Reality television might often be dismissed as lowbrow entertainment. But a group in Utah thought one of the state’s hit shows warranted a closer, scholarly look.
The University of Utah’s Tanner Humanities Center hosted a full-day symposium titled “How we Watch the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City: Status, Style and Storytelling.”
Scott Black, the center’s director, said, “Our mission is to foster conversation about what matters in our lives and our communities. And it's clear that The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City matters to us.”
Salt Lake is one of the newest additions to the Real Housewives franchise. But after six seasons it has become a fan favorite nationwide, including for comedian John Oliver, actress Jennifer Lawrence and Saturday Night Live alum Kristen Wiig.
The April 10 affair had professors and students from across the country present on various topics, analyzing what the show reveals about Utah, why it is so compelling for viewers, and how representation of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has changed over time. The audience ranged from academics who didn’t know much about the show, to fans with no ties to academia.
Symposium organizers tried to get some of the housewives to attend, but they were reportedly filming that day. There was a video from Britani Bateman, labeled as a “friend” on the show, telling attendees to have fun and that she wished she could be there.
Assistant Professor of English Crystal Rudds told the crowd she’s never had so much fun at an academic symposium.
There were wigs and props for attendees to take pictures with and separate events, like themed trivia the night before. The audience recited memorable lines in unison — “Receipts! Proof! Timeline! Screenshots!” When the audio for a clip wasn’t working, some attendees recited it from memory, quoting housewife Heather Gay — “just like my pioneer ancestors, I’m blazing a new trail.”
Presentations had titles like “Mormon Multiverse: How Reality TV Reveals a Spectrum of Faith Practice and Accelerates Identity Negotiation,” and “Rented Revelations: Housewives, Crickets, and Empty Walls” where two Yale graduate students compared Real Housewives to mormon crickets.
Presenters even came up with their own taglines, like the housewives give in the intro of every episode. For Black, it was, “I don't throw shade. I annotate it.”
Renato Olmedo-Gonzalez, public arts program manager for the Salt Lake City Arts Council, said he’s interested in the blurry line between high and low culture.
“If you really look at it, both are doing the same thing. They're about performance, identity, storytelling, spectacle and power, just with different budgets and different production.”
“Also as a queer person, there's just something inside me that I'm drawn to a bedazzled, delusional diva on TV,” Olmedo-Gonzalez added.
And while American audiences are usually expected to be quiet at movies and plays, Reality TV asks something different of its viewers.
“What is fascinating about the Real Housewives as a televisual melodrama is its capacity to bring people together and encourage collective gazing,” said presenter Ali Alkhalifa, who works in the department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies at The Ohio State University. “It is no surprise to hear viewers talk crap, make puns and try to make sense about the cast dynamics on the show.”
Viewers don’t passively watch the women on this show fight. They react and argue over their opinions in online forums and in-person watch parties. That fan discourse, Alkhalifa said, can even shape future episodes as cast members react to it in turn.
And when the show touches on real issues, Alhalifa said it can be a vehicle for bigger conversations.
The behavior is often dramatized to the max, but it can still be recognizable and relatable for viewers, like looking in a fun-house mirror.
Victoria Gonzalez, who frequently talks reality TV on X96 Radio from Hell, said on a panel, “I love to watch and judge these women, but also really connect with them on so many levels.”
For Salt Lake City resident Jaq Baca, watching the drama of her local Real Housewives can be an escape from the stress of everyday life. But it’s also a way to connect with her friends on a different level.
“It's kind of interesting,” Baca said. “It opens up a lot of conversations that you otherwise wouldn't be having with certain friends.”
If the housewives are fighting, for example, Baca and her friends might have different opinions about who is right, leading to lengthy conversations.
Baca and her friends tried to recreate that kind of watch party at the symposium. They played scenes of a big fight last season, then asked the audience what they thought: Was it OK for the women to talk about a friend's legal drama while she wasn’t present? Is gossiping being shady, or a valid-form of truth telling?
Baca’s friend Elizabeth Leach said, “Gossip is safety if it is done ethically. And to do it ethically, it needs to be honest.”
In another presentation, Utah couples therapist Jordan Rullo used clips from the show to illustrate damaging communication styles, like criticism and contempt.
Rullo said when she watches the show through her professional lens, “one of the biggest things I see is really bad communication,” prompting a big laugh from the audience.
Contempt, Rullo said, “was rampant all over the housewives. Contempt was the easiest to find.”
To illustrate, she played housewife Lisa Barlow’s famous hot mic rant from season two where she bashed her friend Meredith Marks.
After showing the bad, Rullo outlined healthier alternatives for communicating, although the audience laughed as she explained she couldn’t always find examples from the show.
Attendee and Salt Lake resident Olga Hernandez is passionate about the housewives.
“I'm not saying that ironically in any way. Like, this really brings me joy,” Hernandez said.
And it can be relatable. Hernandez said it does, maybe inadvertently, “touch on some really important dynamics, like in terms of race and gender that I've lived, right, and I've seen play out in front of me.”
Sometimes the way the housewives don’t address issues like race head-on reminds her of what she’s seen in her own life in Utah. Seeing that portrayed on screen, Hernandez said, makes her feel like it's not all in her head.
“I have to keep all of these thoughts to myself, because I don't really know a lot of other fans of the show,” Hernandez said. She more often hears people talk about Real Housewives in a pejorative way.
But she didn’t have to worry about that at the symposium.
“I love that people are like, nerdy about the Real Housewives. Because I think, first of all, it's not taken seriously enough. It's very serious for me in my life, like this is a very important thing in my life, so I love it. I've loved hearing the different conversations that are happening,” Hernandez said.
Organizers told the crowd they look forward to season seven and ended the conference with a clip of housewife Meredith Marks’ viral line, “You can leave!”
Editor’s note: KUER is a licensee of the University of Utah but operates as an editorially independent news organization.
