E.B.'s Pub... shit only a drunk person would say...

More about the media, not so much about pop culture:



I just watched a reality show, whose identity I will not disclose (out of embarrassment). On the show tonight one young women, who looks like a barbie doll (anatomically disproportionate, with long straight, perfect hair, perfectly lined eyes, an innocent/clueless personality) and works at a recording studio for a major record label--dumped her boyfriend on camera. During "The Dump" (which inevitably began with the sentence: "I don't think this is working out) the y.w. actually took a bite of food and then continued to tell him what a special guy he is while she chewed it! Amazing. Did I mention she walked out in the middle of a recording session where a famous and talented music star was in mid-song? Awesome.

The episode also included a y.w. who looks, literally, like a muppet--lot's of plastic surgery, collagen lips, bleach blond, perfect looking hair--the works. This "muppet" stared into the camera incessantly while obsessively playing with her hair and occasionally flashing a sexy yet sinister look as she delivered a line. No word yet if her camera glances and sexy-fidgeting were due to insecurities in her appearance or desperate attempts to look sexy. Likely both.

In this episode I witnessed social manipulation and powerplays, unnecessary urging for confrontation, emotional abuse and back stabbing. All the while, the extremely tolerant, pious, kind nature of one character lingered as the main storyline.

All of the young women and men on the show are quite affluent (with their famous industry parents conveniently left out of the plot) they are often taking private jets & limos, sporting the finest couture, and landing the coolest jobs/internships in the land. Their life, it seems, is a dream-come-true--well except for some guy in Florida who will forever be known as the guy who got dumped on television...anyway, they are, it seems, the representatives of a generation.

Quite an interesting American show, eh?

What is interesting to me is the way they are portrayed as real people. Think about it. It's a reality television show. With this title alone, the producers of the show are telling us that these are REAL people and this is the way REAL people act. And they are also rewarded with fame and wealth for acting the way that they do: talking behind each others' back, cheating on one another, manipulating each other, purposely ending friendships, verbalizing their hatred of one another, being blatantly obsessed with their appearance, never (ever) talking about what is actually happening in the world, and showing complete and utter devotion to looking/being perceived as cool. They have no black or gay friends and they appear regularly on various talk shows (Ellen, David Letterman, The View) to enforce their fame and flaunt their fortune.

My question is this--if the mainstream media is promoting these "real" people as a generation's idols and role models--complete with the wealth, fame, and beauty their generation desires wholeheartedly--isn't that the same as attempting to create-through influence, a generation of assholes?

Why would the mainstream media do that?