10 May,2026 09:08 AM IST | Mumbai | Tanisha Banerjee
Ridhima Pandit questions why women should tolerate such violent cyberbullying because of men. Pic/Satej Shinde
Reality television thrives on conflict, but for women, that barely stays confined to the screen. It spills into a digital afterlife where audiences feel entitled to judge, abuse and even threaten. The line between performer and person blurs, and what remains is that most women, and sometimes men, are treated like public property.
According to UN Women, nearly 73 per cent of women globally have experienced some form of online violence. While men do face trolling, studies by Pew Research Center indicate that women are far more likely to encounter sexualised abuse, threats, and attacks on their character and appearance.
For actor Ridhima Pandit, this online violation was stark. After over a decade in the industry, she describes herself as someone who has worked "10 to 12 years without ever being in a controversy." But her latest appearance in a reality show, called The 50, altered that. "What I recently faced was something that was thrown at me for the very first time," she says, adding that the hatred felt "senseless up until I started to feel threatened".
The trigger was an on-screen argument with a younger male contestant, which is an ordinary occurrence on any reality TV show. But the fallout was not ordinary. "The minute a girl has an argument with a guy, misogyny steps in," she says. "The only way they can get back at you is by telling you that you're the weaker gender, keep your mouth shut." What followed was a coordinated wave of abuse, allegedly incited by the contestant himself. "Within three seconds, the trolling began, with no end in sight. Brand new accounts were being made, abuses were being sent." The attacks escalated to rape and death threats, not just directed at her, but at those associated with her. "They have abused my mother who's no more in this world," she says.
Despite being advised to ignore it, Pandit chose to push back, filing a cyber-police complaint and sending a legal notice. "I said, I will not ignore it. Why should I take it?" she says, framing her response as both personal and precedent-setting. Her experience underscores a larger contradiction that while male reality TV contestants are trolled, women are targeted. The economy of reality TV thrives on drama but when it becomes ugly, there's nobody to support nor protect those very entertainers.
. âWomen make up around 50 per cent of contestants on reality shows globally according to the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film
. âA study analysing over 90,000 social media posts around shows like Love Island found that 26 per cent of tweets on female contestants were abusive, compared to 14 per cent for men
Naomi Dutta, creative director of reality shows, says that cultural bias against women is often carried outside of reality TV
If contestants become characters on reality television, it is often in the edit room that those characters are shaped. But according to Naomi Datta, that process is less about manipulation and more about making sense of chaos. "We roll the cameras for hours in a reality show and that finally gives you a few minutes of usable content," she explains, "So reality shows are of course shaped on the edit, but with the content that exists." Datta is quick to push back on the idea that edits deliberately stereotype women. "We would never do that," she says, adding that the goal is not to frame contestants as "emotional" or "dramatic," but to build engaging storylines. "You don't set out to create unpleasant women or men. You set out to create interesting characters." In a format driven by attention, she notes, "reality TV cannot be about boring characters."
Yet, she acknowledges that what happens after the show airs is shaped by forces far beyond the edit. "A woman who's aggressive will be called combative and unpleasant. And a man who's aggressive is alpha and masculine," she says, pointing to a broader cultural bias that extends well beyond reality television. Crucially, she adds, "Internet opinion mostly is men," which further skews how female contestants are perceived and judged.
Social media, she argues, intensifies this dynamic. While it plays a key role in bouncing up a show's reach, it also creates a space where anonymity erodes accountability. "The Internet makes you behave badly," she says. "It eliminates every filter and brings out the worst in people. People are not logical on the internet. They'll just keep going into this vicious cycle."
Dr Sheela Dang, who has worked as a psychologist for reality shows, says that unlike men, women's trolling usually turns explicit online
For psychologist Dr Sheela Dang, the mental fallout of reality television begins with a dilemma. Contestants know what they are signing up for, but not what follows. "People are already prepared so it's not that you are not aware," she says. "What comes after that is taken very personally," she notes, especially when trolling escalates into persistent, unwanted messages and abuse.
Dang is unequivocal about the gender imbalance. "There's no balance for sure," she says, pointing out that while men are trolled, the visibility and intensity of attacks on women are significantly higher. "Women are mostly receiving comments related to how she presents herself, how she's looking, talking, sitting," she explains. This scrutiny extends into moral policing. The trolling frequently turns sexual and abusive, with "very direct, unwanted words or gestures" spilling into private messages as well.
For men, the experience is different but not absent. While they face body-shaming and ridicule, Dang notes that social conditioning often forces them to internalise it. "Men are not allowed to react or cry," she says, which can make their distress less visible. Ultimately, she warns that this disconnect between expectation and reality can deeply impact mental health, especially when public judgement becomes relentless and personal.
73%
Women globally have experienced online violence
Zorawar Sangha, director and writer of reality TV shows, says that trolling is not gendered and happens to both male and female contestants
Unlike larger, mass-market reality formats, Zorawar Sangha's experience lies with niche shows where storytelling is more personality-driven. This, he suggests, means that conflict is not necessarily engineered along gender lines. "It's not a female contestant problem," he says. "If this happens, it happens - whether it's female contestants or male contestants." While he acknowledges that some formats across the industry may push for drama, he frames it as a broader "mindset" rather than a targeted effort to put women down. Where his stance sharpens, however, is on responsibility once the show airs.
"Technically, that's not in our purview or in our control," he says of the trolling contestants often face. Participants, he points out, enter the show with awareness of its nature. "They chose to come here. Nobody put a gun to their head. At the end of the day, the responsibility lies in every individual," he says. Legal frameworks, including contracts and waivers, further distance production teams from the aftermath of public reaction.
At the same time, he doesn't deny the human element. "You do feel bad when somebody gets trolled," he admits. But he draws a clear line between empathy and accountability. "Because we didn't script behaviour, these are choices those people made and that distinction is very clear," he says, calling for "greater empathy" towards contestants.
