Dr. Danielle Lindemann

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124 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Mar 2025 last heard Mar 2025

Dr. Danielle Lindemann’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Ologies with Alie Ward · Reality TV Sociology (‘TRASH’ TV) with Danielle Lindemann · 5 Mar 2025 podcast

I know people who campaigned for Hillary in the first election, they would go door to door in Pennsylvania and people would say, you know, no, I'm voting for Trump. I saw him and then they apprentice. I liked him. Right. And it's interesting because we talk about reality TV being a female coded genre and

And oftentimes women are represented very stereotypically, very materialistically in this genre. But when men are represented, especially white men, when they're straight white men on these shows, they're not represented in any kind of negative stereotypical way. I think it also plays into the way that Trump was represented on that show.

Because if he had been represented as a kind of like a bozo... I don't think it would have had that same impact as someone who's being represented as, I'm a businessman, I'm sitting behind a desk, I'm making important decisions, I'm always right, I'm wearing a suit. And so I think that gets into people's brains as, oh, this is a person that I want in charge.

So this is a long answer, all to say, did reality TV make Trump our president? I don't know if it's like a one-to-one correlation, but it certainly seemed to accelerate his rise.

Okay, so I wish existed. I always say, so my mother-in-law is in like a retirement community. And oh my gosh, the stories. Because it's like high school, but it's people who DGAF anymore.

And so it's amazing because they will tell you exactly what they think and they will tell others exactly what they think. And there's clicks and there's romances. And I think there have been a couple of reality shows that's focused on senior living communities. But I think that's an untapped mark. Plus seniors would watch those shows as well.

all engaged in impression management. We're all performing. Anytime we're in a social situation, we're performing for others to some extent.

I mean, yeah, we're all social selves inextricably, right? And it's interesting because reality TV, oftentimes the people on the show are like, this is my authentic self or be authentic, be real, right? But there is no real authentic self divorced from our social contacts, right? From the moment we're born, we're being socialized.

So it's impossible to kind of extract some authentic self that's untouched by our socialization unless we're raised by wolves, which almost never happens.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, interesting. So the viewer... Okay. So I thought you were going to ask about the nuances of the people on the shows who say, I'm not here to make friends. But the viewer, that's interesting, is kind of there to make friends in a way. Yeah, yeah. Studies have shown this, right? That's part of our attachment to reality TV is that

And also, reality TV, as we've talked about with influencing, functions on multiple platforms simultaneously. So it's not just I'm going to watch Kim Kardashian on the show, but also I can tweet at Kim Kardashian, follow her Insta, and maybe she'll even comment on my comment. And I'll actually have that back and forth with her.

And then I can buy her beauty products and her clothes and her skims and play her video games. And so I can interact with her on these multiple dimensions simultaneously. Which is why these parasocial relationships are much more potent with reality TV personalities because

We are interacting with them as themselves versus, you know, I watch Sex and the City and I'm more of a Miranda than I am a Carrie. Who's a Carrie? I don't know. She's awful, right? But it's not like I'm feeling a, and so I can kind of feel a parasocial relationship with Miranda, but it's not like I can then like go off the show and interact with Miranda in various domains.

I mean, I love what I do and study. I do think there is that stigmatization aspect where people, academics, but also non-academics, we'll just say why. You know, I remember like one time I was in a bookstore and I was doing a reading for my book and this woman came up and she was like, what's this about? And I was like, oh, it's a book about reality TV. And she goes, ugh, why? And she walks away.

And I think that really summarizes how a lot of people feel about what I study. So it's interesting, right? Because studies show that more people than not are watching reality TV, even if they don't think they're watching reality TV. And I often say I'm an evangelist for reality TV, not in the sense of I think everyone should watch it. I have no stake in that or whether they enjoy it.

You can find it problematic. I find it problematic in many ways. But I think it's really important to study reality TV because I think people think of it as this kind of a lot of people think of it as this kind of like sideshow, right? This kind of frivolous thing, you know, but as we've talked about here, right, there are really huge consequences to our consumptions of these shows.

And also these shows can really teach us about a lot of dynamics of our social lives. So whether people watch or enjoy the shows or like them, I mean, I have no stake in that. But I do think it's really important to actually look at this thing that's a cultural juggernaut and that really has a vast potential to change the ways that we live our lives.

I mean, certainly teaching. I love, I mean, I love teaching in general, but I just love when students make their own connections between these shows and, you know, like the dynamics of our social experiences in ways that I'm like, oh yeah, Floribama Shore is doing that. Or Four Weddings is totally like showing us how weddings are stratified by class.

And so like the connections that the students make, especially when they're connections that I wouldn't have thought of are super exciting to me.

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