Personal narratives and The Real Housewives: a critical excavation of viewing relationships

Through autoethnographic accounts and ethnographic interviews, I explore The Real Housewives franchise on Bravo television network and how fans of the franchise make meaning and construct identity through their relationships with the show. I also consider potential implications of an agentic audience being involved in social justice oriented activism. Each of the eight participants define fandom in multiple ways. For them, the meaning of the show is co-created in interpersonal interactions. There are many tensions in fan identity and activism. Future audience studies and media studies researchers should further explore how fans are engaging in interventions and to imagine how fan activism has the power to create change.