Climbing Up in “The Hills”

By Annie Gold-Onwude

“The Hills” is not your average reality TV show. It is, of course, a show about wealthy Los Angeles young women, trying to live their lives and gain success. Even the most wealthy of women in a city like Los Angeles can mirror the patterns of the average women seeking to gain power through social mobility. Even though it’s probably largely fake and definitely edited, much like the rest of the reality shows we see on networks and streaming services, the very real premise of “The Hills” is women aiming to be professionals in LA:  a professional party animal, or perhaps a professional editor at large at a company, like Vogue. They are like every woman, excited to put their names out there and have their stories heard. Ultimately, they do not want to be successful solely because of the misogyny of men, and the choices these men make in who they want to date, or for added spice, who they want to cheat on. These female socialites are powerful in prowess: seemingly wanting to be independent and classy. Still, they are ultimately tantalized by the influx of information coming from the surrounding communities and hearsay that their communities thrive off of. 

Heidi Montag is at the center of this, a superstar in her own right; she wants to skip the schooling and go straight to being a socialite. MTV made this possible for her, broadcasting her love life and framing her as the most interesting teen in Los Angeles. I recently watched (or perhaps rewatched) this show, streaming on Netflix, and was drawn in (again) by the “socialite” lifestyle. The show gives non-socialites access into their real world. However, despite the fact that Heidi achieved her goal of becoming a successful LA socialite, Heidi had also subscribed to a popular trope; the woman who needs to change everything in order to fit in, namely with her popular and rich boyfriend (now I believe husband), Spencer Pratt. Heidi ends up leaving her friends, her rooming situation with her best friend Lauren Conrad, and makes her way into Spencer’s new home. The last episode of Season Two ends with the two of them (Heidi and Spencer) cuddling, in a lonely sort-of-way on the floor of an empty, huge apartment house that they would soon be likely to call “home.” 

Instead of Lauren being supportive of her friend, she can’t believe that the chauvinist, attention-seeking Spencer Pratt has effectively stolen Heidi away from her and her friends. She is lost in the works of how this chauvinist pig, or perhaps a kind of attention pursuer, namely, Spencer Pratt, can take and practically abduct Heidi into his world and take her away from her true friends. It is scary, frightening, to think that Heidi, a woman who was once so geared towards the rich and exciting life, could feel and react in a way that she could only achieve through the means of obtaining a man — a man who may be positive toward her, or perhaps not. 

It is hard to see how LA-life has become this sort of dystopia of lost dreams and few rain showers (even though it did snow there recently). The fact that the gals from “The Hills” have made a life for themselves there shows that there is something mysterious and hidden; something that can not quite be named. Maybe that is the mystique and torture of the “platinum blonde socialite” prototypical platitude, or maybe it is, quite in fact, just another show that shows how the careers and personal lives of women can be exploited by a few party-animal men. Is it fair to say that they are happy?

Perhaps not, but one thing is for sure: “The Hills” was a hit show, and it is certain to live in the minds of plenty of teens and adults who want to escape from the routines and platitudes of their own daily lives and live in their minds, as celebrities who, perhaps, get what they want.