May Contain Peanuts

The Real Tragedies of Reality Television

I know I have posted before about the inane crap that is put forth on cable these days, but after another painful session of boob tubery, I must return to the topic. On the glorious day of gluttony that is known as Thanksgiving, I found myself just this side of comatose and frozenly staring into the tv set with some family. We happened upon a marathon of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta", which stayed on my screen due to the lack of me being able to put up any protest. So we watched, and I cringed, we watched some more, and I about shot myself in the face. I was not suprised at my reaction, but rather angered that this kind of drivel constitutes entertainment. Also, being 'reality' television, I was further angered by the fact that these characters are actually real people inhabiting the same real country I live in.

If you are not familiar with "The Real Housewives" series on Bravo, it basically follows 5 or 6 'housewives' in various localities that are known for their wealth and luxury. Surprisingly enough, Atlanta was chosen for this past season, but my guess is that it was to give a different perspective of luxury living than that of a blonde liposuctioned white trophy wife or a brunette liposuctioned Jewish trophy wife. The cast of 'Atlanta' were all black wives of current or ex-professional athletes, except one 'token' white chick. All of the wives were relatively interesting, but nothing I would write home about. Some are still with their husbands, some not, but all are retardedly wealthy and spend their free time shopping and gossiping. Ridiculous. But I suppose this alone wasn't enough fodder for 13 or however-many episodes, so they included the most braindead mannish looking waste of oxygen disguised as a white 'housewife'. This woman did not reveal (at least from what I saw) her 'sugar daddy' or 'big poppa' or whatever she called him because he didn't want to interfere. Whoever this guy is, he must know just how worthless this chick is because he doesn't want to be publicly associated with her. Cheers to him. Anyway, there were too many things to point out about this womanly abomination; between the fake singing and the bitching back and forth to warrant me elaborating any further. Take away this: if cancer took human form, this would be your model.

Anyfart, enough griping. My real issue is not with blonde retards or gold-digging feminists, but rather the people that decide this is entertainment and the viewers in the world who agree that this is entertaining. These women are poop and I could care less what they do with their lives. I am hoping that the main draw to engaging in these people's lives is to watch how shitty things are for them and to take pleasure in the fact that we are not them. I know conflict and tragedy are interesting viewing material, but I enjoy scripted television because I always am comforted by the fact that these horrible things are not really happening to real people. Instead, by watching these monstrosities, we become aware just how crappy the upper class can be and in turn, people as a whole. It taints the view of people in these positions. I know I got the impression that women like these with healthy bank accounts and huge houses are vapid, inconsiderate gossips who spend the day drinking wine, buying thongs and occasionally showing up at a charity function.

I know editing and production can extremely alter the reality of the situations, but you can't edit everything. What concerns me is that these women are acting this way on purpose. They know they are being filmed, they know it will be seen nationwide, yet they continue to put on the show. This just means they are ignorant to their own situation and how they come across to others. Perhaps this is the key to 'good' reality television, but I generally interpret ignorance with a negative connotation and would happily distance myself from any instance of it.

What results from all this is a facilitating of negative stereotypes for the middle-aged wealthy woman. Granted these woman may be exceptions and is why they were picked from the show in the first place, but there should be an understood responsibility of knowing what this type of show could promote. It bothers me to no end that horrible people get paid attention to in ways such as this. The people who make this show no doubt realize how miserable these people are, but it sells advertising and makes money, so it will go on. With so many worthwhile people out there, why not show them on national tv. We all know the reason why: happiness doesn't sell like tragedy does. It just sucks these people get paid to be garbage.