What is the PERFECT situation?

…speaking of Jersey Shore, of course. Warning: this topic could be QUITE controversial. What exactly is a grenade? According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, a grenade is defined as: a small missile that contains an explosive or a chemical agent (as tear gas, a flame producer, or a smoke producer) and that is thrown by hand or projected (as by a rifle or special launcher). According to the cast of the Jersey Shore, a grenade is defined as: a girl that quite frankly is not hot, the solitary ugly girl always found with a group of hotties (if the grenade doesn't get any action, then neither does anyone else). It’s quite obvious how similar these definitions are. It’s great how Jersey Shore just comes up with their own lingo to harshly criticize and belittle women of “ugly” status. But what do feminists have to say about this topic? How do you define “ugly” in this society? Obviously, what Jersey Shore says goes! Except not. Jersey shore is just feeding into already existing stereotypes by updating society’s norms about the condescension of women and announcing beauty (or shall I say ugly) standards on national TV. Now, all TV viewers and fans can willingly (or unwillingly) make reference to these new and improved terms while exploiting the women who are targeted on the show. It’s not right, and it’s not fair to the women who show their faces on Jersey Shore because these women only further perpetuate this anti-feminist cycle by serving as the perfect example of “ugly” or “hideous” or “girl to never get a boyfriend, or rather, in more sophisticated terms, to never get it innnn.” Why isn’t there a stereotypical term for males on the show though? Am I just missing something or do we just want to further degrade women and cause anxiety about fitting into the perfect beauty ideals? Or does this show just provide us with comic relief that we don’t take these terms seriously? I think the latter question is not applicable. Either consciously, or unconsciously, we internalize certain ideas about objects, people, places, or conversations that we find unique or meaningful. We then find ourselves applying these concepts to the outside world. Just randomly the other day, I referenced “grenade” without even planning to say it. I didn’t rehearse it over and over in my head, it just popped up in a conversation about boys and girls because of the availability of the word and the pervasive spread of it on TV, in the popular media, but more importantly, in our culture.

I could go on and on with examples that are not representative of contemporary feminist viewpoints. For one, remember that time when Snookie was punched at the bar because random guys starting stealing her drinks and she stood up for herself? Even though MTV didn’t showcase or zoom in on the actual punch and viewers could only hear it through audio, they did include a PSA statement following this segment that was certainly biased. It read: “Violence against women in any form is a crime. If someone you know is being abused by a boyfriend, family member, or total stranger, please call 911.” Now don’t you think this statement is quite narrow-minded? I understand Snookie, a woman, got punched. But to be less biased and more realistic, shouldn’t a statement read: “Violence against ANYONE is a crime, etc.” Males can be victims too. So can children! Anyone of any gender or sexual orientation! That statement is not a reflection of today’s reality; whoever decided to come up with the wording is only displaying their own ignorance on the subject matter, or insensitivity to violence against ANY person.

Another short example is when “The Situation” was trying to “hook up” with a girl at a club, who is described by his Jersey Shore family as “a tranny,” as in “transvestite.” They adamantly stated, “if you have to think about it, it’s a tranny. Stay away.” Later that evening, Ronnie is shown wearing a dress and poking fun at the “tranny” that Mike could have been having sexual relations with. This goes back to my earlier point about the degradation of women, or in this case, anyone who self-identifies with a specific gender or sexual orientation. LGBTQ issues are clearly evident in this episode. Why is there such exploitation of people that do not fit the “norm”? Why are new norms being created for these outsiders who apparently don’t deserve any positive commentary and are only worthy of these insensitive remarks that are clearly offensive. Well, at least MTV apologized and agreed to remove this material from the episode. Maybe MTV should just quit thinking about the millions of dollars they make off the show and start taking preventative measures and fix things before they further embarrass themselves. What do you think?

Well, if you’re not sure or just curious, you can go ahead and type in this link into your computer to watch a video clip of the “tranny situation."

http://www.queerty.com/mtv-plays-along-while-jersey-shore-bashes-trans-women-one-more-time-20101029/