Reality Test
Psychologists talk RealiTV!
Two licensed psychologists look at what we can learn about culture, societal oppression, social privilege, and ourselves from reality television. Grounded in their sociopolitical positions as relational, anti-racist, feminists, Dr.s Kay & Ray address the power dynamics; social (in)justice; intersecting oppressions, marginalizations, and privileges; and sociohistorical context present in numerous, popular reality television shows, while also celebrating the hope and empowerment that can be found.
At the end of some of our first episodes (3, 4, & 8), and now as separate episodes, “Mental Health Check-Up” segments explore brief mental health interventions, self-help tips, or other concepts from psychology for us all to further noodle on!
We hope to inspire further discussion about psychological and sociocultural aspects of our favorite reality tv shows, offering rough draft thoughts and ideas for us all to continue thinking about. After all, reality television ultimately provides an engaging format for learning about human behavior, mental health, and sociopolitical systems—let’s learn together!
DISCLAIMER: In the context of this podcast, we are not acting as therapists, neither for you nor for the reality castmates we discuss. We are, instead, bringing in our whole human selves, supplemented by mental health and psychology knowledge. We both adhere to social constructionism, such that we believe all knowledge is co-constructed in the context of relationships and we all have our own reality, informed by our own biased memories and subjectivities.
Despite realiTV making us all believe we know the castmates, we clearly do not, and we cannot ethically diagnose them or speak with certainty about their dynamics without conducting formal psychological assessments. Thus, our opinions will be merely (easily erroneous) opinions, informed by our biased perspectives, and while we may discuss diagnoses, we will avoid assigning them to castmates. We've spent years developing our professional roles as psychotherapists, professors, supervisors, and consultants, but we are new to podcasting--as you'll notice! Thank you in advance for your patience and feedback :) This will be an imperfect, but growth-fostering process, and we appreciate your engagement with it and with us! Thanks, y’all.
Reality Test
Bachelorette, ep.4 & House of the Dragon ep.s 1-7| "Matt is a Producer Plant" Theory
Dr.s Kay & Ray start with some updates from pop culture, before they cover episode 4 of Jenn Tran’s Bachelorette season (21), discussing Dr. Kay’s extensive theory on why Matt is a PRODUCER PLANT, whose presence was planned from before the season started filming. They also address Sam “Mean”’s continued distressing behavior: his focus on control, lack of emotional support/attunement/awareness, and use of a blaccent when angry/aggressive (despite being white, from Myrtle Beach). Last, Dr. Kay shares—in part, to combat some of the criticism & feedback Jenn has been receiving—about the stereotypes that Asian women face and are conditioned under, and how they influence how Jenn is embodying the role of Bachelorette.
Due to a dearth of other realiTV shows that Dr.s Kay & Ray are both watching, they decided to tackle House of the Dragon, just for this and the next episode of the podcast (when they’ll cover the finale). In this episode, they discuss episodes 1-7 of HoTD, such as the relationship between Mysaria & Rhaenyra. There are some light spoilers, if you haven’t yet seen episode 7, but nothing that affects the larger story arc of the show.
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Reality testing is when we check an emotion or thought we’re having against objective reality.
So, here in Reality Test, we’re going to be testing the thoughts, emotions, interactions, and producer antics of reality television against what we know, as licensed psychologists, about objective reality.
Come Reality Test with us!
Hosts: Dr. Kay & Dr. Ray
Thank you to our sound extraordinaire, Connor!
Instagram: @drkaypods @drraypods
TikTok: @dr.realitv
Facebook Page: Reality Test Pod
YouTube Channel: @RealityTestPod
Email: realitycheckpodding@gmail.com
