This video promotes E! network’s reality television show WAGS (wives and girlfriends of professional athletes), which premiered in August 2015. In this clip titled “Inside the Fabulous ‘WAGS’ Lifestyle,” the wives and girlfriends of sports stars describe the culture of the wealthy and glamorous lifestyle, including the social hierarchy of women and how they are valued. The women in the clip describe this hierarchy with the “Queen WAGs,” or wives at top of the hierarchy, then fiancés, then girlfriends, and at the bottom, as one woman puts it, “and then, there’s just hoes.” Another woman talks about how some people call her a “jersey chaser” because she would rather date a professional athlete than a “regular” man. The clip ends with the women saying that all of these women in relationships with the male athletes are essentially striving for being engaged and married to famous, successful male professional athletes.

discussion

How is the WAG social hierarchy described in this clip? What are women being valued for? What changes from one level of the hierarchy to the next? Do you think this same hierarchy applies to men? What kinds of relationships are left out of this description

How are wealth, attractiveness, and glamour portrayed in this representation of these people’s lives? What other values are portrayed as central to this lifestyle?

How do the women in the clip talk about relationships and marriage, and what does that say about the ideas and values they are associating with marriage? What does it mean when one of the women says, “everyone is aspiring to be a wife?” What do you think being a wife means for them? What do you think being a husband means to them?

Do you think people watching a show like this will want to strive to become like the men and women in the show? Why or why not?