Hi! Random thought...but I was watching movie trailers and I came across the trailer for the Princess and the Frog disney movie we talked about in class...it looks interesting! Here is the link...
http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/princessandthefrog/
Friday, May 15, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Is VH1"s New Reality Show "Tough Love" Really Helping Women?
VH1 has recently aired a show called "Tough Love." The show is hosted by Steve Ward, a successful matchmaker. The show picks eight single women, unsuccessful in love, and puts them into an eight-week "boot camp" with Steve. Occasionally, Steve's mother, also a successful matchmaker, appears on the show to help Steve find love for his loveless female clients. At boot camp Steve gives the women a 'crash course' on the male perspective. He also sets the women up on dates and analyzes their interactions with men. Afterwards, Steve bluntly critiques the women about what they are doing right, but more importantly, what they are doing wrong; in other words, what these women do or don't do that keeps them from making connections with men and finding love with men. So far, the show seems like a great way to help these lonely single women. However, condsider the following....
In one of the first episodes of "Tough Love," Steve brings in a small group of men to give input about the single women. One by one each of the women comes outside and walks by the men and stands there for them to look at and judge her strictly on her appearence. After she leaves, the men then give Steve their honest opinion about each of the women. Most of their opinions happen to be not so nice and very rude and hurtful. Does this seem to be helpful to the women? What kind of message is this sending to viewers? Men stand there and hasrshly judge these women without ever knowing them or speaking to them. I think that this reinforces the idea that women are to be seen and not heard, and also that they are objects to be looked at and judged by men.
In one of the other episodes Steve sets up a game show with a male audience. Each of the men in the audience has a sign that says "crazy" on one side and "cute" on the other. Steven reads aloud a fact about each of the women. After each fact is stated, the men stick up their sign and tell the women that the fact told about them either makes them sound "cute" or "crazy." The men just so happen to think that most of the facts read about the women make them sound "crazy," and many of the women are visibly humiliated by this. Is it really necessary to make a game show out of these women's personal preferences and habits in order to help them find love? Doesn't this again put these women on display for entertainment purposes rather than treating them as individuals? It seems to me that the game show made a mockery of these women for the sake of making "Tough Love" a hit show for VH1.
In another episode the women are once again put on display, this time as sex objects. The women have to participate in a photo shoot, dressed in sexy underwear or little clothing to show off their sex appeal. Then Steve, once again, brings in men to judge each of the women's photos. The women's success with this challenge is based solely upon the feedback of the men.
In my opionion, the main point of this show is to teach women how to gain male approval so that they can find love. Although some of the women say that Steve and his mother have taught them to value and love themselves first before they set them up to find love, these lessons don't seem to make it into the show.
Here are some links that might help you if you have never seen the show or don't know what it's about:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llg4mkcc78Y and videogum.com/archives/reality-tv/vh1s-tough-love-has-an-importa_056141.html?
So what do you think about this show?? Do you think that Steve Ward and his mother are truly trying to help these women or make a good television show? Do you think that the message this show sends is that women cannot be complete and happy until they find love with a man? Talk about your views and opinions of the show.
In one of the first episodes of "Tough Love," Steve brings in a small group of men to give input about the single women. One by one each of the women comes outside and walks by the men and stands there for them to look at and judge her strictly on her appearence. After she leaves, the men then give Steve their honest opinion about each of the women. Most of their opinions happen to be not so nice and very rude and hurtful. Does this seem to be helpful to the women? What kind of message is this sending to viewers? Men stand there and hasrshly judge these women without ever knowing them or speaking to them. I think that this reinforces the idea that women are to be seen and not heard, and also that they are objects to be looked at and judged by men.
In one of the other episodes Steve sets up a game show with a male audience. Each of the men in the audience has a sign that says "crazy" on one side and "cute" on the other. Steven reads aloud a fact about each of the women. After each fact is stated, the men stick up their sign and tell the women that the fact told about them either makes them sound "cute" or "crazy." The men just so happen to think that most of the facts read about the women make them sound "crazy," and many of the women are visibly humiliated by this. Is it really necessary to make a game show out of these women's personal preferences and habits in order to help them find love? Doesn't this again put these women on display for entertainment purposes rather than treating them as individuals? It seems to me that the game show made a mockery of these women for the sake of making "Tough Love" a hit show for VH1.
In another episode the women are once again put on display, this time as sex objects. The women have to participate in a photo shoot, dressed in sexy underwear or little clothing to show off their sex appeal. Then Steve, once again, brings in men to judge each of the women's photos. The women's success with this challenge is based solely upon the feedback of the men.
In my opionion, the main point of this show is to teach women how to gain male approval so that they can find love. Although some of the women say that Steve and his mother have taught them to value and love themselves first before they set them up to find love, these lessons don't seem to make it into the show.
Here are some links that might help you if you have never seen the show or don't know what it's about:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llg4mkcc78Y and videogum.com/archives/reality-tv/vh1s-tough-love-has-an-importa_056141.html?
So what do you think about this show?? Do you think that Steve Ward and his mother are truly trying to help these women or make a good television show? Do you think that the message this show sends is that women cannot be complete and happy until they find love with a man? Talk about your views and opinions of the show.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)