Jersey Shore and the Problem With Our Girls

I had never seen Jersey Shore until last weekend. So when I heard they were going to have a marathon, I decided to record it and spend my Sunday figuring out why everyone was talking about this show.

It was, as I had anticipated, completely ridiculous. It is a train wreck I couldn’t look away from. I must be old for real, because I am just all judgmental and disapproving as I watch. I just can’t believe the egos in that house. That girl Angelina (who left, thank goodness) kept going on about how working at a store was beneath her and calling other girls sluts. And the way they drink makes me never want to drink alcohol again. And the drama! Oh my goodness, the drama. People have called me a drama queen, but I don’t think they know what drama is. Oh, and the way those girls dress! Wow. That’s all I can say.

So it’s entertaining, and I really enjoyed watching it. But then I started thinking about how these people are now famous. If their egos were bad before, just imagine how out of control they are now. It’s like, our culture is telling them (and teenagers everywhere) that this is a perfectly okay way to act because we’re rewarding that behavior.

And that got me to thinking about an issue I’ve had for a long time with how girls in this country are being taught to act. All of a sudden it is cool to think that the world revolves around you, to call yourself spoiled and a brat and a drama queen and be materialistic. I blame part of it on shows on the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. (And, I would like to mention that I’m not the only one who thinks these shows are terrible. Dan Savage did a piece for This American Life on the evils of the Suite Life of Zach and Cody- how it’s homophobic, sexist, and rewards dishonest behavior.) As adults, we can watch these shows and understand that reality doesn’t (and shouldn’t) work like that. But kids don’t get it, and they start to emulate those characters. My mom gave a great example of this years ago. She always hated the show Friends because she just thought it was so inappropriate. But then she started watching Will and Grace all the time, and I was like, “Mom, Will and Grace is a million times more inappropriate than Friends.”

“But,” she said, “Will and Grace is obviously totally fake. No one is actually like these characters in real life. It’s just silly. But the problem with Friends is that it pretends to be like real life. These people live promiscuous lifestyles with no consequences, and they try to make it seem like that’s how everyone lives.”

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am not one to judge people’s promiscuous lifestyles. But, there’s a parallel between my mom’s comments and my complaint with Disney Channel and MTV shows. The Disney channel characters (like Sharpe from High School Musical) are meant to be caricatures, but kids don’t get that. And these MTV shows find totally crazy people who are really entertaining for someone like me to watch, but middle school kids are thinking that these girls are cool and that’s how they should act, too.

I am tired of what is happening to girls in our culture. It’s not ok to call each other sluts all the time, and get in fist fights, and have an attitude, and always want to be the center of attention, and think that the most important thing in the world is owning name brand purses. I think worst of all is this sense of entitlement this next generation seems to have. I heard that it started with my generation, which may be true, but I think it’s gotten even more out of control.

Don’t get me wrong; I think girls should be strong and should stand up for themselves. But what’s wrong with being nice?

Raising girls in this culture must be very difficult. I’d like to say that when I have a daughter, she’ll never watch these trashy shows (including Disney Channel) and think it’s ok to act like that. But realistically, I know you can’t keep your kid away from all that stuff. I would love for my future daughter to just watch stuff like Anne of Green Gables, or Pride and Prejudice (because those are some kick ass role models), but I wouldn’t want her to be a freak and not know what’s going on in popular culture. It just seems like an overwhelming problem that’s not going away any time soon.