But what I've realized is that these shows have 1 or 2 'regular' women on them. The women show up from time to time, in 'Pawn Stars' the women makes a complete fool out of herself by showing up late and talking back to the boss. And on 'American Picking' she has tattoos everywhere and takes credit from sale that her guy friend did for her.
This women are not representative of the American population. So I started thinking of the 'women reality' tv shows. One is "America's Next Top Model", where it shows very slender and light women cat fighting on their off time. This is again, not representative.
Another reality show that was popular was "Girls next Door", which followed the lives of three women-all who were dating the same man-Hugh Hefner. As much as I enjoyed that show, it was never really representative of American Women.
I would like to think that American women are intelligent, strong individuals that can get farther with their brains then their sexuality. However, what the televisions show the viewers is women are not getting farther with their brains. In fact, they show 'real' women using their sexuality to get money, using their beauty to be important, and in their spare time, these women are not very nice to their fellow women.
Can there be women on reality shows that have brains? Or use their brains? I really didn't find any popular shows that show women getting ahead using what is under their skull. Which saddens me, because I hope to get ahead with out my looks in life. My role models are non-existent in popular shows, probably because watching stupid girls fight is more entertaining. Just look at the popularity of Jerry Springer, or Maury.
Look at the popularity of "Jersey Shore." I think my IQ level dropped about 30 points just listening to Snooki talk the first time. Of course, the men are not that smart either in that show, so at least it is equal in detriment.
I remember watching shows that actually showed women trying to win a competition that needed skills. But the winners were almost always men at the end and when the women fought, the commercials for the next shows concentrated on that, instead of the good/bad work they were doing.
I find it entertaining, too. Don't get me wrong, watching girls make fool of themselves over petty little things is entertaining. It is just not good television for me. I don't watch a lot of reality television but every so often, I watch a season of something, see these patterns and something inside me dies a little bit.
These women are anything but stupid and because of what they have been surrounded by they feel like they need to act a certain way. This certain way has been conditioned in to them, they feel like they need to act stupid to get camera time, they feel like they need to be beautiful to be important, and I feel bad for them.
So what they picked up as norms of how to act, they are repeating and girls everywhere are going to repeat that. It's a circle that can not stop. It's internalized oppression. And it's wrong and it needs to stop.
So before you generalize girls as stupid, as blowing things out of proportions, ask yourself, WHY are they doing this? Do they have an ulterior motive? Is this the only way they have been taught to act?
In more reality, I recently had to get my wisdom teeth out and was really, very worried about the procedure. When I told my guy friend that I was afraid, he blamed it on my gender. "Girls always blow things like this out of proportions."
I remember sitting there and being like, "Excuse me? I'm entitled to my feelings about this. I'm not freaking out because I am a girl. I am freaking out because this is the first time I had to go under, this is the first time I needed a procedure like this. I'm freaking out because I am Hannah, not because I am a girl." I was really angry at him, and I told him so. But he continued to hold the view that I was making something petty a big deal because I was a girl, and not because I was afraid or nervous.
All and all, women should act they way they do, not because they are told to, but because they want to. Their actions should not be represented of all women in all of America. And more importantly, women and men are entitled to their feelings about any issue of the world-petty or not.
No comments:
Post a Comment