Team Bitch is a construct designed to keep women focussed on their insecurities rather than their strengths.

Have you met these two?

They are Katie and Nikki. And they are this year’s designated BITCHES on My Kitchen Rules.

Last year, it was these two:

The year before, this pair:

Team Bitch are an essential ingredient for the casting of any reality TV show. They’re as critical to the show’s success as “Team Competitive Couple”, “Team Busy Mums” and “Team Cultural Diversity” (you know, so we don’t offend anyone).

This year, Katie and Nikki are really excelling themselves. You see, the producers thought it would be fun if there was ANOTHER team of All Women in their group to really amp up the B-factor. And it’s worked a treat.

Read more: This is why you should watch My Kitchen Rules tonight.

“Oh no, there’s another girl team,” Katie says to Nikki as soon as they find out. “We can’t lose to another girl team.”

Last night the other team (we will call them Team Not Bitch) cooked, and Team Bitch appeared to take every opportunity for an undermining swipe. Because, you know, they’re BITCHES.

In case you’re in any doubt, watch them in action (post continues after video):

There are a couple of blokes – let’s call them Team Cheeky English Chappies – on MKR this year.

They actually make just as many disparaging comments – often directed at Team Bitches (“Oh, have you heard, they’re MODELS?”)

But funnily enough? No-one is calling them bitches.

Sigh.

We know, we know, this is reality TV, not actual reality. There are roles that need to be played to amp up the drama and keep us all watching.

Yes, we know we are being manipulated. That every hair toss and eye-roll is heavily choreographed and edited. We know that even wardrobe would be  under heavy suggestion for these girls – nothing says ‘Bitch’ like wearing a crop-top to every single dinner-date, let’s face it.

But why is this stereotype of bitchy women so all-powerful, so unshiftable?

Why do women behave this way – the edict, ‘if you didn’t say it, you can’t be edited to have said it’ is true, after all – and why do they agree to be portrayed this way? Why is our culture so deeply invested in showing women to be in constant critical competition, incapable of support, camaraderie or mateship?

And why is the public lapping it up? And why are the media buying into it so whole heartedly? My Kitchen Rules after all, is the country’s most-watched TV show, and its audience is mostly women. Headlines like this are not uncommon online or in the print media:

Now, I’ve been working in female-dominated teams for almost 20 years. And I now inhabit that supposedly pinnacle of bitchiness – mother world. Thus, I hold an honorary PHD in the way that women interact… and this is my verdict:

Team Bitch is bullshit.

Team Bitch is a construct designed to keep women focussed on their insecurities rather than their strength. Team Bitch feeds the idea that women believe there are only so many spots at the table for us, and we have to fight for them. Team Bitch encourages the notion that women are too self-involved to be supportive of other women.

In fact, any successful woman will tell you the opposite is true.

In general, women excel at teamwork and collaboration. In general, women are excellent communicators. We talk issues through, we look at them from many sides. We understand compromise. Often, happily, reject it.

In general, women are incredibly supportive. Ask almost any grown woman who the most important people in her life are, and she’ll tell you – her girlfriends, her mother, her sisters. You know, other women.

There are people, of all genders, who are outspoken and critical. There are people, of all genders, who are not. There are competitive people, and run-your-own-race people, and if-you-can’t-say-anything-nice people, of all genders. There are crappy bosses of all genders, and lack-lustre, lazy friends of all genders. There are gossips and snipers and passive-aggressive arseholes of all genders, too.

But have you noticed that we don’t have names or labels for them? And as a result, we think and worry about them less. They hold a less prominent place in our public consciousness. They are not an all-consuming pervasive stereotype.

Team Bitch might create colour and movement and drama for lounge-room audiences. But if these characters are impacting the way women feel about themselves, the way they relate to other women and the roles they feel they need to slot into in real life, it’s just unhelpful noise.

And it’s time they were eliminated.