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Everywhere you look, networks are showing reality television. Say so long to the news which was everyone's first taste of reality, and look for reality shows to get you in tuned with the biggest stories of the day.
Many would like to argue that MTV's The Real World which debuted in 1992 was the first of its kind featuring seven strangers picked to live in a house and have their lives taped. The concept was intriguing because there was no scripted dialogue, just viewers peering into the lives of people they don't know. The formula for this new take on reality helped paved the way for many reality shows to date. It seems that nowadays, reality shows are overtaking the sitcom shown on daily television because not only can it be more interesting with all the drama that is featured, but it's less costly to networks. Stars of reality shows are not professionals, so they don't need to be paid a professional salary per season, or a certain amount of money per episode until they really hit it big.
I admit, I am a person who loves watching reality shows and yes I do not watch any sitcoms at all...well maybe just one: Degrassi. If you know me, you would know that I watch four major networks: E!, Bravo, VH1, and MTV. So what if I watch all the seasons of The Real Housewives, Fantasy Factory, Teen Mom, or Basketball Wives?! Many would argue that the reason why I do enjoy watching these shows is because I want to live that lavish lifestyle, but I don't and there's really no explanation. I like what I like and that's it.
Sure sometimes when I catch myself glued to the television for a few hours to watch all the reality shows on different networks, I feel pretty dumb knowing I took time out of my day to catch every episode. That's why I started taking up reading again to make sure I get the right balance of television and mental stimulation. Of course there are educational programs featured on television, but I don't go looking for them if I'm not interested. I can't help being attracted to entertainment in all aspects, and I feel that blogging daily keeps the brain juices flowing as well.
So is reality television making us dumber as a human race? I don't think anything is wrong with watching it unless you factor it into your life. For instance, many people are obsessed with The Kardashians and the Jersey Shore cast. There should be a level of boundaries of liking reality TV and being obsessed about people who are just like you and me. One thing to keep in mind is that reality stars don't have special talents, because they aren't professionals. We, the viewers are the ones making these stars into celebrities, so it's all in our hands when you think about it.
Haven't you noticed that reality shows are repeating themselves too? Like how many singing/dancing competitions can you have? Or fashion styling/designing competitions? Or football/hip-hop/basketball wives? Or weightloss/extreme makeover? Or housewives/househusbands? Show creators keep creating these shows because they know the American public will feed into it. With an economy that's not so great right now leaving many unemployed, it's no wonder that reality shows are very popular among the masses because it not only paints a facade for how we want our lives to be like, but it gives us hope that we can escape our problems and succeed in life.
You Just Do You, Imma Do Me
Camille
The MTV show SKINS caused a lot of controversy in the media due to its explicit content regarding children who are minors. The show that is geared heavily towards sex, drug and alcohol abuse amongst teenagers was real, but maybe a little too real.
MTV says, "Skins is a global television phenomenon that, unfortunately, didn’t connect with a US audience as much as we had hoped. We admire the work that the series’ creator Bryan Elsley did in adapting the show for MTV, and appreciate the core audience that embraced it."
This version of Skins adapted after the original UK version did have a lot to live up to. But after the first episode, the show was already receiving backlash regarding it's mature content for young viewers. Despite low ratings, the show faced criticism from many parental groups which also led to many advertisers for the show pulling their ads due to racy content. I wasn't into this show like I thought I would so I'm not surprised many viewers didn't care for it either. The show seemed like it was done a bit trashy, and lacked any uplighting message. I know it's about showcasing the real dilemmas teenagers go through, but to have it be centered around a negative light gets old very quickly. I preferred Degrassi a lot more as a teenage type soap opera that did address adult/teenager content while also providing valuable lessons from each episode. After "X" number of seasons, it's clear that Degrassi connects more to audiences because it is still around creating new seasons.
You Just Do You, Imma Do Me
Camille
The Florida Family Association has launched an advertiser boycott against MTV because the network's Degrassi series positively portrays a young transgender man. Degrassi airs on MTV's Teen Nick channel. FFA chairman David Caton (left) writes in a letter to the show's advertisers:
It is very concerning that your company would knowingly advertise during a television show that condones and promotes transgender lifestyles to an audience that is almost exclusively watched by young teens and children. You would think by the number of episodes that MTV devotes to including the relationship between a female to male transgender high school student and a bi-sexual lesbian student that such relationships are a common occurrence in America’s high schools. The odds of this bizarre relationship occurring in high schools are extremely rare. Yet, MTV feeds this salacious and irresponsible propaganda to an audience made up of almost exclusively young teens and children as if it were common place. MTV airs a free promo for PFLAG on DeGrassi which directs kids to an organization that will encourage our youth to embrace a different sexual identity that may stay with them for life. Will your company continue to advertise on this irresponsible show?RELATED: World Net Daily publicized the boycott today in a lengthy article that repeats Peter LaBarbera's unfounded charges about GLSEN's Facebook page.
"I do not intend to 'educate your college students,' Maggie. Your college students—the offspring of NOM supporters—are being 'educated' at Brigham Young, Liberty University, Bob Jones, Seattle Pacific University, and other Christianist madrassas. My college tours typically take me to secular institutions of higher learning where the kids were hooking up and having sex long before my visit to campus.
"I know what women are like. I may not know what women taste like—I've never gone down on one—but I do know what women are like. My mother was a woman, my sister is a woman, my aunts are women, my favorite bartender is a woman, lots of my friends, neighbors, and coworkers are women. And as someone who sleeps with men and is a long-term relationship with a man, I know what (straight) women have to put up with. I'm not the first gay man that women have turned to for advice about love and sex, Maggie, and I won't be the last. And aren't you a practicing Catholic? Not knowing what women are like (or taste like) has never stopped the Pope from offering his unsolicited advice to women—no birth control, no abortions, no oral, no anal, no handjobs—and it's hypocritical of you to suggest that I'm not qualified to advise women, since I won't fuck 'em, without first telling that old fag in Rome to STFU already." - Dan Savage, responding to yesterday's attack from NOM chaircow Maggie Gallagher.
Read Savage's complete essay.
Maggie Gallagher puts her hooves to the NOM blog today to declare that Dan Savage's sexual ethic of valuing honesty over fidelity is going to be a disaster for the viewers of his upcoming MTV show.
There was a thoughtful analysis of [Savage's] sexual ethics in the Washington Monthly recently, for folks who want to get a taste of what he writes. The essay, by a Lutheran Minister, ends by pointing out where Savage ethics lead. A young man, in love with his girlfriend, with whom he has had a rather open and satisfying sexual relationship, but is tempted by more "sexual variety" asks how he can ask for that without ruining his relationship, which he values. Savage, who for all his experience, does not know what women are like, advises him to tell her openly and honestly what he wants, because otherwise the young man will just cheat on her.Sexual ethics lectures from the woman who bore a child out of wedlock. Yup.
The Lutheran minister, wiser in the ways of men and women, suggests that this young man is going to get pretty lonely looking for another woman able to give him all this young woman does--and who doesn't mind his playing around on the side. The possibility of taming one's sexual desire for the sake of another, or of a vow, is not in the Savage moral imagination. Libido will have out, and honesty about that is the best policy. He brings, in other words, the best of gay sexual ethics and experience to a straight audience, with potentially disastrous results.
MTV has committed to ten episodes of Dan Savage's sex advice show, Savage U.
The show will follow Savage as he travels across the country taking personal questions from students while on tour of college campuses. "He could be our Dr. Drew," Janollari said MTV's head of programming David Janollari of Savage and the new show. "He's able to do is bring incredible frankness to the topic of sexuality and spin it with a great sense of humor." According to Savage's Facebook page, MTV cameras have already been following him around the country while speaking at colleges.No word yet on the show's launch date.
I wouldn't call myself an avid fan of Jersey Shore. When there's really nothing else to watch on TV, I do watch it and it's mildly entertaining I must admit. Here's a show about "Italians" who like to party and hook-up, and say the dumbest stuff. But that's what reality calls for, and it's popular amongst the masses. 
I know the show advertises many worldly vices such as sex, heavy alcohol consumption, physical fights with strangers, foul language...but what really is a topic every season is ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS.
This directly relates to on and off again couple Ronnie and Sammi who have this tumultuous relationship. They always end up arguing over the dumbest topics. Last season, Ronnie crossed the line by actually making out with some girl at a bar in Miami while Sammi wasn't there, and they were together. This is probably one of the strangest couples ever featured on a reality show because they are both so horrible to each other. Who likes to be in a relationship when there's constant arguing? 
On the current season of Jersey Shore, Ronnie and Sammi not only live together, but are residing in the same room. This is obviously a bad choice from the get go, and there are non-stop arguments here and there. Everyone in the house, including all us viewers know that they shouldn't be together. Sammi is too clingy for her own good, and Ronnie is a complete asshole to her, a TOTAL JERK. He gets mad at her all the same, he has this crazy temper, and is actually violent! In the most recent episode, he gets all her possessions and throws them outside onto the balcony, and breaks most of her stuff! This is all over her dancing with another dude fresh out of their break-up right in front of him, but to cross the boundaries and trash her stuff is uncalled for. 
That episode was very hard to look at, because coming from a female perspective, I understand the place Sammi is coming from when you love someone so much, you just can't let go no matter how horrible the relationship is and how much of a jerk the guy is to you. But for having such an emotional issue taped for many to watch I believe is horrible. Even though it is entertaining television (not in a good way), that issue should be very private to everyone. It only helps me to believe that MTV is therefore permitting abusive relationships to be shown on television. Though Sammi did the right thing by leaving the shore, all the chaos it took to get to that point was heartbreaking. 
First of all, no girl should EVER be that clingy on a boyfriend...and SECOND, NO MAN SHOULD EVER LAY A HAND ON A FEMALE OR TRY TO WRECK HAVOC ON HER BELONGINGS!
You Just Do You, Imma Do Me
Camille
In what feels like a rerun of this JMG post about an earlier attack on Dan Savage's It Gets Better Project, today blogger Renee Martin announces that Savage is unworthy of an MTV show. Because he's only interested in the civil rights of people who look just him. Or something.
Simply because Savage is a gay man, does not mean that his cisgender, able-bodied, thin privileged, class privileged, White male body, does not represent several dominant norms, from which he can and does benefit. While he is quick to point out any homophobia that prevents him from joining the dominant class, his continual dependency on isms, suggests that his real goal is not true equality, but eradicating that which prevents him from fully enjoying all of the privileges normally assigned to a White male, cisgender, able bodied, thin, class privileged existence.I recall one organizer grumbling to me back in San Francisco that hardcore queer activists would never be satisfied until the grand marshal of the pride parade was a "transgender polyamorous handicapped hearing-impaired immigrant two-spirit woman of color." Which would be a totally wonderful thing so see, IF that person has achieved something worthy of leading the parade.
But tokenism for the mere illusion of diversity is still tokenism. So if not Dan Savage, then who? Where is our non-white, non-thin, non-abled, non-cisgender nationally famous sex advice columnist deserving of a show on cable television?
Entertainment Weekly reports:
Savage Love may be coming to MTV. Columnist Dan Savage is working on an advice show for the network. MTV has ordered a pilot that follows Savage as he tours college campuses giving his brand of brutally honest (and sometimes graphic) sex and relationship advice. In the format, Savage takes questions from an auditorium audience (similar to his recently completed college tour).No start date for the show has been revealed.
I remember seeing the commercials for this new MTV show Skins. It honestly looked pretty scandalous. Watching this show this past week, I couldn't help but realize how much it reminded me on the Canadian teen-drama Degrassi.
Degrassi was my show, and I still am an avid fan. I've kept up with it throughout the years and I thought no show would ever be this REAL. It dealt with many teen issues, that aren't exactly shown on television. The episodes followed a new dilemma for every character, and what attracted me so was how real the issues portrayed were. I haven't known of any other show that had so much depth and meaning that this show catered toward a younger audience.
And now here comes MTV's version, SKINS. Taken from the British version of Skins, MTV wanted to remake their own version. This show clearly seems uncut, showing scenes of partying, drug and alcohol abuse, and sexual content. Though it is claimed that this show is good for children to watch with their parents, I'm thinking, "why would anyone want to watch this type of show with their parents?" I know it's great to push boundaries, but why for teenagers. I'm sure it's pretty obvious what mishaps can happen to this generation when the teen years roll around, we don't need it portrayed on a television show.
Though many of the issues are similar to that of Degrassi, I feel like Degrassi had a sort of class about it. They dealt with the same issues, yet didn't explicitly portray it. On the other hand, maybe that's what television needs, something so raw it causes controversy, and that's what this show is already doing with just it's premiere episode airing the other day!
MTV, once a music video haven has gradually turned to reality shows. Now I can see the transition to actual shows such as "My Life As Liz" and "Skins." But thinking to shows MTV is becoming to be known for, such as "Teen Mom" and "16 and Pregnant," it seems kind of odd that MTV would be wanting to put pregnancy and teen exploitation as part of their programming. What message is MTV trying to send?
Out of all the issues Skins does portray, the biggest controversy is the use of actual teenagers in the show. Usually with any show or movie, there are actors 18 or older who play high school characters. Not Skins. They use teenagers under 18 as the title characters of the show, resulting in possible "child pornography exploitation."
If you want to see for yourself this teen drama that pushes every limit there is, catch "Skins" on MTV Mondays at 10pm.
You Just Do You, Imma Do Me
Camille
The Advocate reports that this MTV/Jackass spoof of Black Swan was shown to the audience, which included the movie's cast, at last night's Critics Choice Awards. I had just been wondering what Rip Taylor was up to these days. He's 77! Sadly, there are no buckets of confetti in this clip.
