Roundtable: The Real Housewives of Crime Part 2: “I Used to Flip Tables, Now I’m Turning Them”

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Sessions

Abstract/Description

In this roundtable, discussants return to examine the intersections of class, race, gender, and crime through the pop culture lens of Bravo’s groundbreaking reality television franchise, The Real Housewives. In its 19th year, The Housewives universe now extends across 11 American cities, 21 international franchises, and several spinoffs, averaging 750,000+ viewers per episode in the US. The franchise has spawned a booming market of podcasts, satire/spoof series, and merchandise, as well as pop cultural phenomena–like being quoted by a Congressman during a House Oversight Committee hearing (#ReceiptsProofTimelineScreenshots). Given the lasting power and popularity of The Housewives franchise, along with the fact that it touches on all things criminal from gender-based violence and crimmigration to white collar crime and reentry, it affords a rich site of inquiry for the criminological imagination. Discussants warmly invite attendees to join us in exploring what reality TV and, more specifically, The Housewives, teaches us about crime, law, and justice.

Sub Unit

• Area XIV. Roundtables

Chairs

• Maya Barak, University of Michigan-Dearborn

• Clare Strange, Drexel University

Discussants

• Valerie Anderson, University of Missouri-St. Louis

• Kathleen Darcy, University of Michigan-Dearborn

• Nicole McKenna, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

• Ebony Ruhland, Rutgers University-Newark