From Tears to Fists: Is Bad Girls Club Really All Bad?

Set to begin its 17th season, highly criticized reality television show Bad Girls Club, which has been notorious for its glamorization of the 'bad girl' lifestyle, fights, and general misconduct, has entertained viewers from day one, and generates an average viewing of over 1 million. Each episode features seemingly never-ending drama, which has a tendency to turn violent. The show was created in part with good meaning.  Throughout the show, the girls meet with a life coach, and viewers see another side to the mainly hardheaded participants, and learn more about things that have made the women on the show into the people they are today. The meetings with the life coach help improve the women's mentalities, and motivates them to make positive changes in their lives. Although it is perceived to be completely superficial, the show is well intentioned and has more depth than can be realized upon watching only one episode. 

Original Cast of Season 14

To start, Bad Girls Club participants, who come from all different parts of the country, are required to meet with Laura, a life coach who has the girls face any problems they might have and discusses different ways to approach their issues, and how to solve or get over them. This helps the women become better people throughout the span of the show. While watching this, the audience is reminded that the cast is made up of real people, who have real problems just like everybody else. The audience also sees the cast taking steps back, whether it be through fighting or partying, and their struggle to make progress from that.  Altogether, the plights of the cast are incentive for the viewers to work on facing their own daily struggles, no matter how small they may seem.

The underlying point of the show seems to be the idea that this process of living with other troubled girls will in the end produce positive results. This idea is further enforced when it is described as somewhat of a social experiment by Inquiries Journal. The author of the article "Good Girls Gone Bad: Race and Gender in Oxygen's 'The Bad Girls Club'" goes on to describe the social experiments as being "intended to produce drama and conflict with the goal of transforming participants’ lifestyles and actions for the better." (Mercer, 1)

Although considered to be one of the most controversial and generally pointless reality shows on television, Bad Girls Club has also received positive reviews from viewers for teaching them to face their problems.  The cast also voices their thoughts that the show helps them grow as women and as members of society, and helped them be to become triumphant in the end.  Some viewers look to this as inspiration, and seek ways to overcome adversity from their past and become better people.

The main drawback of the show is the constant drama, which is accompanied by fights when emotions spill over.  A prime example of this is on Season 14 episode 7, which involved girls Kat, Lauren, Jenna and Jasmine destroying all of the belongings (clothes, purses, shoes, etc.) of fellow cast members Shannon, Shannade and Jela. When the three girls came home and saw what had happened to their things, they exploded and ruined the entire house, and got into fights with the others. As a result, the twins (Shannon and Shannade) and Jela were kicked off the show, and the other four girls were put on lockdown for 24 hours, and were required to write apology letters to the girls, as well as being forced to clean the whole house. The next day, the remaining girls were required to meet with Laura, who expressed her disappointment in them for taking huge steps in the wrong direction. Things like this serve as a reminder that the cast is made up of real people, emphasizing on June Deery's idea of "amateur status" (63). 

An Altercation in Mexico (Season 9)

Some people worry about the effects that shows like this might have on young girls watching at home, which is voiced by Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz in "Real Mean Girls? Reality television viewing, social aggression, and gender-related beliefs among female emerging adults.", when she says "regular reality TV viewing was associated with the belief that other girls were untrustworthy, that social aggression (e.g., gossiping) is a normal part of girls’ relationships with each other, and that it is necessary to be mean or lie to get ahead in life." It could be argued, however, that seeing the struggles of adult women reminds young girls to push through whatever diversities they may face and become successful. 

Altogether, Bad Girls Club is continually a fan favorite. Never-ending drama is always a source of entertainment, and gets the network the views, while life meetings and heart-to-hearts serve as inspiration and motivation for the audience to face their own struggles and work on becoming stronger. 

Works Cited

Behm-Morawitz, Elizabeth, et al."Real Mean Girls? Reality television viewing, social aggression, and gender-related beliefs among female emerging adults." Psychology of Popular Media Culture, vol. 5(4), Oct. 2016, pp.340-355.

Deery, June. Reality TV. Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2015

Martin, M. "Reality TV turning young girls into fame monsters?" NPR News, 19 Oct. 2011, http://www.npr.org/2011/10/19/141508287/reality-tv-turning-young-girls-into-fame-monsters.

Mercer, Elijah. "Good Girls Gone Bad: Race and Gender in Oxygen's The Bad Girls Club." Inquiries Journal, vol. 4, no. 7, 2012, https://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/668/3/good-girls-gone-bad-race-and-gender-in-oxygens-the-bad-girls-club.