![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
citrusjavaI don't like Sheldon. There are some groundbreaking things about him even existing in prime time, but I'm not fond of him like so many people seem to be. This week, though, I was so team Sheldon.
Leonard did something that put Sheldon's (apparent) OCD into action, and asked Sheldon to hold back and not express the way it influences him. Cause sure, that's super-easy, and not at all something people with OCD struggle to do anyway, most of the time. Then Leonard mocked Sheldon a bit, cause why not. Sheldon agreed - as long as Leonard wore a scratchy sweater until the issue was resolved, so he'd experience a discomfort somewhat like Sheldon's. *disregards the rest of the story*
Um, yeah, yes please. *orders a crate of scratchy sweaters, now*
One of the main things I've liked about ANTM is that it doesn't disregard social issues. Yeah, there really still is a lot to be desired, but it had more fat(ish), trans*, people with disabilities(ish), women and POC than most stuff that's as mainstream. There are problems to that too, but visibility is something.
On the other hand, I really don't get the way the show constructs the narrative of the contestants belonging to groups with less power. Seems like it's very often "they didn't make it because they belong to that group", like it's a tragic flaw.
The first transgender contestant was eliminated over a bathing suit shoot - she was worried about not passing and, I assume, being ridiculed, and having her gender nationally "proved to be wrong". The second transgender contestant left because her hormone treatment made her weak. Fat contestants were often sent home after shoots that rattled them cause there were no clothes in their size (production issue), or clients didn't hire them because they weren't looking for a plus-size model, things like that. IIRC, there were similar narratives when it came to contestants who had physical or mental issues too. So "not fitting" the not-at-all-constructed set of requirements is all about the people who don't fit it, not the choice of requirements.
But in general, in ANTM, the judges took the official position of being supportive. This season they weren't even there, with Cory, the gay contestant who - heaven forbid - was not straight acting. I was surprised that was even a problem, but turns out it was, and he was continuously criticized for not being masculine enough, in a show that supposedly celebrates diversity. Seems like not everyone was clear on that part, as well, since things like his makeover made him more androgynous, not less.
All that is crap, but it's common. What I don't get is that the episode before he was eliminated, they cranked the "he's fabulously androgynous" narrative way way up. And kept talking about how important it was that he won. Then they cast him in a super-macho, super-het role no one else had to do. And eliminated him because he didn't do it perfectly (did it better than some of the straight contestants would have, but why would he even have to do that anyway?). Then they eliminated him in a way that was simply mean, a few minutes before he had to go on stage.
I don't get what they're trying to do with this. Just amplify emotion and generate discussion at the expense of the show's integrity? Get people annoyed enough to stop watching, since they're really tired of making this show? Or are the effort to make things dramatic and the effort to brand the models (where a lot of the social stuff comes from) just both automatic, and they don't really consider the results? Or, of course, they just believe those things are true?
Also, I'm really no expert on this, but the way they kept talking Bali about sounded to me so colonialism-yay.
Leonard did something that put Sheldon's (apparent) OCD into action, and asked Sheldon to hold back and not express the way it influences him. Cause sure, that's super-easy, and not at all something people with OCD struggle to do anyway, most of the time. Then Leonard mocked Sheldon a bit, cause why not. Sheldon agreed - as long as Leonard wore a scratchy sweater until the issue was resolved, so he'd experience a discomfort somewhat like Sheldon's. *disregards the rest of the story*
Um, yeah, yes please. *orders a crate of scratchy sweaters, now*
One of the main things I've liked about ANTM is that it doesn't disregard social issues. Yeah, there really still is a lot to be desired, but it had more fat(ish), trans*, people with disabilities(ish), women and POC than most stuff that's as mainstream. There are problems to that too, but visibility is something.
On the other hand, I really don't get the way the show constructs the narrative of the contestants belonging to groups with less power. Seems like it's very often "they didn't make it because they belong to that group", like it's a tragic flaw.
The first transgender contestant was eliminated over a bathing suit shoot - she was worried about not passing and, I assume, being ridiculed, and having her gender nationally "proved to be wrong". The second transgender contestant left because her hormone treatment made her weak. Fat contestants were often sent home after shoots that rattled them cause there were no clothes in their size (production issue), or clients didn't hire them because they weren't looking for a plus-size model, things like that. IIRC, there were similar narratives when it came to contestants who had physical or mental issues too. So "not fitting" the not-at-all-constructed set of requirements is all about the people who don't fit it, not the choice of requirements.
But in general, in ANTM, the judges took the official position of being supportive. This season they weren't even there, with Cory, the gay contestant who - heaven forbid - was not straight acting. I was surprised that was even a problem, but turns out it was, and he was continuously criticized for not being masculine enough, in a show that supposedly celebrates diversity. Seems like not everyone was clear on that part, as well, since things like his makeover made him more androgynous, not less.
All that is crap, but it's common. What I don't get is that the episode before he was eliminated, they cranked the "he's fabulously androgynous" narrative way way up. And kept talking about how important it was that he won. Then they cast him in a super-macho, super-het role no one else had to do. And eliminated him because he didn't do it perfectly (did it better than some of the straight contestants would have, but why would he even have to do that anyway?). Then they eliminated him in a way that was simply mean, a few minutes before he had to go on stage.
I don't get what they're trying to do with this. Just amplify emotion and generate discussion at the expense of the show's integrity? Get people annoyed enough to stop watching, since they're really tired of making this show? Or are the effort to make things dramatic and the effort to brand the models (where a lot of the social stuff comes from) just both automatic, and they don't really consider the results? Or, of course, they just believe those things are true?
Also, I'm really no expert on this, but the way they kept talking Bali about sounded to me so colonialism-yay.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-11-16 02:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-18 06:27 pm (UTC)here's what we like about you, now stop doing it all the time
LOL
Yeah.
Have you seen the All-Star season? They did something there that was just so ignorant and stupid, they should have gotten their asses kicked for it for sure.
As for guilty pleasures - seems like a whole lot of queer people like ANTM. I also like The Bachelor/ette and Bachelor Pad, so I'm a lost cause, myself :) :) :)
no subject
Date: 2013-11-19 04:33 am (UTC)I don't think ANTM really counts as bad TV though does it? I mean, as far as reality shows go, it seems to be one of the better ones. ANTM, Project Runway, and The Amazing Race are the only reality shows I actually make an effort to watch.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-19 05:49 am (UTC)I agree, it is pretty good in some ways. I suppose I should have said "naughty TV" ;)
no subject
Date: 2013-11-19 06:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-22 07:33 pm (UTC)Penny apologising this season for dismissing Sheldon's feelings felt really unusual actually, the show normally just laugh's at OCD Sheldon and his quirks and rarely treats his feelings as legitimate and real for him. And then even that scene ends on Penny insisting on a hug over a handshake, which is played as cute, even though we know that Sheldon has a germ phobia and really doesn't care for that kind of physical contact
no subject
Date: 2013-11-22 08:09 pm (UTC)