13 February 2011
In the world today, it’s becoming more and more difficult to find a cable television show that has real substance. Especially ones made to entertain the younger population. It’s all about sex, drinking, and having a wild time. Not exactly something our younger generation should be looking up to and aspiring to be like. Don’t get me wrong, it is entertaining. But is idolizing this type of lifestyle really healthy for our future? Since two years ago, a new type of language and lifestyle has been exposed to the world. Now everyone knows the acronym “GTL” and the word “grenade” has a whole new meaning.
Two years ago, the phenomenon began. People all across the nation tuned into MTV to watch the first episode of Jersey Shore. The show was taped on the Jersey Shore, a popular vacation spot in the northwest. Camera crews followed around eight young people, native to the area, who loved to drink, hook up, and party. They were also known as gweedos and gweedettes. It was an instant success. After time, not only were teens watching the show, but idolizing it. Jersey shore glamorized going out every night, hooking up with strangers, and getting intoxicated. Soon enough teens were aspiring to be like the cast they watched every Thursday night.
These young adults are being exposed and representing our generation, and they are giving us a bad name. Kearney points out how young women are taking the opportunities they are given to work and be producers of culture, and using it the wrong way. “With regard to representations of female adolescence in contemporary U.S. teen magazines such as Seventeen and Sassy, we can recognize that, in spite of the growing number of opportunities encouraging girls today to become active producers of culture, as well as magazines’ increasing attention to female youth who seize such opportunities (especially media celebrities like Alicia Silverstone, Claire Dances, and Brandy Norwood), most girls’ magazines continue to over-privilege the spheres of consumption and leisure in comparison to production and work.” (Kearney)
Although she speaks of magazines, television shows are no different. Television is no longer idolizing people who make the world a better place, who work hard, or who are good role models for adolescents. That’s not considered exciting enough to show as entertainment anymore. Now all you see on T.V. is young people who have it all handed to them, and use it in all the wrong ways. They exploit themselves with sex and risky situations and make it look like the good life.
In this show, the young adults go out, get drunk, and try to find someone to hook up with. Not only are just the men participating, but the women as well. They dress up in little clothing, and make themselves look as available as possible. It usually works to their advantage, and they bring home a new stranger to have sex with multiple times a week. I have fear that even more people, outside the Jersey Shore, are going out and doing the same after seeing it on the shows. They are putting themselves in compromising situations where they could be raped, taken advantage of, or get STD’s. “Research indicates that the presence of alcohol is one situational factor that often plays a role in risky sexual encounters. Therefore, the CMM specifically focuses on the role that alcohol may play in influencing women’s risky sexual decision-making processes. The CMM posits that alcohol consumption can affect women’s sexual decisions directly through its physiological effects on cognitive appraisals of the situation.” (Kelly Cue Davis, Jeanette Norris, Danielle M. Hessler, Tina Zawacki, Diane M. Morrison, William H. George) These girls are drinking daily, and heavily, and then going out to find sex. This is not the lifestyle that we, as young adults, should be aspiring to have.
When it comes to entertainment, should we be compromising our youth’s future? Exposing the younger populations to these lifestyles could be a risk. The more types of this behavior they are exposed to, the more it will be accepted as ideal. We should not be idolizing people who live a life of drinking, partying, and hooking up. Whatever happened to good ole fashion, wholesome entertainment?
Works Cited
Kearney, Mary Celeste. "Producing Girls: Rethinking the Study of Female Youth Culutre." (n.d.): 291.
Kelly Cue Davis, Jeanette Norris, Danielle M. Hessler, Tina Zawacki, Diane M. Morrison, William H. George. "College Women's Sexual Decision Making Cognitive Mediation of Alchohol Expectancy Effects." JOURNAL OF AMERICAN COLLEGE HEALTH, VOL 58, NO. 5 (2010): 482.
I agree 100% with what you are saying. I thought it was great that you added in that by getting drunk and having sex with random people all the time is not ok. When being drunk you are crossing the line of weather or not you are able to give consent when being drunk, this is something that teenage girls don’t see as wrong since they are watching all of these girls having sex al the time. Another thing that I thought should have been brought up is unexpected pregnancies. The last thing I wanted to bring up has to do with the term “grenade” and “GTL.” Since the term grenade was redefined, I have heard it used over and over and I find it to be a very degrading term that causes so many girls turn to make up, tanning…which is very bad and can cause cancer…etc. By doing all of this, the you girls today become uncomfortable with who they are and do what they need to to look their best weather it be diet, wear make up, dress in fancy clothes etc, which shouldn’t be the case.
ReplyDeleteI also completely agree with the post. I think this is a very good source of media to analyze. I disagree with Jersey Shore altogether. It is teaching our young adolescents that getting drunk, being promiscuous, and extreme partying is an ok part of society. This show is not only sending the wrong message it may also have the potential to be responsible for dangerous situations. The adolescents that watch the show regularly may believe the episodes of binge drinking are necessary. This situation can turn very dangerous within a short amount of time. Yes, Jersey Shore is a very popular television series, but is its popularity worth the possible risks that could be associated with the show? If these acts depicted on the show do not fit in with society why are we exposing our young population to them?
ReplyDeleteI agree with this post. I think Jersey Shore is a bad representation of how people their age should be acting. I think that they are totally irresponsible. I agree they are teaching the younger population that they need to get drunk in order to have fun. Also, they are teaching adolescents to be irresponsible and changes their perspective on what a 20-some year old should be doing with their lives at that point in their lives. In reality people that age should be trying to better themselves. I agree that "Jersey Shore" might be entertaining but it is defiantly the wrong sort of entertainment for the younger generation which is a part of their large audience.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. Although watching it can be entertaining, this is showing our generation, as well as the next, that this is what life is supposed to be like. Jersey Shore is showing that to have a good time you need to go out, drink, and bring home strangers. Who am I to say what others should and shouldn't do with their lives but it should deffinately not be televised. It sends out the wrong message to the entire younger population. Instead we want a society full of individuals with good values and will contribute to our society and a future, not how many shots one can take in a night. I am also wondering what happened to "wholesome entertainment".
ReplyDeleteI also agree with this post. Jersey Shore is now one of the top watched shows for adolescents. The show totally sets a new perception how this generation is acting. Yes the show may be entertaining, but they are terrible role models for the people watching it. They make it seem like its okay to go out and get trashed every night and sleep with someone new on a day-to-day basis. What is our society coming to? Secondly, it shows the audience that its ok if you don't have a real job, you can still make a living and live your life to the fullest. Soon, adolescents might think they do not need to go to college or whatever because they are going to be like the people on the Jersey Shore cast. This show is setting so many wrong examples, it is starting to become pathetic.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you 100%! The obsession with Jersey Shore shows that our priorities and what our society takes value in is completely backwards from what it should be.This group of young adults goes out looking for the things we should be keeping our youth away from. Its not only Jersey Shore to blame though, you mentioned magazines too and I agree again. As a working class teenage girl myself a few years ago magazines were as close to Hollywood and celebrities I ever got to. These were the people i wanted to be like and looked up to and I loved every minute of reading a new edition of Seventeen. Looking back now I know that these were not the people I should be looking up to and the messages I got form these magazines were not healthy. Our youth should not be looking up to the cast of Jersey Shore and yet they get paid a ridiculous amount of money with each episode because our society feeds off of this kind of entertainment.I wonder what would happen to the ratings if they started promoting reading and healthy relationships instead of drinking and promiscuity??
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post and have to agree! Jersey Shore is one show that drives me absolutely crazy. It just fuels the fire of how young people are stereotyped as an alcoholic, sex crazed, and violent generation. The men on the show call women grenades and hippos if they are not good looking enough. It's a bad influence on our youth, and it's crazy how people can find such crude behavior entertaining. I agree with your statement that it is compromising our youth's future.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you! I have to admit I watch Jersey Shore every week, but i'm only watching it because it's entertaining. The problem is, not all the people watching are using it for that reason. Some look up to the cast members and want to be just like them. They want to drink, have sex, and fist pump all night. The thing is, our younger generation is being exposed to this. It's teaching them to act like this in the future. This show is highly inappropriate and kids should not be watching it. Jersey Shore is advertised everywhere, there's really no escape. Also, the popularity of "GTL" and "Grenade" are extremely high. I personally hate the term "grenade" because it's putting pressure on the younger society that they have to dress and look a certain way. If you're not thin, tan, and don't dress skanky, you're considered a grenade. I don't see anything positive about that. It's all negative, just like the show. Even though it's entertaining to watch, it's effecting our younger generation's future.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. I grew up watching the wheel of fortune for my entertainment.It was innocent and something better to idolize than what it being idolized in society today. My little sister is a product of this generation and i see the effects that it makes on her life and all of her friends' life's. I think that the media was possible shooting for some kind for entertainment and took it out of control. Young teenagers should not be exposed to this. When they see how much attention the people on these shows are gaining, they want to have that as well so they try to be like the people they idolize on these shows. Which should not be the effect at all from watching these shows. Out of anything you should see how unhappy they are in their lives and see how many risks they are putting themselves in an be more cautious of it rather than try to mock it.
ReplyDeleteJersey Shore is an interesting show. Not only is it a one and only show out there. They are giving a whole new perspective of young adults to the nation. If I lived on the Jersey Shore I would be embarrassed and feel exploited. Youth watch this show as entertainment. I have watched it with friends multiple times however we NEVER once have aspired to be like them. We actually laugh and comment on how nasty the portray themselves and the guys agree. The only thing I worry about is how others see this show and interpret it. By turning this program on we only support their lifestyles and make it more okay to engage in those lifestyle choices.
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