Wow, you folks are FAST! On the same day that Reality Bites Back became available for the Kindle, the Readers Gallery got a new entry.

Here’s Robert Domingo from Queens, NY, who is reading Reality Bites

Back on his iPhone:

If you’d like to join the Readers Gallery, send a photo of yourself to info[at]wimnonline[dot]org, or upload a photo directly to the Facebook page for the book. (And while you’re at it, “Like” the FB page and talk about the book with fellow readers there.)

And, as always, I’d love to hear what you’re thinking about reality TV and representations of gender, race, class and more in pop culture, whether directly related to the book or not. Weigh in at the Facebook page, or in the comments below.

On Saturday, I introduced you to six people in the Reality Bites Back readers gallery: Andrew from Brooklyn, Veronica from Chicago, the interns of Reel Grrls in Seattle, and a very precocious (or, well, hungry) kid in Los Angeles.

Today, it’s time to meet four new members of our reading community:

Straight from the belly of the beast — Los Angeles, where reality TV stereotypes are carefully crafted — professor Melanie Klein snuggles up on her

couch with the book. Melanie will be teaching from Reality Bites Back this semester, along with many women’s studies, ethnic studies, communications/media studies, and humanities professors across the country. (Which I’m really excited about, by the way.) She is also helping to organize this event:

It seems Seattle-based Jerry Darcy was a bit confused by the book. First, he apparently thought some of the reality show anecdotes I described are so preposterous, they’d made more sense upside down:

Then, he searched in vain for a Reality Bites Back centerfold pinup. (You’ll be looking for a long time, there, Tiger…):

When he finally started reading it right-side up, he was shocked, SHOCKED, by what he learned:

Though Reality Bites Back officially launches on November 1, I’m thrilled to announce that pre-orders began shipping last week. Around the country, folks like you have begun reading it — and amazing feedback has already been pouring in via Twitter, Facebook, and email.

Making it finally feel real? Seeing the book in people’s hands.

On the first night the book began arriving in mailboxes and on doorsteps, Brooklyn reader Andrew Bonjiorno sent this picture of himself reading it at work — note the corporate-approved artwork on the wall behind him:

Andrew’s photo inspired me to start this Readers Gallery. I wrote this book to spark a national, critical conversation about the meaning and impact of reality TV on our beliefs, our behavior, and our culture. The best way to engage in that conversation is within community. So, here are the first few members of the Reality Bites Back community:

Women In Media & News board member and Viva La Feminista blogger Veronica Arreola rushed to pick up her copy the day after Andrew’s arrived. I love that she was so psyched about the book that she started reading it right there in her Chicago post office:

Today at ColorLines Magazine, Neelanjana Banerjee looks at race, representation and reality TV and asks, as per the story’s headline: “Is Reality TV a Revolution for Race or the New Minstrel?”

A smart, nuanced and well-reported piece, Banerjee notes that:

“A series of NAACP reports have tracked the dismal representation of African Americans and other people of color on network television for the past decade. In 2000, the NAACP called for a boycott of the four major networks because none of their 26 new shows featured an actor of color in a lead or starring role. In 2006, the NAACP reported the number of minority actors of any sort in prime-time had declined to barely 300. In its most recent report, however, the NAACP declared reality TV ‘the only bright spot’ in the industry.”

The NAACP could arrive at such a conclusion because, as Banerjee writes, “Today, the mainstream dating shows, such as ‘The Bachelor,’ primarily ignore people of color. But on competition shows and on cable networks, characters of color are much more likely to show up.”

Which

Today on CBC Radio, I spoke with Day 6 host Brent Bambury about the suicide of Joseph Cerniglia, a participant on Gordon Ramsey’s Fox reality show, Kitchen Nightmares. [Listen to the interview at the link above, 17:38-24:05]

When the troubled restaurant owner was trying to prove himself on Ramsey’s show, taped in 2007, the vitriolic celebrity chef told him, “Your business is about to f**king swim down the Hudson.” Last week, his body was found in the Hudson, his death ruled a suicide.

If this was a scripted film, critics would say that connection was a bit too on-the-nose.

This marks the second Ramsey reality alum to take their own life. The first was Rachel Brown, who shot and killed herself in 2007 after appearing on Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen in 2006.

As I told Day 6, I do not blame producers or networks for these suicides–but I also do not consider them shocking, in the least. There should be some accountability from networks for the dangerous game they play when they actively seek to cast just the sort of personalities one would assume would be viewed as untenable for shows in which people live together in high-stress environments. And while not all reality show participants are unstable, even those who start off even-keeled often face taping conditions that are designed to break them down, including: sleep deprivation, limited food, ever-present alcohol, constant surveillance, isolation from the outside world, no communication with friends and family beyond sporadic recorded conversations–all of which have been used by intelligence agencies as elements of torture.

Quote of the day:

“All Scalia is saying is women aren’t persons.” [Especially on The Bachelor.]
— Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, 9/29/10

I have nothing but love for this “The Word” segment about “all the special rights that minorities are asking for these days… if we keep giving them rights, there will be fewer rights left for us. That’s just math…”:

Thank you to the fantastic students, faculty and staff of Kansas State, who turned out in droves for my talk Tuesday night, “Project Brainwash: Why Reality TV is Bad for Women (…and men, people of color,

the economy, love, sex, and sheer common sense).”

As noted in this lovely article in the Kansas State Collegian, the 660-seat hall where I spoke exceeded capacity. The overflow room broadcasting the lecture upstairs in real-time sat approximately 433 people: also packed. Which led to my favorite tweet of the night:

@KSUMatt: KSU Union Project Brainwash by @JennPozner #RealityBitesBack #kstate we need an overflow room for the overflow room!

…and so a third room was added (haven’t heard yet how many people ended up there).

Think makes more than 1,000 K-Staters excited about feminist media criticism. Who knew Manhattan, Kansas would be the site of the largest audience for any media literacy event I’ve done in ten years of lecturing?