Reality television’s low cost and high entertainment value make it appealing to both producers and audiences, and overwhelmingly saturates today’s television options. Hulu’s reality television series, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, follows the personal and professional lives of a Utah-based group of young mother influencers known as ‘MomTok’. MomTok interestingly exemplifies Pablo Santaolalla-Rueda and Cristóbal Fernández-Muñoz’s definition of digital subcultures, and its transformation into a reality television series represents a monumental shift in modern reality television’s media landscape.
The Digital Subculture of MomTok
The cast of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives initially gained internet fame by documenting their lives as modern Mormon ‘housewives’, establishing a digital subculture (MomTok) of financially independent young mothers aiming to subvert the oppressive standards the Church of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) imposes on women. MomTok primarily uses TikTok to share their message and experiences, capitalizing on social media’s availability and audience to “offer [an alternative model] of organisation that [challenges] dominant structures” and ideologies like those associated with organized religion (Santaolalla-Rueda and Fernández-Muñoz 11).
Santaolalla-Rueda and Fernández-Muñoz posit that digital subcultures are partially defined by their content revolving “around a central figure” which “becomes crucial for community building”(2). Similarly, while supposedly unscripted, reality television revolves around compelling narratives to retain audience attention. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives centres Taylor Frankie Paul–co-creator of MomTok–whose personal relationship became the cornerstone for the show’s first season’s narrative arc.
MomTok’s transition from online platforms to produced television, offers these influencers opportunities at more mainstream fame. The allure behind traditional reality television lies in its capacity to offer “the ‘ordinary’ person a chance to become ‘known’” and often “[proves] a springboard for the successful few to ‘cross-over’ into mainstream fame”(Deller 376). MomTok’s personalities are unique as they already had a following and were no longer among the ‘ordinary’, yet their debut as reality television stars brought a new element to their public personas and by effect, the subculture they created.
Public Identity Online and On-Camera
Compared to fictional narrative television, reality television relies on real identites, rather than those adopted by actors. As such, personal identity is crucial to the medium regardless of the degree of authenticity reality television performers retain because the audience assumes that their personalities are genuine. In truth, reality television stars construct their identities through processes akin to curating online personas using “a dynamic process that involves constant negotiation between the individual and the social environment”(Santaolalla-Rueda and Fernández-Muñoz 10). MomTok’s member’s public identities shift in tandem with both their online platforms and the narrative of their show. Digital subcultures, including MomTok, “[highlight] how young people use digital technologies to explore and affirm their identities, challenging and redefining cultural norms”(Santaolalla-Rueda and Fernández-Muñoz 10). The cast of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives use their platforms to explore their identities as young mother’s within the LDS community, challenging many of the outdated values it promotes. However, the performativity associated with social media personas, connotes a pressure to be entertaining that is only exacerbated when their personas are translated into reality television.
Reality television addresses this pressure through creating prolonged drama, resulting in controversy. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives provides its cast a forum to mediate their public images and “ensure the public [sees] them as who they now were and not as their former public identities” while following a narrative (Deller 381). Being centred around a distinct digital subculture, MomTok’s member’s have further opportunities to moderate their public personas, exemplifying the changing nature of reality television and its stars by relying on the origins of their notoriety: social media. MomTok’s member’s use their platforms simultaneously, interacting online outside of their show, effectively continuing the show’s narratives beyond the show itself. This genre of celebrity is entirely unique to the digital age, and results in a new type of fame for those who experience it.
Fame in the Digital Age
Ruth Deller describes the fame cycle, categorizing famous personalities depending on the stage of the notoriety. However, with the rise of social media and digital subcultures, anyone can gain influence from anywhere, demanding theorizations of fame and celebrity be reworked. MomTok’s members gained notoriety through sharing their opinions surrounding ordinary and relatable experiences: motherhood, friendship, and relationships. Nonetheless, Deller’s principles of celebrity remain applicable to the progression of MomTok’s members’ public personas.
Deller defines proto-celebrity as “personalities who might have a certain degree of recognition but are not ‘famous’ beyond a particular niche” who are generally in their fame’s early stages and often seek “to extend their brief moment of fame”(375). As influencers, the women of MomTok fell within this categorization of celebrity, representing a well-known but extremely targeted sector of the internet. However, their reality show’s production transformed their platforms, publicising their personalities and stories to a larger audience who may have been previously unfamiliar.
With the internet’s ever-increasing presence in our lives, “subcultures [become] exploited by brands and companies to sell products”(Santaolalla-Rueda and Fernández-Muñoz 12). Allegedly, the original purpose of MomTok was to challenge the strict moral and lifestyle codes that the church of Latter-Day Saints imposes on its female members. Meanwhile, their portrayal in reality television, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, sees Momtok’s members consistently fighting and keeping secrets. While the commodification of subcultures is not inherently insidious, it can dilute “the subculture’s original values and meanings, reducing it to a mere commercial product”(Santaolalla-Rueda and Fernández-Muñoz 13). The drama of the reality show quickly eclipses any empowering message these women initially want to convey, effectively prioritizing the commercial gain of the television show over the original message of the subculture.
The reality show’s introduction graduated several MomTok members from proto-celebrities to promotional celebrities. Promotional celebrities seek to “[boost] their personal brand and [gain] recognition” from a larger audience while “promoting the brand of the programme, organisation or team they work for”(Deller 375). Interestingly, another defining characteristic of promotional celebrities is their identities as working professionals (Deller 375). While many MomTok members own businesses, their primary profession is online content creation. They use the personas attached to their digital subculture to promote other endeavors, further representing this new-age method of garnering fame, one largely constructed on presenting personal identity, similar to the draw of reality television shows. Promotional celebrities are “(somewhat) well known and active, and their role in the show is to expand audiences” encouraging “fans of the reality show to follow their other work”(Deller 379). MomTok members’ Jen Affleck and Whitney Leavitt’s recent appearances on Dancing With The Stars–a celebrity dancing competition that relies heavily on popular reception and viewer voting–embodies this concept, expanding their presences in media while promoting their original claim to fame.
Conclusion
Digital subcultures (including MomTok) are methods of self-expression and community construction but are susceptible to losing meaning in favour of economical gain. The different facets of MomTok’s members’ platforms and personas exist simultaneously, forming dynamic relationships between their representations on online platforms, and those on reality television. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and its association with MomTok epitomizes how social media is changing the entertainment industry and celebrity, particularly the performer-audience relationship and interactions. Ultimately, MomTok’s co-optation by reality television exemplifies both a prioritization of commercial gain over ideology, and represents an irrevocable shift in how reality television and its stars function within today’s media landscape, and how we as audiences understand and perceive them.
Works Cited
Deller, Ruth A. “Star image, celebrity reality television and the fame cycle.” Celebrity Studies, 2016, vol. 7, no. 3, 373-389, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2015.1133313.
Santaolalla-Rueda, Pablo and Cristóbal Fernández-Muñoz. “Potaxies and Fifes: The Formation of New Subcultures on TikTok.” Societies, 2024, vol. 14, no. 12, https://doi.org/10.3390/soc14120265.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, by Jeff Jenkins, Jeff Jenkins Productions, 2024. Hulu, www.disneyplus.com.
Written by Molly Kingsley
Image created by Molly Kingsley using material from ABC News
Fantastic choice of topic! It’s very interesting to see how reality shows are now looking toward social media stars for what Rueda and Muñoz would call their ‘central figures.’ We’re starting to see different layers of constructed identity. How somebody presents themselves as a social media influencer is going to differ slightly from how they present themselves on a reality show and differ (i imagine) wildly from who they really are. All of those mediums have different aims, likely product-promotion and relatability on social media and a compelling story and dramatic personality on reality television. Reality TV has such a weird and wild history in our culture and its interesting to see how deeply we’ve engrained its conventions into. Even when I see regular people end up on similar media like game shows, they already seem to have an understanding of the social script of how they should act, perform and present themselves.
Hi Molly!! This was such an insightful and genuinely fun read! I love how clearly you broke down the shift from digital subculture to full-blown reality TV spectacle. Your explanation of MomTok as a subculture that originally positioned itself against LDS norms, only to get swept up in the machinery of reality-TV drama, felt so clear. You really show how easily empowerment turns into entertainment once producers get involved. I especially liked your point about how these women move through Deller’s stages of celebrity. It made their jump from niche TikTok recognition to Dancing With the Stars feel way less random and way more structural. The idea that their celebrity lives across both platforms at once, feeding into each other in real time, is so spot-on for how fame seems to work now. It made me think about how much of ourselves online is actually shaped by what we think an audience wants.
Super interesting post, Molly! I was immediately hooked at your claim that the medium of reality TV relies on real identities regardless of the degree of authenticity reality television performers retain, and how this ties into personal versus performative identity. This is definitely a prime example of Deller’s “proto-celebrity”, and also makes me think about how external perceptions of humans shape their internal identity. Though the Mormon Housewives use their platforms to explore their identities within the LDS community and challenge many of the outdated values it promotes, do stereotypes and television dramatizations push them further into a set caricature that shapes who they are in the eyes of viewers as well as themselves?
I have also followed the MomTok community on TikTok for a while out of curiosity, and it’s interesting to see how different the same influencers appear once they’re in a TV show. Online, they seem relatable, but on TV, they suddenly become characters in a scripted plot.
I also liked your point that MomTok originally framed itself as resisting LDS standards, but once it was picked up by Hulu, that message became irrelevant. The show and the entertainment industry don’t care about the politics or community behind LDS, but they know that “good TV” always encompasses conflict/drama behind these contexts. That goes back to Santaolalla-Rueda’s concern about how subcultures get flattened and commodified until the actual meaning disappears.
As Aubrey pointed out, modern media and online platforms have significantly lowered the barrier to “becoming a celebrity.” In the past, most celebrities were professionals—graduates of film or performing arts academies, singers, or artists. Today, however, being a “celebrity” seems to have evolved into a distinct profession centered largely on attracting and directing public attention. I’m not entirely certain about this, but it reminds me of the distinction in Japan between “idols” and singers/dancers—a difference that, in my view, goes beyond just performance style.
In contemporary society, the threshold for gaining visibility has been drastically reduced. It seems almost anyone can become a “star” now—the boundaries between ordinary individuals, internet influencers, and traditional celebrities have become increasingly blurred. The examples that you stated are well chosen and presented! Thanks Molly for giving such an insightful interpretation on the phenomenon associated with influencers becoming stars today!
Hi! I really enjoyed reading your post—it was such a clear and engaging breakdown of MomTok’s transition from digital subculture to reality television. I liked how you highlighted the tension between their original empowering message and the commercialized drama imposed by producers. Your discussion of Deller’s celebrity stages really helped make sense of their progression from niche online recognition to broader media presence, like Dancing With the Stars. I also appreciated how you emphasized that their identities now exist across multiple platforms simultaneously, showing how digital-age fame operates in a continuous, interconnected loop. It made me think a lot about how audiences and platform structures shape the personas we see online.