Many of the existing debates about reality TV overlook some of the obvious ways in which questions of intimacy are implicated in gender relations. In this article we want to open up a debate about how reality Tv’s creation of mediated intimacy induces a type of emotional labour through the performance of femininity. The realm of intimacy is one that has traditionally been asso ciated with the feminine private sphere, but various comment ators have marked out how public worlds, institutions and market forces have marshalled the intimate terrain into public spaces, using it to reinforce arguments of ‘normalcy’. We want to assess whether the blurring of the public/private distinction can offer a straightforward route to viewing pleasure through locating some of our findings from the 40 women that we inter viewed about their own lives and the place of reality Tv within their broader life experiences.

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