tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778441.post7573332015341835014..comments2023-12-19T06:54:20.572-05:00Comments on Answer Girl: Real Housewives of My Existential CrisisEllen Clair Lambhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14944288413332520719noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778441.post-47846348044454850532014-08-20T09:43:48.059-04:002014-08-20T09:43:48.059-04:00Tom, thank you for that. Maybe what troubles me is...Tom, thank you for that. Maybe what troubles me is the assertion of "reality," and the apparent assumption of these women — who <i>are</i> playing TV characters based on themselves — that their lives are something to be aspired to. I was unquestionably in the wrong frame of mind to watch the show when I did; maybe I'll go back to it when I'm not feeling so uncertain of my own reality. And I do need to read the Mapp and Lucia books.Ellen Clair Lambhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14944288413332520719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778441.post-8385657135645191322014-08-20T06:14:26.380-04:002014-08-20T06:14:26.380-04:00I am one of you intelligent friends who love to wa...I am one of you intelligent friends who love to watch the Housewives. I often ask how such dumb people can be so successfully monetarily. I also partially enjoy watching because they make me feel better about my life and my ability to communicate with other humans.<br /><br />I had a recent experience, however, that showed me the Housewife shows in a different light. Have you ever read the E.F. Benson novel Mapp & Lucia (1930ish) or seen the wonderful 1980s television adaptation of same? I have read and seen it many times, but I recently just watched again and was struck how much Benson's characters are like Real Housewives. They are petty and conniving for sport. Sabotaging their 'friendships' just enough to cause drama but not so much that they have to stop being social with each other. Alcohol and contrived situations abound to bring them all into each other's presences. Allegiances change as boredom sets in and change again when that seems like more fun. Egos abound.<br /><br />The women of the Bravo shows may think they want to be taken seriously, but there real interest is money. Vicki, the queen bee of the OC franchise and the longest serving of any housewife makes about $750,000 a season.<br /><br />Until I re-watched the Benson dramatization I thought the Housewives were a sign of how low we sunk. Now I see them playing out some human desire to be amused by others misbehaving. Could getting satisfaction from the petty bitchiness be any less perverted than enjoying murder mysteries or even gorier sorts of crime fiction? When being a voyeur of bad behavior why is the former seen as trashier or more base than the latter?Thomas Hogglestockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14284352537015457974noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778441.post-25492497026734881822014-08-18T10:51:17.062-04:002014-08-18T10:51:17.062-04:00That's why I say that watching the show actual...That's why I say that watching the show actually made me a worse person. Those women behave terribly, in general and to each other, and yet they enjoy a lifestyle I always thought had to be earned in some way. How do they earn this lifestyle? It's not one I aspire to, but if I did, I'd never be able to earn it, no matter how hard I worked. If they deserve it and I don't, that makes me question all of the moral and social values I have received in my 48 years. If I deserve it and they don't, what do I do with all that rage? I have no time for class rage, and it bores me. I miss scripted television.Ellen Clair Lambhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14944288413332520719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778441.post-67328220858619007242014-08-18T09:26:37.591-04:002014-08-18T09:26:37.591-04:00A quote I can never find when I go looking for goe...A quote I can never find when I go looking for goes along the lines of "Put an orange on TV, and people will be sending the orange fan mail within a week." Shows like this one operate on that level while also feeding viewers' depressing dreams that they, too, could be famous"if only."<br /><br />The real problem with "reality" television is that the shows are both largely scripted and heavily edited to create conflict. Because of the cognitive dissonance TV creates, though, a large majority of viewers perceive the shenanigans as documentary footage. And, monkey-see, they act just ever so much worse toward the people they interact with at home and work.<br /><br />Whatever the intent of "Real Housewives" and its ilk, its effect is a coarsening and devolution of social norms and mores. Not that people were paragons of virtue and decorum to begin with, but you never saw June Cleaver screw the neighbor and throw a liquor bottle at Ward.<br /><br />-- EdEd Lambhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15413250256732954601noreply@blogger.com