Some People Still Watch TV And Get What They Deserve

July 16, 2008 / 12:19 am • By Dr. Melissa Clouthier


Ok, that’s an obnoxious headline because five minutes ago I was bitching about stupid producers putting amoral crap smack in family programming, never mind the commercials about “ED” and douching. But come on, Rachel, the Home and Garden channel? Sigh. Well, for a while, I was addicted to Trading Spaces and marveled at the butt-ugly designs these so-called interior decorators would come up with for under $1000. I think they just hate people and enjoy watching them suffer, but I digress.

So, Rachel is watching women beat down men while looking for houses:

They are so proud of the fact that they own 50 pairs of shoes and two metric tons of cocktail dresses, and that they’ve shown their husband who’s boss by hogging all the closet space. You can see it in their eyes, every time, how cutely sassy they think they’re being. It is absolutely revolting.

I also love how they make a big deal out of pretending that they care what hubby thinks. Some of them are so brazenly unashamed – and proud – of how thoroughly they’ve emasculated their man that they even look right in the camera with a dull-eyed evil grin and say things like, “I like to let him think his opinions count, too.” Die, lady. Just die.

You’d almost feel sorry for these guys but you know what? They’re adults. They made a choice to marry these psychos and knock them up repeatedly, and to allow themselves to be relegated to “just-another-kid” status. Tough shit. Get a helmet.

A couple things occur to me here:

  • 1. Anyone who consents to be videotaped doing anything for TV–giving birth, getting married, buying a house, surviving an island, singing, chatting about problems to Oprah–is a dumbass. These shows thrive on other people’s stupidity. And Americans watch them because they think “That is the stupidest person I have ever seen, thank God I am not that stupid.” In short, reality programming exists to boost the low self esteem of ordinary Americans, and it works! Phil Donohue was a revolutionary psychologist.

    2. Specifically, I suspect that the man ceded his testicles when he signed the papers to go on the show. I can just hear the conversation right now, “I don’t think this is such a good idea, honey.” She bats her eyes and says, “It will be fun!” He’s already in the habit of going along to get along, and so the show just captures the nonsense for all to see. He might want to box her ears, but to do so would land him in jail and earn him very public scorn.

    3. Blog women have more testosterone. That’s the only conclusion I can come to. I do not own 50 pairs of shoes and my closet is embarrassing and not because it has metric tonnes of clothing, but because most articles could be wadded up and used to dust. Whenever I travel somewhere or go to some gathering, I have to go shopping and not because I want the latest greatest, but because it will probably be inappropriate to show up in lounge pants and a t-shirt to said social event. Normal women (read: any woman who doesn’t blog–I know, this is rather broad) seem to really like shoe shopping, shopping in general, buying clothes, and once they have kids, talking about juvenile bowel habits. Many blog women of the political persuasion seem mystified by this whole world. I admit it: Non-blog women seem like a whole different species.

    My sister visits, looks in my closet, looks at me and registers deep dismay. She got the “girlie” gene. So I guess what I’m saying is, that to a certain extent, the cliché of women owning a copious amount of shoes and too many clothes exists because it must be a reality for many, many women. And if my experience is representative, it does seem to be true of many women. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing unless the woman in question is so materialistic that she’ll spend her husband into misery to feed her habit. I think men like a well-turned out wife and will trade closet space for her beauty. One doesn’t require the other, mind you.

    4. Bitchy women seem to be the reinforced norm, these days. Sex and the City got on my last nerve because those women were superficial and seemed intent on crapping on every nice guy that came along. Not to mention, the girls themselves acted like hound-dogs. It is a disturbing trend and ridiculous. It seems to be trendy to yell, instead of discuss. It seems to be trendy to make impossible demands and then be pissed when they’re not met. It seems trendy to disparage men in every media situation. Women are smart. Men are dumb.

    • What will reverse this frustrating tide? I don’t know. Men may revolt and give up women and encourage legalized prostitution like some of the commenters recommended. Men may just consign themselves to lead single and happy (well, happier than being with a shrewish woman) lives. Or, as Rachel suggests, men might go gay. But I have to say, that last choice might be jumping out of the frying pan and into the fryer.

    Posted in Corrupted Culture • Entertain Me • Mind
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    • Barry

      Hmm, I do not know where I fit in. More of a guy who jumped out of the frying pan, but made it off to the side enough to avoid the fire. I gave up on women, but do not endorse prostitution, ( no way in hell would I want to see my daughters selling their bodies), nor will I ever be gay. I am not a priest either. I am just…huh. single. And not intending to change that anytime soon. I am simply, sexually inactive, and not looking to change that status. Maybe the kids have a little to do with it, they rejected the only person that I have ever dated since my ex divorced me, and the kids lived with me, so were a bit of a bigger part of how my life went. For me, it was more about my kids than me. And now, well, haveing lived the last 15 years mostly a single parent, I guess I have little incentive to rejoin the dateing game. Never liked it much anyway. Guess there is not allot of guys like me, but you asked, so I gave ya another perspective.

    • http://n/a kevin barry

      In the long history of American entertainment there have been many examples of “freak shows”. usually we think of old fashioned circus freak shows, but they have existed in other forms as well, on stage, in film, and all over T.V.
      The concept of the “other” is what leads people to want to watch people who we think are less fortunate than we are. We watch them to laugh at them, we watch them because we are afraid of them. It is an old, old form of entertainment and it thrives on cable T.V. today.
      Sadly, I wonder if more people don’t try to emulate the freaks, rather than mock them.

    • Joe

      Seems like someone needs to watch more Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers. These are jobs even us manly men are too chicken shit to do.

    • Mike Schneider

      Those coyotes on “Sex and the City” all secretly dream of getting boinked by well-hung “Dirty Jobs” men, but would never dare admit it — and none of those men would ever have anything to do with them anyway.

      So they go to their stupid clubs and hope to shag that fifteen-years-younger guy (who’s gay).

      Goooood luck.

      And the “shoe ladies” are all just Imelda Marcos wannabes.

    • bee

      Women have been hoisted upon us as the uber consumerists. This begun post WWII. We now have women who consume at a sicken rate. They clog our landfills will garbage to fill our rivers and lakes will chemicals ranging from conditioners to hormones (the Pill). These super women should be labeled environmental disasters and a threat to our planet.