Gender, Class, and Appearance in Reality Television Author: Megan Duchesne Abstract This article covers general ideas about stereotyping, gender roles, social class, and body image in reality television. The aim of this paper is to explore how these ideas are portrayed in the hit American reality series, Vanderpump Rules. In order to uncover the details of this project, thorough research was conducted to uncover all aspects of reality television. These facets included the background, history and casting auditions. The focus was stereotyping, appearance, and social class. Content analysis was the chosen strategy to analyze the show Vanderpump Rules. Detailed notes were taken on the show’s 7th season. These notes included the race and sex of each cast member, the racial and ethnical stereotypes, and the gender stereotypes. The main plot of each episode was reviewed as well as the main conflicts within the episode, and general observations about the show and cast were recorded. After compiling this information, the findings were framed. Vanderpump Rules focuses on males and females that generally conform to the cis-gender mold, fitting into the standard gender patterns, acting out masculine and feminine roles. It was found that the show is specifically geared towards female viewers, castmates conformed to body image norms and employed many gender stereotypes throughout the season. Nevertheless, some gender stereotypes were challenged. Seemingly, the show exploits the cast for their striking looks and perfect figures as it is based in Hollywood, where much of the population is on a mission to make a name for themselves in the acting and modeling industry. The show is particularly attractive to the average viewer because it gives the audience an inside look of how those that are famous and wealthy, or those that work hard and play harder live and thrive