Reality Television is King since the writer’s strike has deprived us of our fix of sit-coms and drama this season. All the reality shows; such as: Smarter than a 5th Grader, Deal or No-deal, Dancing with the Stars, American Idol and a host of others; have flooded the cable and airwaves in a rush to fill the void.
As I sat there this week watching the Biggest Loser I began to think about what I was ingesting, no, I don’t mean foodstuffs, but thoughts and ideas. What are the bait, hook and tackle?
The Bait:
One only has to look around at the average waistline and you can see how our lives of ease and/or materialism-induced-stress have weighed on us. Daily you can find articles, self-help programs and a mountain of books trying to get their collective arms around the problem of obesity. In fact we have spent so much time gathering this information that we have had little time for anything else, especially such trivial things as exercise, play, and the like. At some point one has to conclude it is time to stop thinking about it and do something about it. (I haven’t reached this radical point, yet.)
So here is the positive premise, if we see people engaged and succeeding in the attempt it will motivate others to get up off their lazy keesters and do likewise. So… someone put it on television for the masses to see and hopefully emulate. This is a good thing.
The negative premise is that now that it is on television our voyeuristic natures kick in and we watch others play the game instead of engaging in it ourselves. We’ll just sit here and watch how it’s done. This is not so good.
The Hook:
Always hidden in the bait is a hook and this is no different. The hook is the game, who will go who will stay. How do they accomplish this? Ah, here is where psychology sets the hook, “challenges and temptations!” It would truly be a boring show if all it was, was watching rollie-pollies sweat and work out (no matter how much the trainers rant and rave). One can stand to watch only so much flabby jiggling and man boobs. Therefore, there has to be some other angle, the hook is: game-play during temptations and challenges.
The manipulations, the deceptions, the intrigue; and that’s just the commercials. Raw human nature is front and center in the reality show. Wrath, envy, greed, gluttony, sloth, lust, and pride are the stars, with the players as supporting cast. Being the voyeurs we are, we enjoy watching it in others as they stumble and fall below the yellow line. (Yes, it is a cynical view but I believe an accurate one. It’s like NASCAR, the reason a huge percentage watch is to see a wreck.) In short it’s addictive
The Tackle:
All this leaves us with the final two ingredients, the weigh-in and the elimination room. Who will be the biggest loser this week? Which team will have the greatest percentage weight loss? Who will be exempt, who will go home? Ooooo, I get tingly just thinking about it. Here is the payoff for watching the sweating and the puking and the jiggling: someone is going home. Who will it be?
In summary I have to say that I find these reality shows entertaining on the surface but since my mind is warped and wired differently I find these same shows somewhat disturbing. I realize it is a game, but it seems to reinforce the idea of situational ethics. The, “I am going to do what it takes to make sure I come out the winner,” the Zen of (Donald) Trump if you will. That may be understood to be the “American Way” but it is far from the Biblical Way.
These shows are the very antithesis of Biblical Christianity. They promote greed, the Bible says to give; they bank on covetousness, the Bible condemns it; they manipulate and lie to get to the next level, the Scriptures tell us to sacrifice self and put others ahead of ourselves. Even the Golden Rule has changed from, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” to “do unto others before they do unto you.” Each week millions tune in to get their weeks fix of existentialistic materialism and we never see that it is not only our waists that are getting thicker. Think about it.
Well, just thought I’d weigh in on the matter.
Photo from:http://www.dogpile.com/clickserver/_iceUrlFlag=1?rawURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.brainfart.org%2Fdisplay_image.asp%3Fid%3Dwide_load.jpg&0=&1=0&4=204.9.89.53&5=98.16.20.233&9=1b7e198a3cbc43cb9aafabc15f74c801&10=1&11=info.dogpl&13=search&14=372380&15=main-title&17=1&18=1&19=0&20=0&21=1&22=plwbduwW%2FgM%3D&23=0&40=MmNZ7ovFAlQMex5Go2DtCg%3D%3D&_IceUrl=true
March 2, 2008 at 6:30 pm
i think that the picture you chose to illustrate your point is very distasteful. The point of your article coupled with the picture and title “wide load” would be very hurtful to the man it was taken of if he were to ever run across his blog. I hope in the future that you are a little more sensitive.
March 2, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Hi emmaausten, thanks for stopping by.
In persifler’s defense, I don’t think he actually titled the picture ‘wide load’. The ‘.jpg’ extension indicates that this was simply the name of the file. It just so happens to come up when you hover your mouse over it.
Furthermore, persifler being a personal acquaintance of mind, you can be assured that he would never intentionally be hurtful to anyone. Besides, much of the article is self-deprecating: he pokes fun at himself about as much as does anyone else.
Of course I cannot speak for him, but I’m quite sure that he was not intending to be offensive or insensitive.
March 2, 2008 at 10:54 pm
emmaaustin:
I agree with Josh. I think the picture was in no way chosen to be “hurtful”. I imagine the picture was randomly taken from another, more popular site (I pull my pictures from places like Yahoo or Google). I’d also like to hear what you think about reality tv. What do you think about overweight people who display their bodies on shows like biggest loser?
Persifler, I myself have sat in front of the TV with supper in hand to watch this reality show to see who will be voted off. Its one thing to watch others and study the facts of the overweight population of our culture, but I agree with you that it is another thing to just get up and go ride a bike or play in the yard with the family. Thanks for the post…maybe we should all adopt the Nike slogan and get off our couches and “Just do it!”
March 3, 2008 at 12:49 am
emmaaustin,
What Josh and Stephanie faild to mention, because they are too gracious, is that they know I don’t own a motor scooter/moped thing-gummy. Until recently I was above the 300 mark myself so I know about how huge the obesity problem is.
I find the most distastful thing is diet sodas personally, but that is not the point. The point is the manipulation and playing with people’s lives for ratings and money. The mind games that the producers play with the contestants during the temptations and the rule changes that are introduced (simply as a ploy to garner rating points) may be just part of the game but even on the personal level it is programming. Extreme personality re-programming. I’ll admit such extreme re-programming may be necessary, what is so disturbing is how the network, and the producers are profiting by the public display of the process.
The secondary problem I have with these shows is how it conditions the viewers as well. The resounding theme is, “the ends justify the means.” If we have to manipulate and feed the greed in order to get you to lose weight then it is ok, so long as you lose the weight and we can trot you out on stage to show the end results.
Yea, dangle a quarter-million dollar carrot in front of them and give them personal trainers and the facilities necessary to accomplish the “goal” and make them dance. And they dance willingly. It doesn’t have anything to do with reality and the work-a-day world we live in but it gets ratings and ratings = $$$. The American Public swallows it Hook Line and Sinker. The game plan, the alliances, the elimination of the ‘weakest link’ until the ubermench is all that is left standing. A practical visual lesson in evolution’s theme of survival of the fittest.
Whew, that was a lot when all I wanted to say was I am sensitive to fat and I know what it is to be made fun of and laughed at because of it. It all comes down to the individual and what they are willing to do about it. after so many trys sometimes you just quit trying. My beef with TV is how they produce such unrealistic results with their supermen, results you cannot reach unless you too can spend most of your life in a gym with personal trainer. Anyway, thanks for the comment.