I should probably be more embarrassed to admit this than I am, but I was watching Showbiz Tonight last night. They caught my attention with a video of some girl beating the hell out of another girl. Apparently the girl doing the beating is on MTV's reality show Teen Moms. I must have missed the part about why this girl was pummeling the other girl, but I did catch a lengthy discussion about the show in general.
MTV says Teen Moms discourages teen pregnancy by showing how hard the life of a teen mom really is. MTV acknowledges paying girls on the show $60,000 a season, but they deny choosing any girls who purposely get pregnant so they can be on the show. Really MTV? Really? That's like Barry Bonds saying he didn't know he was using steroids. The panelists on Showbiz Tonight weren't buying it, and either am I.
MTV isn't fooling anyone. Teen Moms doesn't deter teen pregnancy, it glamorizes teen pregnancy. In our celebrity-obsessed culture, the last thing we need is a show that turns teen mothers into celebrities. MTV has been a pop culture cesspool for a while now, but Teen Moms might be a new low.
oh for the days when MTV used to show music videos...
ReplyDeleteThis is why I don't watch much TV. And why do they call this stuff "reality?" It's more contrived than a 70s sitcom.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I cut the cable cord a long time ago. I have no idea what's going on out there in t.v. land, but I don't feel cheated by missing this show. :P
ReplyDeleteDavid: exactly
ReplyDeleteDeirdra: much appreciated
JoLynne: You're right, "reality" is in the eye of the beholder.
LG: I don't watch the show, just the very idea of it bugs me.
New low? sort of. Teaching moment? yep.
ReplyDeleteSchlock will always be sellable, therefore people will always be willing to sell it.
To diffuse schlock takes only to recognize it -Munk
or, more eloquently,
There's a sucker born every minute -PT Barnum
sigh....sometimes I am so glad i am too cheap to pay for cable....I think back to those awesome days on MTV with Martha Stewart and Adam Curry, and 120 minutes......
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that MTV regularly rewards people for behaving like degenerates, which then encourages that before as the norm for our next generation. I stopped watching MTV when they stopped showing music and my teenaged daughters know the difference between real life and TV reality(I hope).
ReplyDeleteDon't worry. They'll find a way to keep digging.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to the days where they just played music videos?
ReplyDeleteI agree. You should watch "Skins". Or "The Jersey Shore". I'm ashamed of myself that I've watched several episodes of those. They are terrible...absolute garbage. But for some reason...I watch them.
ReplyDeleteSaw a bit of it on Good Morning America and quickly changed the channel because my girls were sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast before school. (I have a small TV in the kitchen.)
ReplyDeleteI told them how stupid it was, and how sad it is, and that we don't need to watch it.
Pop culture cesspool? Exactly.
ReplyDeleteThe show sounds awful. But I'd be curious to hear what your students would say, if you were to have a frank conversation with some of them who have seen it....
ReplyDeleteBetween Jersey Shore, The Hills, Teen Mom, and all the other crap they spew out... I miss the MTV I grew up with.
ReplyDeleteMan, I miss the days when MTV and VH1 actually played videos. I catch some on VH1 at about 4 or 5am if I am particularly insomnia-stricken sometimes. I haven't seen MTV in the last decade, but with the onslaught of "reality" shows in that time, I shouldn't be surprised that it too has succumbed.
ReplyDeleteIt bothers me immensely that this is what children, teens and young adults are influenced by today. Every previous generation thinks the next ones are being corrupted like never before, but I think today's culture truly is one to fear with good reason.
Thanks for an interesting, thought-provoking post