Body types featured in MTV 'reality-based' docusoaps 'more ideal than real'

As per a new study, people in MTV docusoaps are more ideal than real.

More midriff, cleavage and muscle is seen in MTV's popular television docusoaps such as 'The Real World,' 'Jersey Shore' or 'Laguna Beach' than in the average American household. Semi-naked brawny Adonises and even more scantily clad thin women strut around on screen simply to grab the audience's attention. In the process, they present a warped view to young viewers about how they should look.

The study, which is among the first to closely scrutinize how body ideals are depicted on US reality television, analyzed 299 episodes of the popular MTV docusoaps 'Jersey Shore,' 'Laguna Beach,' 'The Real World,' 'The Hills' and 'Newport Harbor,' aired between 2004 and 2011. Each reality star's body type and clothing were noted, as well as how often they showed some flesh on camera.

In this television genre, real people portray themselves and are filmed seemingly unscripted as they live out and experience events. Research has shown that regular viewers of reality television perceive the heavily edited programming to be highly realistic.

The percentage of lean bodies seen in docusoaps is almost the reverse of what is really happening in the US general population. Two in every three Americans are either overweight or obese, while not one docusoap included in the study's sample features someone obese. Instead, two-thirds of the women and three-quarters of the men in them have very little body fat. Half of all participants are either curvaceously thin or muscularly lean, depending on their gender.

The study found that 9 out of ten women's bodies are at least minimally exposed, and close to one-third are partially or fully undressed. Almost half of the men appear on screen either partially or fully nude.

Mark Flynn of the Coastal Carolina University, who believes that long-term exposure to MTV docusoaps may have as much, if not greater, impact on the self-objectification of men as it does on women, added that although these shows are labelled as reality-based, the bodies displayed in them are highly idealized.

The study is published in Springer's journal Sex Roles.