The Jersey Shore

I did not want to do this but I must expose, "The Jersey Shore." It pains me to speak on the show in a negative fashion, as I have enjoyed watching this show since it first aired in 2009, but we must speak on the concepts that not everybody sees. First things first, The Jersey Shore is an MTV reality television series that revolves around a cast of 8 people who have been on the show since season 1. The cast is portrayed as Italian Americans based around the east coast but spend the summers together in New Jersey to film the show. It involves a ton of partying and drinking as the cast goes to the club, what seems like every night. It was a hit TV show that aired 2009-2012 but was followed by other reality shows that would revolve around different cast members personal lives away from the summer home. As this show has become a guilty pleasure, it is a must that I analyze it for the sake of this class.

Exclusion: When I started to think about the show going back to season 1, I could never really think about a time in the series where there was a cast member who wasn't light skinned. The closest the show got, was when the crew would go tanning and ended up a whole other shade of skin tone. I couldn't seem to remember there being any major cast member or even a secondary cast member that was not a light skinned Italian American. Not even the people that were in the club when they went out, I don't think. I could be wrong but the fact that I cant remember there ever being a time, must mean something. I love this show but it seems like the only people I see making the screen is light skinned Italian Americans. Light skinned. 

Stereotyping: This might have been the easiest one to point out because the show portrayed Italian Americans to be these big buff tanned dudes with a ton of gel in their hair while the girls were also very tanned and loved to drink and go clubbing. It made me wonder how it made all the Italians across the US feel and what their thoughts were on the show. It made it looked like all they cared about was tanning, getting fit, and going out partying. That is the whole show and its crazy how it attracts all of the audience including myself. Our eyes get glued to the TV and now I'm questioning why. While also watching the new season... Its a crazy thing.

Assimilation: At first I was going to say it didn't apply but then I would've been 100% wrong. When looking at the show, all it shows is 2nd or 3rd generation Italian Americans, fist pumping (a dance move) and living life to their happiness while it does not show what the hard working parents did to be successful in this country as immigrants or children of immigrants. It doesn't at all show what the everyday life of an Italian is in America but only films 8 Italian Americans, parting it up 24/7. It stripped them from the deep deep culture that is rooted in traditions of being Italian. No I am not Italian but I do know that the Italian culture is one of the most deeply rooted and tradition heavy cultures that resign in our nation. The show has no show for that.

Tokenism: I believe I could say that the show "does not feature." 

Othering: I also think that this does not feature.

Ideology of Difference: I guess for this concept, the only thing I could think of is the cast not all being pure Italian. There is a few cast members that are not Italian at all so I guess you could say that they are submitting to a different culture so they could fit in with the show. But at the same time, the show doesn't represent the true Italian culture so its kind of hard to apply. I guess you could say that they are submitting to the MTV reality TV culture to fit in with the partying and drama starting, rather than trying to be Italian because that is not what the show, shows.

Exoticism: The TV show does not do the group justice whatsoever when it comes to intelligence. It makes all the cast members look somewhat air headed as it also makes the woman in the house look like they're just sexual objects. They do not make the crew look like they care about anything in this world except for partying and it gives them the label of being meat heads. The stereotypical gym guy who doesn't seem to critically think about anything other than lifting weights. Obviously this was not the real case because most of the crew came out on top with business venues, most notably "Pauly D," whose made millions of dollars with clothing and headphone brands while also taking his DJ talents across the world. The show did not represent them well except when it came to partying. Completely stripping them of any portrayal of having an impact on society.. in a positive light.

After all this analyzing, I'm still going to enjoy watching the show. I cant help it. Its funny how there is a lot that's "messed up" with a lot of the most Favorited shows that we watch and we still watch them. After all this analysis, I just told myself that these guys are all millionaires. So if they look stupid to some people. I'm pretty sure they could care less.