My take on the Jersey Shore

I don’t feel like my analysis of television culture would be complete without discussing the hit TV show Jersey Shore. Jersey Shore is ethically problematic for not one but many reasons. I used to watch it with other people and laugh at the ridiculousness of the eight roommates, but now I can't help but shake my head at how low the quality of television has become.

Nothing happens on this show that is informational or educational although it has been one of the most popular shows over the last few years. I’m not going to lie, I used to watch it for the entertainment factor until I realized that I’m contributing to the wealth and popularity of people who do not need to be popularized or famous. The show follows around the eight roommates while they mostly argue with each other, go out for crazy nights of drinking, have sex on television, and go to the tanning salon. Nothing about their behavior is healthy or admirable, yet millions of people watch the show. They are supposed to be working while they stay in the house on the shore, but most of the group takes the job as a joke and shows them napping in the back or taking a break to go sneak drinks at a bar nearby.

Not only does it paint the members of the show in a bad light, but it portrays New Jersey, specifically the Jersey Shore, in a terrible light. It makes them seem like shallow people who pride themselves on engaging in unhealthy behaviors. The part of the show that I found the most problematic was the relationship between two of the roommates Ronnie and Sammi. Sammi and Ronnie had a toxic relationship where they would fight and scream at each other on the show, one fight resulting in Ronnie throwing and damaging all the contents of Sammi’s room. This is not behavior that should be advertised for the world to see, and could definitely be considered a form of domestic violence.

Another character that has reached superstar status is Snooki. Snooki gets arrested on the show, yet her drunken mistakes have only made her more famous. People like to watch her run her life into the ground, but what people don't realize is that watching her is only giving her attention that she doesn't deserve.  I am happy to say I do not watch  Jersey Shore anymore, but I am disappointed that there has been various spin off shows with members of the cast such as a show about the life of Pauly D, a show featuring Snooki and J-Woww, and now a new show is starring Vinny.When will the quality of television improve?!

One Word: Wrong

       'My Teen Is Pregnant and So Am I' is a show on TLC, where a daughter and her mother are both pregnant at the same time. In my opinion is more disturbing than any other teen pregnancy show that's out there such as Teen Mom. The fact that a family television station such as TLC chooses to air a show that features young girls, 16-17 years old pregnant at the same time as their mother's should never be considered quality television programming.

       The episode I watched showed two different girls and their mothers. The first girl’s mother sits down in an interview and says, “I never thought this would happen to my daughter. She was grown up on Christian values, you can give them books, but they don’t always make the right decision.” All this shows is that the mother was an irresponsible parent who made the mistake of thinking her daughter was “better” than ever getting pregnant which is simply a naïve outlook on young teenage girls. The girl’s father is a main part of the show in that he spends half of the time bullying the girl’s boyfriend and baby daddy. The whole thing seems like a mess and the show makes it seem like a documentary but really it exploits their family as being irresponsible. The boyfriend is in and out of the picture and sits down an interview to say, “I mean I think she loves me, at least I hope she does.” Instead of showing a loving boyfriend, the show features a young boy who rightfully so doesn’t know what the heck to do about his pregnant girlfriend.

 
       Girl number two who is also pregnant at the same time as her mother isn’t as worried about the pregnancy but is instead happy about it. Not only is the girl happy, but the mother goes to say in her interview that she’s excited about it. The girl and her mother go shopping for their babies and the girl says, “I don’t like budgets. I don’t believe in budgets. Budgets are stupid.” Now, this girl is clearly immature and doesn’t even begin to realize what she has in store for her. This show overall makes me worried for the youth of our young girls, and the parents they are brought up by. No one should be pregnant at the same time as their mom, and having a child that will be the same age as what will be their aunt is just disturbing and is not something people should be watching as entertainment.

The Real (or Fake) Housewives of Orange County

The Real Housewives of Orange County used to be my guilty pleasure before this class. Now, when I watch it I can’t help but evaluate the shallow and superficial nature of the show. Set in Orange County, California the show follows the lives of five women, some true housewives and some who have a career. Some women have families, while others live with their significant others. One of the housewives, Heather has four children goes to say, “When you’re home with four young children you forget that you’re an intelligent being sometimes.” The show doesn’t make any of them out to be good parents, and there is really no plot to the show except to showcase the catfights between the women.

Orange County is specifically problematic because I have not viewed one episode where the women are all getting along. There is always someone who hates someone else, and makes it their personal agenda to make that person’s life a living hell. Overwhelmed with money and often fame hungry, the women compete with each other on all levels. Alexis, one of the OC housewives is targeted in almost every episode because the other women feel she is to materialistic. This makes no sense to me considering they are all materialistic, but they have to have someone to be against so they choose her.

The last episode that aired focused on Tamra, one of the housewives who is opening a gym and decides to have a party for the women to show off her new business venture. Tamra especially hates Alexis, but when Vicki asks Tamra if she can bring Alexis as her date she says yes. When the day of the party rolls around Tamra decides that allowing Alexis to come was a mistake and that she’s going to go out of her way to make her feel uncomfortable when she comes. Alexis is convinced that the invite means they can start anew and possibly get along. Of course that is exactly the opposite of what happens, and all the women gang up on her when Tamra expresses her mistake for allowing her to come. Alexis is asked to leave in the middle of the dinner, and she calls this bullying which further infuriates the women because they don’t feel they are in the wrong for the way they treat her.

Watching the show I would personally consider the way all the women treat each other to be bullying. Preying on the most vulnerable member of a group and gaining up on someone continuously is bullying. At some point in the seasons, each woman is gained up on and treated with no respect. To watch grown women treat each other so badly is a sad thing to watch, and unfortunately that’s what these women get paid to do.  The women on the show are beautiful and wealthy, and any young girl who watches will probably be influenced by the lives they have and aspire to that. That means they will witness their mean girl behavior and assume that that’s acceptable considering they are “high class” citizens. This show paints a terrible picture of women and how they have the capacity to treat one another.

WWRLD?

The new reality television show, ‘What Would Ryan Lotche Do?’ recently had its first airing on E! The show features the Olympic swimmer in his everyday life with the people close to him such as his siblings and parents. This doesn’t sound like a problematic show, but once I watched the premier I couldn’t believe the way the show portrays the star. Little attention is paid to his swimming career, but the small amount that they do show is more to highlight how attractive and fit he is.  

The show is centered on the day to day life that he leads, which entails going out drinking, picking up girls, playing football with his friends, and bowling with his family. The drinking and partying aren’t the worst part of the show but instead his interviews are what shocked me as a viewer. The camera man asks him stuff like, “So why do you think you’re known as a douchebag?” in which he responds by saying, “Exactly what is a douchebag?” Instead of using that question as a way to showcase the ways in which he isn't a "douchebag," he chooses to entertain the idea and make himself look like an idiot. 

The half an hour premier consisted of him horsing around playing football, then throwing a party where he has interviews about how attractive one of the girls is at his house, then he goes out to a bar where he picks up another girl and asks her on a date where you can tell he is completely drunk. The show reminds me Jersey Shore, but instead of featuring eight unintelligent people it hones in on one.

The thing that bothers me the most about the show is that it degrades the quality of our country’s Olympic athletes. Ryan Lochte and any other athlete that represents our country shouldn’t be showcasing their dirty laundry for all of America to see. The show highlights his stupidity and makes him out to be an unlikeable person. He recently told reporters that his idol is Kim Kardashian, so he probably enjoys being presented in a controversial way in order to make more money and become a household name much like Kim Kardashian has done. 

The last, yet very annoying detail of this show is the name of it. 'What Would Ryan Lotche Do?' plays on the saying 'What Would Jesus Do' and that in itself is problematic. Making light of something that many people use to represent their spirituality and way of life is just wrong and inappropriate. It infers that Ryan Lotche is some kind of god, which may be true of him in the pool, but outside of that he doesn't prove to be much of a standup, or smart guy. 

Joan: A Women's Woman

Joan is one of the central female characters on the show Madmen, and her character evolves with each season. Joan is first presented on the show as the secretary that all the men in the office lust after for she is beautiful and sensuous. Joan knows this about herself, and often uses it to her advantage. It isn’t until later seasons that the audience sees why she is the way she is.

                Working in an environment where there is no equality between the men and women, Joan realizes that if she uses her looks and body to gain power that she may eventually earn respect as an asset to the company which is what eventually happens. This can be seen by the love affair she has with the president of the company, Roger. Roger loves Joan for her body, but through their affair he sees that there is much more to her than that. He earns a level of respect for her and communicates that to the company.

                Set in the period of the 1960’s, women were not treated as equals and had very different social norms that they had to adhere to. If Joan were to live in our society today I would argue that she would fall under the category of a radical feminist.

                Although Joan values men, she also knows how to manipulate them into thinking she values their opinion more than she really does. Because she realizes that men and women are completely different, especially back then, she tells men what they want to hear but goes about doing as she pleases behind the scenes. Sometimes Joan comes off as intimidating, but the audience can see that she really cares about other women and wants them to earn respect from men as well. An example of this is when she helps the new girl Peggy in the first season when she is first hired on as Don’s secretary. She tells her how to ‘work the system’ in a way, and fills her in on how to act and behave because she wants her to succeed. Joan sees the flaws in the way men behave, and knows that they can be irrational and have no control over their actions. She has a personal experience with this when her fiancé forces her to have sex despite her telling him she doesn’t want to over and over again. As a viewer you can see that she is deeply disturbed by the encounter, but because of the norms of society she can’t do much about the incident and has to keep it out of her mind.

                We get to see Joan finally stand up to her fiancé turned husband when he returns from war to deliver news that he is choosing to go back for another year even though they have a newborn son. Joan takes back the power in their relationship and tells him that it was unacceptable for him to think he could make a decision like that without consulting her first and that she wishes for him never to come back. She makes that decision knowing that it’s going to be hard not having a man around to help her raise a child, but that is a sacrifice she was willing to make because she refuses to be under-appreciated by a man.