Chelsea Morganelli
2/20/15
Blog Entry 4
In the book The
Rise of Enlightened Sexism by Susan Douglas, the introduction “Fantasies of
Power” discusses enlightened sexism. One part of Douglas’s explanation of
enlightened sexism that stuck out to me was the irony. She explains, “The
people on the screen may be rich, spoiled, or beautiful, but you, O superior
viewer, get to judge and mock them, and thus are above them” (Douglas, 14).
Douglas talks about television shows like My
Super Sweet Sixteen and the viewer mocking the people on the show. This TV
show usually has a spoiled girl throwing a huge party with tons of people and
an extravagant theme costing their parents thousands of dollars. The irony of
this is the viewer watching it and getting sucked into mocking and laughing at
the show.
I feel that there are many more TV shows just like My Super Sweet Sixteen that allow the
viewer to mock the people on the TV show. A show that comes to mind is Jersey Shore. This show put a number of Italian people in a house for the
summer. They would go out to clubs at night and had family dinners on Sundays. Viewers
were shocked by this show and how the people on it acted. But the shock factor
keeps viewers entertained and wanting to see what happens next. The irony of it
is thinking that a show is ridiculous but still watching it and giving the
people on the show money to act ridiculous.
Although people were mad about the show they all watched it because it went on for 6 seasons and spin off shows.
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