Posted on 12/13/2009 9:36:38 AM PST by AJKauf
I’m no prude. Nor do I have anything against reality shows. I’ve been known to watch Wife Swap and I’m a big fan of Cops and Intervention. But Jersey Shore has accomplished what no reality show before — no matter how tasteless, worthless, or contrived — has. It has infuriated me.
As a parent, it horrifies me. As an Italian, it embarrasses me. As a woman, it demeans me. And as a human being, it disgusts me.
The young adults in this show have nicknames like J-WOWW and “The Situation.” They are obsessed with their bodies, tanning, and sex. The girls openly talk about trying to sleep with as many guys as they can. One spoke candidly about stealing guys from other girls. The guys are rough and abrasive; in the opener, one guy gets physically abusive with one of the girls. They are vain, self-obsessed egomaniacs who spend hours on physical and cosmetic self-improvement but not one minute on improving their personalities. Which are, to say the least, offensive.
I look at Jersey Shore and the first thing that comes to my mind is that their parents are watching....
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
The writer seems to think this is some new phenomenon spurred on by the Gotti boys reality show. This stereotype has been around a long, long, long time and it’s not just a NJ/Italian sterotype. They’re all around, Queens, Staten Island...the whole tri-state area and beyond.
These people seem to have some weird ghetto trash thing going on—without the tradition, religion, and sense of family and honor that older generations of Italian-Americans had, and used to make their way in America. The only “Italian” link to their culture is their food—when the wise Latina was jacking her jaws about her “culture” that’s all she could come up with, too. Food.
America is essentially becoming a ghetto rat culture—the drugs, the lack of a work ethic and discipline, the nonexistant attention span, the mindless, soulless sex—devoid of feelings-and God forbid, with no thought of consequences, the lack of manners, the proud, preening ignorance, the entitlement mentality, the “Hey, look at me!” mania, the widespread obesity......
Our young people mindlessly mimic the least productive and most destructive members of our society—except they don’t get to carry the race card. (which is getting somewhat tattered, BTW) What’s going to happen when the people footing the bill for this nonsense get tired of it?
What do you expect? New Jersey is a big blue state.
...having first moved across the VZ bridge from Brooklyn...
I live about 10 mins away from Seaside or as we (somewhat) normal people call it...Sleazeside. This show dosen’t surprise me. I have seen a slow but steady downhill progression for years. The place was beautiful and family friendly back in the 70s. Maybe it was disco that started it. I spent alot of time there in the 80s and even worked for a brief time at one of the clubs back then. It was a neat sociological experiment to watch people in that atmosphere. Around then, it was a mix of new wave and guidos but eventually by the 90s the guidos took over. These days I go over there 2-3 times a summer just for a walk on the boardwalk and it horrifies me. Venice Beach of the east coast.
I’m from jersey and i used to get fake spray on tans and a haircut every week...grew out of that phase thank goodness
although the show is entertaining and pretty accurate
I think I'll miss this production, but I did major in Primitive Cultures at Emily Dickinson College.
“but I did major in Primitive Cultures at Emily Dickinson College.”
Do you mind if we dance with your dates?
I really don’t see the big deal.
unless you’ve never been to the jersey shore lol
The author should at least entertain the possibility that their parents are as dumb and embarrassing as they are. Maybe more so. It's possible.
It’s amusing how the guys evidently feel they are very macho and masculine, but in fact their preening comes across as a very feminine quality.
Some weird stuff going on.
Every couple of years I go to the Feast of Santa Rosalia in Brooklyn and I see those cugin types all over, the Italian guys wearing the horns around their necks, with their shirts open to their chests, tons of gold jewelry, acting like they’re a Bonanno or Gotti.
It’s weird, they truly cannot see how goofy they look!
I go with my friends who are Sicilian, but they don’t follow the stereotypes, in fact they’re embarrassed by them!
They had the full Italian Brooklynite upbringing...Xaverian, Bishop Kearney, Regina Pacis, daily mass, etc., but just never wanted to be stereotypes.
Ed
>> Seaside NJ
It’s really sad what happened to Seaside.
NJ’s a beautiful State. It obviously has its share of problems and disappointments.
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