The Wild Bunch

Abstract

This chapter discusses the ways in which reality television has used, displayed, and presented the male working-class body. Reality television's use of this body can be traced back to the earliest roots of the form. Further, in its repeated representation of the male working-class body as either criminal or labor stock, reality television reveals the depth of coding that prevents middle-class program makers from seeing working class men as little more than their bodies. The role of surveillance runs throughout the chapter, as it not only provides the materials for reality television but also constitutes the conditions under which we live and in particular captures the working class. The chapter discusses reality television's representation of men under three categories: the criminal/errant body, the working community, and new masculinities and new men.

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