Written by Katrina Varey

Femininity, Masculinity and Myths. 

The myth of the Aussie Battler is reinforced and imbedded in many Australian reality television shows, especially those of the lifestyle subgenre. This myth is constructed around the concept of ‘mate ship, masculinity, working class, ANZAC heroes, down to earthiness’. What comes inherently with this is national identity is the ‘masculinity’ element. Resultantly this rejects and denounces femininity. This convolutes and confuses the role of gender and gender divises in Australian reality television shows. There is a complex hybrid of performing Whiteness and performing Australian-ness, this omission of femininity in national identity prompts questions as to where White female Australian’s fit in the concept of Australian-ness.

In My Kitchen Rules the discourse on gender roles between the sexes is complex. Although the show may appear progressive, in that equal amounts of men and women are competing in a cooking show, cooking being an act traditionally regarded as feminine, the actual progressions made by the show are questionable. As Edwards argues in his paper ‘What a girl wants’: Gender norming on reality game shows’, “the stereotyped gender roles seem to be challenged by reality shows while “they simultaneously norm them” (2004, p. 226). Therefore"any dilemma created in decoding is satisfied by the assumption that we return to the norms with which we bagan" (Davies, 2008, p.7-8). 

What is concerning about televising this possibly regressive material comes from Fiske’s argument in his article Television Cultures, the "idea that television, as an ideological apparatus, reinforces gender stereotypes which in turn can be modelled and therefore perpetuated throughout society" (Fiske, 1987, p. 21). If this amalgam of performing Whiteness and performing Australian-ness continues to be indistinguishable on these Australian reality television shows, the representation of femininity to audiences is at continual risk of denigration.

Many of the couplings in the program are composed of both a female and a male contestant. The conversations between these competitors often reinforce hegemonic gender ideologies, although they may appear to be challenging them. In the first episode we see the couple Kerrie and Craig bickering over the food they will purchase for their instant restaurants, then in there personal address interview with the both of them reflecting on this, Kerrie says “I wear the pants in the relationship”. This expression is reiterated throughout the series every time a woman bosses around a man. However, this is not communicating that the female is stronger or smarter than the man, but only when she acts with masculinity and wears ‘the pants’ is she aligned with the hard working Aussie battler mythology and therefore acting in an Australian and positive way. In saying this, performing masculinity is not enough to associate the women with the national identifying myths in the same degree as the male, as when she ‘wears the pants’ the footage mainly consists of the woman being bossy, bitchy and yelling whereas the man is relaxed and laid back another element of the Aussie working class myth, which reaffirms the man’s masculinity and denounces the bitchiness of the woman. Thus communicating that even when performing masculinity, the woman falls short instead she performs a confused masculinity that results in her portrayal as a ‘bitch’, a label that is aligned and utilised for the degradation of women.

On the other hand the women that are in My Kitchen Rules that are in a purely female coupling, and therefore do not compare themselves to males to the degree of who ‘wears the pants’ often reinforce gender stereotypes. The two contestants Jenna and Joanna are labelled ‘Domestic Goddesses’, they are dressed in pink, make cup cakes and desserts and like everything fluffy and cute. This representation of girly-ness is suggested as having an affinity with femininity, as in one episode Jenna sees another female contestant pick up a piece of food and pull on it, and she says that’s “not lady-like”. The male contestants also seem to regard Jenna and Joanna as not a threat. The girl’s say acting this way is a strategy and they are not revealing their true selves, as performing femininity is performing sweetness, innocence therefore weakness.

Similarly when Jessie and Biswa are taking a long time cooking dinner Manou asks “what do you think they have done in prep time?” the room of other contestants reply “talked, read magazines, put their eyelashes on”, all distinctly feminine actions suggesting that they are failing because of their femininity. Furthermore the aforementioned winners of the series Dan and Steph are categorised by the male contestant’s quote “I’m a tradie and she’s my lady,” or from the Steph’s perspective “He’s a tradie and I’m his lady” this automatically positions the female as pertaining to or belonging to the man. Although Steph is advertising professional, only Dan’s occupation as a tradesman is recognised as it fits within the Aussie battler, hard working, working class legend.

Correspondingly if we look to Bondi Rescue as a model of ‘ideal’ Australian life, the role of women and femininity in this show is regressive. Turner argues in his text Making it national: Nationalism and Australian popular culture “that established national discourses are ‘notoriously hard to dislodge or deconstruct’ from the common imagination, with steady characteristics such as the ‘cheeky, resourceful larrikin’ and a ‘prescriptive, unitary, masculinist’ identity.”(2010, p.453) This identity directly rejects feminism, which can be primarily seen in the complete absence of female lifeguards. The majority of the show is comprised of young, attractive, fit, strong, iron-man-esque males who are there to ‘protect’ us. Whereas the role of femininity in the show seems to come purely from the cutaways of attractive women in bikinis. The camera concentrates mainly on their bodies and as positioning them as objects of the male gaze, as just another beautiful part of the beach scenery.

This eschewing or denouncing of femininity as a result of the reaffirmation of Australian national identity typecasts is a concern that merits continuing scholarly criticism. The generalisations made acceptable through programs like My Kitchen Rules are worrying when considering Nicole Chui-shan Chan’s suggestion that “Feminine and masculine behaviours are learned. They are not innate and gender is performative in nature.”(2008, p.46) Therefore the widespread popularity and digestibility of such content is concerning when thinking about the impacts of the standardisation of stereotypes on audiences.



(References in Part 4)