The past few months in the Bravo universe have been a whirlwind of controversy. For longtime fans, it’s come as no surprise that reality TV veteran Jax Taylor has been fired from The Valley shortly after opening up about his decades–long addiction to cocaine and amidst his messy divorce from southern belle Brittany Cartwright. Jax has been a liar, a cheater, and a thief for his entire life in the public eye. The only question when it comes to his firing is: What took so long? Bravo producers were quick to fire women like Brandi Glanville and Camille Grammer for the simple sin of being unpopular, but Taylor seems to have been the focus of a new controversy each episode without any real repercussions—until now. Why is it that male reality stars are rewarded for their bad behavior, while their female counterparts are reprimanded for even the slightest of errors?
If you’re unfamiliar with the history of Jax Taylor, here’s a brief rundown—and I mean brief, because this guy has done it all. His first Bravo appearance was on the 2013 premiere season of Vanderpump Rules. His major plot line twas convincing everyone around him that he hadn’t cheated on his girlfriend with a hooker in Vegas. Spoiler alert: He did. He then spent the next eight seasons of the show acting like what I can only describe as the most insufferable, villainous character in the history of television. His nefarious acts included a felonious sunglass theft in Hawaii, sleeping with Kristen Doute (his ex–girlfriend’s best friend and his best friend's girlfriend), and cheating on his then–fiancée with a coworker in a bed beside an 80–year–old hospice patient. Even as a so–called “changed man,” his depravity knew no bounds. By season eight, producers decided Taylor should step back from Vanderpump Rules after he hired an openly homophobic priest to officiate his wedding. Although he no longer held a primary role on the show, he still made frequent guest appearances—and just four years later, he landed a principal role in Bravo’s new reality show The Valley.
More recently, he opened up on Bravo’s Hot Mic podcast about his addiction to cocaine. In true Jax Taylor fashion, he stated that he’s a “work in progress” and would likely be going to rehab, causing even more tension between him and his now ex–wife Cartwright. On top of it all, Taylor even took to social media to claim that he was a producer on The Valley—which he is not and has never been. Fans speculate that this was the straw that broke the camel's back and the true reason he was ultimately fired from Bravo, rather than his years and years of cheating scandals, insensitive remarks, and terms in jail.
Women in reality TV often experience a very different style of production at Bravo. Take, for example, Camille Grammer, an OG housewife on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills series. After just one season, Grammer was fired from the show and didn’t reappear for several seasons because of how disliked she was by audiences. She was even dubbed “Most Hated Housewife” by Andy Cohen himself at the season one reunion. Freshly after divorcing her husband and paying hundreds of thousands in legal fees to keep primary custody of her children, she was fired from RHOBH and left to pick up the pieces of both her marriage and her reputation. Camille didn’t have any real faults other than her unpopularity, but production didn’t think twice to cut her loose from the show.
Though the field of reality TV is dominated by bold and dramatic women, strong misogynistic tendencies still guides the ship. Jax Taylor isn’t the only man who has gotten away with a litany of misdeeds. Tom Sandoval, a notorious reality TV villain who cheated on his long–term girlfriend, was able to use the scandal to propel himself into even more fame. After Scandoval broke, Tom was featured on shows like The Traitors, Special Forces, and, more recently, America’s Got Talent. Even fans find it easier to forgive these men for their wrongdoings than the women, simply because they find them charming, funny, and eccentric. This is just one of the many cases where standards in reality television mirror those in real life. A man who knows what he wants is a boss; a woman with the same wants is a bitch. A man who sleeps around with different women every night is a baller; a woman who does the same is a slut. And the same goes for just about every “typical man” activity under the sun. Reality TV is no exception to the iron law of patriarchy.
Sadly, Bravo is a production powerhouse, and because these gendered norms are so ingrained both on and off screen, nothing will truly change. Audiences and producers alike will continue to cater to the men on screen and give the women the short end of the stick. Whatever makes the most money and garners the highest viewership and ratings is what Bravo will continue to do. This isn’t an issue that is particular to the genre, or even just television; it’s an issue that is relevant to the whole world. While the patriarchy may not end any time soon, we can at least enjoy a brief reprieve from seeing Mr. Taylor on our TV screens.
