to show a stereotypical depiction of black women.
“This show never supposed to be a representation of all African American women everywhere,” she said. “This show was about your lives, your struggle. And you have a every right to tell them.”
There is much debate on the authenticity of Love and Hip Hop. Many viewers aren’t sure whether the show is in fact “real” or actually scripted. Many critics wish the latter.
But during the reunion episode, cast mate Mimi downplayed all rumors of the show being scripted.
“What was going on was what was going on in our life,” Mimi told viewers. “It had nothing to do with you or VH1 or a script. So for them to say ‘you were portraying African American women in a negative light’…not so much.”
Love and Hip Hop may depict African Americans in a negative light, but this demographic disproportionately supports the program. This demographic even made the show’s reunion episode a trending topic on Twitter.
The show’s producers and cast aren’t to blame for the show’s strong presence on television. It is the viewers who give the show the ratings it needs to continue each subsequent season.
Young said during an interview with the Rickey Smiley morning show that reality television is a business of “supply and demand.”
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I love the show. This is all of television. No one says anything about mob wives and jersey shore making italians look bad nor do you see italians boycotting. i think we as black ppl have self-hate complex where we cringe at the thought of what white folk think about us. we can’t hate on the cast because they making their money and entertaining us at the same time. it’s entertainment. What are they supposed to do on the these shows. All the women on the show are very strong. It’s not negative at all. It’s just entertainment
I Love Joseline!! She keeps it real. That’s her personality. I love her because she is being herself. She doesn’t care about anyone’s opinion
The show doesn’t show strong black women. It shows a degraded black woman. If you are looking at Joseline as a role model, men aren’t looking at you as their ideal woman. Black women have so much they have to deal with in society and shows like these are not helping. Our culture went from looking up to Correttas to Joselines. That is a tragedy
THAT SHOW IS ONE HOT RATCHET MESS. im dun lol
We love the show because it is entertaining. It only affects the black community if you think it affects the black community.
black folk love drama lets be real. we watch the show bcuz we love 2 c sum shit pop off. its in our dna to love drama. thats y we love wathin it
All that idiotic show does is perpetuate the preexisting negative stereotype that black women are obstreperous, ghetto, ignorant, rude, disrespectful “bitches”, when black women are still on a compelling quest for identity (being both black and women, they are subjected to the denial of cultural wholeness within a racist, misogynistic society). They are still fragmented, and those girls are filling in the pieces. It’s sad, a black girl knows Mimi, but not Frances E. W. Harper. They know the other girl (don’t know her name) but not Rebecca Cole.