《here comes the judge !gender distortion on tv reality court shows》.pdf

ARTICLE HERE COMES THE JUDGE! GENDER DISTORTION ON TV REALITY COURT SHOWS ∗ By: Taunya Lovell Banks [W]e are seeing a shift from . . . the failed representation of the real . . . to . . . the impenetrable commingling of fiction and reality . . . representations no longer need to be rooted in reality. It is sufficient 1 for images simply to reflect other images . 2 Law has become … entertainment law. I. INTRODUCTION n 2000, television reality court shows replaced soap operas as the Itop daytime viewing genre. Unlike the prototype reality court show, The People’s Court presided over by the patriarch Judge Wapner, a majority of reality court judges are female and non-white. A judicial world where women constitute a majority of the judges and where non-white women and men dominate is amazing. In real life most judges are white and male. During that break-through 2000-2001 television viewing season, seven of the ten reality court judges were male — three white and four black. Of the three women judges, only one Judy Sheindlin of Judge Judy was white. The others, Glenda Hatchett of Judge Hatchett , and Mablean Ephraim of Divorce Court, were black. At the beginning of the 2007-2008 viewing season there were still ten shows but women judges outnumbered men, and only two judges, Judy Sheindlin and David Young, were white. Five of the six women judges are non- white — three Latinas and two b