I honestly don’t know why I watch this cantankerous show, Hell’s Kitchen. At the end of the day, I will take a well-scripted forensic or medical drama—even a sitcom over reality TV. I have watched some episodes this season. Barbie Marshall is the only chef of colour left. A young Black male chef was cut earlier in the season—actually the first to be cut. The people on the show are very aggressive and cantankerous. I don’t know if it is just food industry culture or not. But Barbie is one of the least dramatic on the show to me. She’s made some good things and some mistakes, just like the other chefs. I didn’t like how early in the season ALL of the White women chefs (they still do the archaic sorting of teams by gender) were calling Barbie horrible names and then even saying ignorant things such as ”you better be glad this ain’t the hood” to her. Yes. They said that. A couple threatened her with physical violence. She wasn’t scared. Later on, they ended up turning on each other and behaving even more ignorantly…so, there’s that. (White privilege means that they are only representing themselves though, not every White woman in America because they behave WORSE than Star and Nene ever did on The Celebrity Apprentice, but have the luxury of no one else being held accountable because of their behavior.) For the most part, I am just curious to see how far she will go in the show. Then again, I often think about what one of my favorite Twitter/Tumblr people, @sonofbaldwin, already wrote about competition reality shows. He always provides a reality check.

I honestly don’t know why I watch this cantankerous show, Hell’s Kitchen. At the end of the day, I will take a well-scripted forensic or medical drama—even a sitcom over reality TV.

I have watched some episodes this season. Barbie Marshall is the only chef of colour left. A young Black male chef was cut earlier in the season—actually the first to be cut. The people on the show are very aggressive and cantankerous. I don’t know if it is just food industry culture or not. But Barbie is one of the least dramatic on the show to me. She’s made some good things and some mistakes, just like the other chefs.

I didn’t like how early in the season ALL of the White women chefs (they still do the archaic sorting of teams by gender) were calling Barbie horrible names and then even saying ignorant things such as ”you better be glad this ain’t the hood” to her. Yes. They said that. A couple threatened her with physical violence. She wasn’t scared. Later on, they ended up turning on each other and behaving even more ignorantly…so, there’s that. (White privilege means that they are only representing themselves though, not every White woman in America because they behave WORSE than Star and Nene ever did on The Celebrity Apprentice, but have the luxury of no one else being held accountable because of their behavior.)

For the most part, I am just curious to see how far she will go in the show.

Then again, I often think about what one of my favorite Twitter/Tumblr people, @sonofbaldwin, already wrote about competition reality shows. He always provides a reality check.

Tags: eye cues hell's kitchen barbie marshall reality tv television media hue and saturation racism culture photo celebrity