"Religion and popular culture co-exist intimately, and cannot be seen simply as a relationship of cause and effect. At times religion creates and regulates popular culture," says Adam Possamai (Possamai, 20). Indeed, elements of religion can be seen all over television, even in reality shows. The act of Confession is a practice that is present in many different religions, including Catholic, Jewish, and Greek Orthodox. Valerie Worthen makes the connection between this tradition and psychology, stating that "The problem of easing human anguish and guilt most often falls upon two categories of individuals and the clergy... How does the role of the psychotherapist differ, for example, from that of a priest hearing confession in terms of guiding the individual who comes to him with a pressing problem that has instilled much guilt?" (Worthen, 275) Overall, the act of confessing - in a religious setting or not, is about guilt, and the need we have to clear our conscience by revealing our sins and secrets and hoping to be forgiven.
Confession is also a tradition that can be found in many reality shows, particularly ones where a group of people are living together in a competition or housemate setting. "Jersey Shore", "America's Next Top Model", "Big Brother", and "The Real World" are just a few of the shows that feature a 'confessional' where cast members can go alone to speak directly to a camera, usually about other people who are on the show with them, or to admit things or, naturally, confess their sins.
In this course, we have talked about how shows such as Judge Judy are like modern forms of purgatory, where people feel the need to go and share bad things that they have done, and receive the appropriate punishment. This general idea is seen in a lot of other documentary style shows, such as "Hoarders" and "My Strange Addiction". The people featured spend the episode talking about their bad habits and embarrassing secrets and then seek out help or accept the consequences of their actions. On the redemptive aspects of confessing, Sharon Hymer says that "secrets are concerned with splits - splits between ourselves and others in our lives, splits within even our own psyches, and splits between ourselves and God. Once we confess, we realize that we are no longer isolated" (Hymer, 41). We all feel better once we get things off our chest and don't have to keep secrets anymore, and can start taking steps to fix our problems.
This presence of such an obvious religion motif in so many reality shows is incredibly prevalent, and one of the most interesting things about it, at least in my opinion, is not the confessions, or who's making them, but to whom they are making them to. It's not a priest, it's not a therapist, it's us. It's the audience, whoever watches the show, reads about it, and blogs about it. It's society in general. This brings up questions about why people agree to go on reality shows in the first place. What are they looking for? Notoriety, probably, but also, just like everybody else watching them, maybe they just want someone to talk to about their problems.
