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Jersey Shore
on MTV
Episode Summary
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Last week, this column
blasted MTV’s brainless “reality show” Jersey Shore for its clueless cast
and anti-Italian bias. But while the show was offensive, there was some
schadenfreude-flavored glee to be derived from the viewing of so mindless a
program filled with equally mindless individuals…the same sort of pleasure some
receive from watching The Three Stooges (though Moe, Larry and Curly should be
offended by the comparison). But this week, Jersey Shore took a sharp
turn from being about a train wreck of teen drunkenness and failed sexual
exploits, and veered into deeper exploitation – that of violence against women.
For its use of violence as a promotional gimmick, MTV’s Jersey Shore
(Thursdays, 10:00 p.m. ET) is the Worst Cable TV Show of the Week
News has been rocketing around the
blogosphere and TV about the events leading to this week’s Jersey Shore.
While in a bar, a complaining Snooki was brutally punched in the face by a man,
who was then arrested. Naturally, this footage has been shown over and over on
the Internet. After using this violent scene to heavily promote the episode, MTV
feigned shock at the outraged reaction of viewers, critics and the public.
Whining that “the video footage has been taken out of context,” MTV
sanctimoniously removed the video from the episode itself. MTV representatives
called the violence “extremely disturbing” …but that didn’t stop the network
from garnering tons of publicity from the incident.
But this is typical of MTV’s
hypocrisy. A public-service announcement currently playing on the channel urges
teens to stop “sexting,” or sending nude pictures of themselves to classmates.
Often such pictures end up being shared with entire schools, and the girls who
have sent the pictures end up humiliated. In one recent case, a
girl committed suicide after pictures she “sexted” to a boy were shared with
the school.
Obviously, sexting is a
sexist, dangerous practice, harmful to girls’ self-respect and sense of decency.
MTV, which has made its fortune with sexually-exploitative programming, is now
urging teens not to engage in this practice. How? With a commercial that shows a
totally nude teenage girl. While breasts and genitals are blurred, equally
blurry is the commercial’s reasoning – using nudity to titillate teen viewers,
while telling them that such a practice is a bad idea.
This is how MTV teaches
teenagers. To teach teens that bigotry and stereotyping is wrong, they show a
program filled with bigoted stereotypes. To teach them not to punch women, they
show a woman being punched. And to teach teens not to send nude pictures of
themselves to others, they show a picture of a nude woman.
For violence against women
and rank hypocrisy, MTV’s Jersey Shore is the Worst Cable TV Shows
of the Week.
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