Did We Get Bamboozled by 'Blood, Sweat and Heels'?

After months of teasers and anticipation, Bravo premiered their newest reality show "Blood, Sweat and Heels" last night. BSH marks a departure from most of the current reality offerings featuring Black women because these women are seeking more than fame for fame's sake and a man with money. They're driven and educated in ways the big networks rarely show us.

Daisy, Geneva, Mica, Melyssa, Demetria and Brie are hustling in the Big Apple -- working to reach the top of their respective fields.

But soon after tuning into the show, I realized that Andy Cohen (the man in charge of reality programming at Bravo) had no intention of raising the profile of Black women. They're in it for the ratings, and perhaps that's not wrong, but somehow I felt bamboozled after watching last night's episode.

Ain't no empowerment in the City. For a show about women who want to take the world by storm, there wasn't much work.

What we did see is the spewing of antiquated worldviews and unfettered saltiness. Daisy Llewellyn argued, at her brunch event, that periods make women too emotional to lead while fellow cast member Brie nodded along and noted that "we" are just too unstable to run the world.

It's worth mentioning that there's some sad irony about women participating in a show supposedly focused on their career goals and debating whether we're inherently equipped to take charge.

The conversation spiraled and the next thing we know we're back at Mica's apartment where she reveals she discovered her boyfriend was in a 20 year committed relationship. Shocking? Yes, but again I ask, where is the work?

Olivia Pope has already shown us how messy and fraught with conflict the life of a career woman can be, but without balance, the show just devolves into a Tyler Perry-esque rebuke of black women's ambition.

I certainly don't fault the show's stars. A national platform presents a prime opportunity for all of the women to promote their brands. Demetria of A Belle in Brooklyn did it best with her blog logo featured prominently throughout the  episode causing her site to crash.

I am more concerned about the lenses through which Black women and our ambition are filtered. No one is expecting Bravo to give us Super Soul Sunday each week, but a little evenhandedness would be nice.

P.S. Daisy also had some choice comments about bloggers in last night's episode which were highly unfortunate because if the debut episode was any indication, BSH will need us to keep any sort of momentum going for this show.

What did you think of the show? 

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Kimberly Foster is the founder and editor of For Harriet. Email or Follow @KimberlyNFoster