This article investigates UnREAL ’ s gender and racial discourse and imagery in order to assess its ability to promote a feminist and anti-racist agenda . It proceeds by defining essentialism generally and gender and racial essentialism specifically . Next , it illustrates the way these concepts are depicted on Season 2 of UnREAL . Third , it investigates the UnREAL ’ s ability to undermine static notions of gender , depict the complexity of contemporary racism , and illustrate elements of racism inherent in white feminism . Ultimately , this article argues that in Season 2 UnREAL consciously constructs racial and gender injustices and stereotypes in a successful effort to make the audience reflect on patriarchy and racial injustice in contemporary society . Quinn , Rachel , and Chet make explicit the constructions , which the audience often implicitly deploys , and shows the viewers the injustices which follow . UnREAL successfully promotes a feminist and anti-racist agenda by undermining gender and racial stereotypes by countering essentialist assumptions of both gender and race . This ability is both confined by the constructed and manipulative mechanism of Everlasting and reality television in general and enabled by the program ’ s unique meta-quality . The institutional logic of the entertainment industry in general and reality TV in particular ultimately subordinates its characters ’ ability to undermine patriarchy and liberate themselves from patriarchal and racist confines . However , the meta-quality of the show , a fictionalized depiction of the making of a fictional reality show , enables unique discursive capacities . Its unique space allows its characters to , at once , spew sexist and racist slurs , undermine essentialist notions , and , most successfully , illustrate the construction of gender and race in contemporary social and discursive practices . The result forces UnREAL ’ s audience into a provocative and self-reflective posture . The result of this analysis is that UnREAL constitutes a successful iteration of the feminist project of Lifetime ’ s Broad Focus initiative , one which includes a critique of liberal white feminism ’ s racist elements .
Essentialism 101
Gender essentialism is a function of essentialism in general , which is most often inspired by the philosophy of Aristotle . Aristotelian essentialism is “ the doctrine that some of the attributes of a thing ( quite independent of the language in which the thing is referred to , if at all ) may be essential to the thing and others accidental .” Gender essentialism is “ the notion that a unitary , ‘ essential ’ women ’ s experience can be isolated and described independently of race , class , sexual orientation , and other realities of experience .” Ordinarily , essentialists hold that there is an unchanging , static core to gender , and this essence is
68