Marianne Blidon
Il mercato dei matrimoni. Geografia, genere e reality TV
Abstract: Urban women and rural men: geography and reality TV
Since 2001, the reality show titled L’amour est dans le pré has been successfully and widely watched in France. The popular weekly TV show seems to provide effective marital opportunities for countryside men facing meaningful diffi culties in fi nding a soulmate due to a number of demographic, economic, geographic circumstances. The programme enables women willing to change their life style to move from peripheric urban areas to the countryside. This strategy usually ruinous as rooted on a liberal market logic, reveals a marriage economy characterized by social and spatial exoticism where the geographical Other is somehow naturalised while appearing an insurmountable horizon. The main principle characterizing the tv show revolves around a double juxtaposition in the representation of man/woman together with rural world/urban world. The show strives for performing a certain authenticity (landscapes, rural values, feelings etc) however it reveals social bonds and gender exceptions influencing both male and female participants.
Keywords: Gender, City, Countryside, Performance, Love, TV
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