Solidarity in The Real World of Civil Rights, Marriage Equality, and Proposition 8

Abstract

In 1992 MTV launched the reality television era with this simple introduction: “This is the true story of seven strangers, picked to live in a loft, and have their lives taped, to see what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.” The show, which remains a staple of MTV’s programming almost twenty years later, features young people² from vastly different backgrounds (including people of color and lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender [LGBT] cast members throughout the lifetime of the series) in order to tap audience interest in “getting real.” While scholars doubt MTV’s ability to adequately represent reality,³ ongoing audience interest in the conflict often generated by serious topics like race (first gaining notoriety during season 1 in New York City⁴) and HIV/AIDS (which gained widespread notoriety during season 3 in San Francisco⁵) have provided a wide array of memorable moments that have become common themes throughout the show’s history. Such moments, whether spontaneous or scripted versions of reality (or some mixture of both) have become increasingly rare over the lifetime of the series, but it is just those kinds of moments that originally earned the praise of critics and audiences alike.