A Defence of Emos, Britney Spears and Reality TV
Emos
Alright, folks. Enough of the emo hate. As I understand, it has become a social norm to blindly hate on emos for no apparent real reason. I say this because the only lame objections I hear about them are things such as, "yeah, they cry all the time", "they're annoying", "they dress like each other" or "they hang out in medium to large sized groups in the city". So freaking what? Even if you did have some sort of distaste for tear-prone, annoying, similarly dressed people who loiter in the city, I'd like to introduce you to the concept of The Teenager. That *is* their job description, emo or no emo. And odds are, you were (or are) very much like that too, so less of the hate, please. Anyways, if the Violent Femmes are considered emo, then sign me up, baby.
Britney
In case you're going to assume I'm some sort of Brit fangirl, let me tell you that the the extent of my past Britney sympathy slash fandom includes buying a cassette tape of her first album in Grade 7 and digging the songs she sang produced by the Neptunes. If anything, I used to be quite critical of the message she was sending to young girls with that whole virgin-whore image thing.
So what exactly is my beef with Britney hate then? Well, basically, I feel like she should be treated like a human being and deserves some basic form of respect. For god's sake, leave the poor girl alone! What did Britney do to deserve people talking publicly and trying to shame her about her lack of virginity, to repeatedly dub her fashion taste as horrid, to point and gasp at her post-pregnancy weight gain, to splash around her failed marriage, to take non-consensual pictures of her groin, to accuse of her of being a bad mother, to shake their head at her partying etc, etc? Just because she chose to be a pop singer doesn't mean that she signed up to this kind of treatment. Nobody signs up to this kind of treatment!
Reality TV
I agree with a lot of people that scripted dramas and comedies have suffered significantly since the rise in popularity of reality TV. Furthermore, I am genuinely saddened by this. Having said this, I only feel that scripted TV has been stepping up only very recently to met the challenge posed by reality TV. I also think that reality TV cops a lot of slander that it just doesn't deserve.
The most annoying criticisms of reality TV is that whole "but, like, the show isn't realistic even though it's called reality TV, eh, eh" argument. I am disturbed that this is even an argument at all, because I don't see why a genre of TV (or almost anything for that matter) should be constrained to only be what its name suggests. I'd also like to point out that although the circumstances are artificial, the protagonists are not actors reading out scripted lines, so the dialogue and interaction is somewhat more 'real'.
I can't defend all reality TV - some of it is pretty great and a lot of it is terrible, just like any other genre of TV. I do, however, know that shows like The Biggest Loser are insanely and quite uniquely inspirational and incredible to watch. The sociological or psychological observations gained from Big Brother, Survivor, Beauty and the Geek or even Queer Eye are often tough to parallel in scripted TV. Plus, if you give it a go, reality TV's a lot fun and even a little addictive to watch.
Alright, folks. Enough of the emo hate. As I understand, it has become a social norm to blindly hate on emos for no apparent real reason. I say this because the only lame objections I hear about them are things such as, "yeah, they cry all the time", "they're annoying", "they dress like each other" or "they hang out in medium to large sized groups in the city". So freaking what? Even if you did have some sort of distaste for tear-prone, annoying, similarly dressed people who loiter in the city, I'd like to introduce you to the concept of The Teenager. That *is* their job description, emo or no emo. And odds are, you were (or are) very much like that too, so less of the hate, please. Anyways, if the Violent Femmes are considered emo, then sign me up, baby.
Britney
In case you're going to assume I'm some sort of Brit fangirl, let me tell you that the the extent of my past Britney sympathy slash fandom includes buying a cassette tape of her first album in Grade 7 and digging the songs she sang produced by the Neptunes. If anything, I used to be quite critical of the message she was sending to young girls with that whole virgin-whore image thing.
So what exactly is my beef with Britney hate then? Well, basically, I feel like she should be treated like a human being and deserves some basic form of respect. For god's sake, leave the poor girl alone! What did Britney do to deserve people talking publicly and trying to shame her about her lack of virginity, to repeatedly dub her fashion taste as horrid, to point and gasp at her post-pregnancy weight gain, to splash around her failed marriage, to take non-consensual pictures of her groin, to accuse of her of being a bad mother, to shake their head at her partying etc, etc? Just because she chose to be a pop singer doesn't mean that she signed up to this kind of treatment. Nobody signs up to this kind of treatment!
Reality TV
I agree with a lot of people that scripted dramas and comedies have suffered significantly since the rise in popularity of reality TV. Furthermore, I am genuinely saddened by this. Having said this, I only feel that scripted TV has been stepping up only very recently to met the challenge posed by reality TV. I also think that reality TV cops a lot of slander that it just doesn't deserve.
The most annoying criticisms of reality TV is that whole "but, like, the show isn't realistic even though it's called reality TV, eh, eh" argument. I am disturbed that this is even an argument at all, because I don't see why a genre of TV (or almost anything for that matter) should be constrained to only be what its name suggests. I'd also like to point out that although the circumstances are artificial, the protagonists are not actors reading out scripted lines, so the dialogue and interaction is somewhat more 'real'.
I can't defend all reality TV - some of it is pretty great and a lot of it is terrible, just like any other genre of TV. I do, however, know that shows like The Biggest Loser are insanely and quite uniquely inspirational and incredible to watch. The sociological or psychological observations gained from Big Brother, Survivor, Beauty and the Geek or even Queer Eye are often tough to parallel in scripted TV. Plus, if you give it a go, reality TV's a lot fun and even a little addictive to watch.