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The themes of false female empowerment and identity contradictions with religion further proves how reality TV uses consumer-driven culture to promote something, in this case members of the church (Brzenchek & Castañeda, 2017). Brzenchek and Castañeda's (2017) study found that shows like Real House Wives show hyperfeminist women in an entertaining way that masks the inequalities. SLOMW expands on this framework, instead of showcasing women of high class, it shows Mormons. 

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This study found that the cast of SLOMW portrays Mormons as women who are saying they want to fight the patriarchy but the cast’s actions contradict their cause. This is evident within the themes found in this study. The cast’s desire to change women’s role in the church are in marriages that have traditional gender roles (Jenkins et al., 2024). This study also found that the support system the cast has fostered is circumstantial. From the cast being supportive of members going through tough times, they also ignore and accuse others that their problems are invalid. For example when Frankie Paul struggles with her mental health the cast is supportive, but when Affleck takes a break from the show due to her mental health, the cast accuses Jen of being “preformative” (Jenkins et al., 2024). These situations make it clear that the appearance of being supportive is more important than truly being there for each other. These contradictions made me think about how MomTok claims one of their core values is female empowerment but doesn't empower the women around them. Overall, through analysis of SLOMW’s, it’s clear that the cast is aware of their behavior but haven’t made an effort to change to align with the groups core values. 

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Due to this study being a qualitative study, there is no way of knowing how the wives portray Mormon women without getting information from people who have watched the show. To elaborate further on this study, future research should conduct focus groups or online surveys. 

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This study used thematic analysis, feminist and representation theory to find how the SLOMW’s portray Mormon women. Based on the findings, I found three theories portrayed in the show: false female empowerment, challenging traditional gender roles, and moral policing. These theories discover a new part of reality TV studies due to looking at a reality TV show focused on religious influencers. This study found how the church isn’t the primary focus of the show but rather the drama that goes on behind the scenes. These findings in turn show that SLOMW portrays the church as a way to find community, but if that community is supportive and loving is up to interpretation.

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