Jersey Shore: Fist-Pumping, Hair Gel, and No Sense of Shame
MTV’s new show, Jersey Shore, is a hit. Whether people are watching it for the train wreck possibilities or because they actually enjoy it doesn’t matter. MTV put a crass, decadent show on the air and is being rewarded for it. From Wikipedia:
Jersey Shore is a television series on MTV that follows 8 housemates spending their summer on the Jersey Shore. In it, the show examines the lives of young adults living and vacationing on the various resort towns in the northern part of the Jersey Shore, more specifically the town of Seaside Heights, where they live in a common living space and help to run a t-shirt store. The show plays upon the stereotype of the guido.
The show is full of fist-pumping, hair gel, and people who have no sense of shame.
I’m no prude. Nor do I have anything against reality shows. I’ve been known to watch Wife Swap and I’m a big fan of Cops and Intervention. But Jersey Shore has accomplished what no reality show before — no matter how tasteless, worthless, or contrived — has. It has infuriated me.
As a parent, it horrifies me. As an Italian, it embarrasses me. As a woman, it demeans me. And as a human being, it disgusts me.
The young adults in this show have nicknames like J-WOWW and “The Situation.” They are obsessed with their bodies, tanning, and sex. The girls openly talk about trying to sleep with as many guys as they can. One spoke candidly about stealing guys from other girls. The guys are rough and abrasive; in the opener, one guy gets physically abusive with one of the girls. They are vain, self-obsessed egomaniacs who spend hours on physical and cosmetic self-improvement but not one minute on improving their personalities. Which are, to say the least, offensive.
I look at Jersey Shore and the first thing that comes to my mind is that their parents are watching. Then I think that there’s got to be a reason they think this is all right. Were all these kids raised to believe that they are the best looking? Were they raised to think that they deserve to be worshiped and that they’re the ultimate catch for any member of the opposite sex? Do they think sex is just a game or a hobby? They had to get the idea somewhere that this behavior is acceptable, and I’m guessing it’s from nobody ever telling them it’s not acceptable. At least not in normal society.
Jersey Shore is not normal society. It’s a microcosm of a small culture of the people known as guidos and guidettes, whose type was made popular by the show Growing up Gotti. They embrace every Italian stereotype and make those stereotypes larger than life.
As a Long Island transplant living in Seattle, I often get annoyed with the left-wing granola freaks around here … it sounds like I may have found a cure for that if I can stomach it.
Please don’t be offended but the reason my husband and I moved our family to the Mid West is because we saw way too much “Jersey Shore” living in the Mid Atlantic state we were living in. After 12 years away from home we moved back east so our children could get to know their family. What they got to know however were people (some in their family, most not) who spent their entire week working up to the weekend. Parents would drop their kids off at Grandma’s for the weekend and then proceed to get royally lit, sleep around, get stoned all weekend, sobering up on Sunday nights so they could pick up little “Guido” in order to go to work Monday morning.
Yes I realize not everyone is like this, but so many are that we were truly afraid for our children to go over to someone else’s house. Children are not taken to church, have little or no moral training and are so shallow, vain, and money focused that they make the characters on this show seem normal. There is a whole sub culture that acts this way. In the past they would have been marginalized but today thanks to the culture assassins in Hollywood they are celebrated.
Sigh.
Michele, stereotypes exist because significant numbers of people fit them.
You’re absolutely correct that the behavior you describe is both disgraceful and atypical of Americans of Italian descent in the main. But there are communities in which it exists…and one or two in which it’s prevalent.
I’m not an MTV watcher, haven’t seen Jersey Shore, and don’t plan to watch it. But please bear in mind that people don’t usually watch an entertainment for its correspondence to normal reality, but rather for its attention to departures from the norm. At least, that’s my own perspective, as I’d hate to think that Gran Torino accurately characterizes the majority of Vietnamese-Americans, or Sons of Anarchy accurately depicts the behavior of most Motorcycle-Americans!
The marketing for this show makes clear that you’re supposed to laugh AT these people, not with them. It’s jerry Springer with hair gel.
I’m confused. It’s ok to stereotype Italian-Americans, but NOT ok to stereotype African-Americans? If there were a “reality show” stereotyping African-Americans … can you imagine the outrage? (The NBA doesn’t count)
I don’t know about the rest of you, but my tv has an “off” switch as well as this channel-changer thingie. I can’t remember anything I have found on MTV to be worthy of my attention. And, I’m assuming (and hoping) that Darwin will take care of those who do.
I had a house at the Jersey shore for years until it bored me into FEMA-floods of seasonal affective disorder and I returned to the mountains for leisure pursuits. Maybe I was out of the loop, but as an Italian-American Jersey boy and father, I can’t say I ever saw anything like what this show is depicting. My kids never became socialized into such a sub-culture either. They were always redirected into a ‘Cuomo-style’ sensibility concerning ethinic pride for the good of the Republic. I think those commenters above are correct who recommend laughing at these Zeitgeist-deficient ‘yoots’.
How much you wanna bet 90% of these Guidos will settle down with wife and child and productive job before they hit 30?
What’s with the “I’m not a prude” stuff? In today’s society I would wear the Prude Label as a Badge of Courage. Prudes seem to be in short supply these days, and although I have never personally known a prude who tried to impose their prudish life style on me (accept perhaps those Jihadist types, but that’s off subject, and certainly open to debate), amoral idiots, on the other hand, seem to be multiplying like rabbits. They also seem to want all of us to accept their decadent behavior as the norm for our society. But then, at least they are open about their desire to change our society. (And I speak here of MTV, not the Jersey egomaniacs).
In my opinion, there is a wisdom and an integrity in prudish behavior (see the original use of the word) that has been lost somewhere in the profit margins of MTV and demonized by everyone from the MTV crowd to apparently, the somewhat smug purveyors of “hey, I’m not here to judge anyone, but…” crowd. I suspect this has been going on from the time of our original ancestors and their fall from grace. And I further suspect that the MTV crowd would just as live not tell us the rest of the story of their covering and redemption. Its just not in the cards.
At least you have picked up on the fact that there is a difference between allowing idiots the freedom to be idiots and the glorification of the same idiots by our mass media outlets. Apparently Dominos Pizza and American Family Insurance have come to this same conclusion.
Sure “Italian Stallion” does have a certain ring about it, at least when compared to “Italian Prude”, but you may eventually have to take up that cross to be a real difference maker. How about “Proud and Prude”? “Prudes for Progress”? “Prudes out of the Closet”? Or how about “Italian Prudes for a least a little Morality on TV” or “IPMTV”.
StephenW: I believe it was C.S. Lewis who noted that in every era, the character trait or flaw most feared is the one that sets itself against the conventional wisdom of that time or place. In a cruel society, people fear appearing “soft.” In societies ruled by rigid social conventions, like Victorian England, people were ashamed when they committed what seems to us relatively minor social blunders, like addressing a superior incorrectly or messing up the seating arrangements at a dinner party.
In our “anything goes” world, being called intolerant is what causes shame. In our sexually obsessed one, people are fearful of being called prudish. There are very few actual prudes around these days, if by prudish you mean people who are disgusted and embarrassed by all expressions of sexuality. But people still feel the need to qualify their dislike of promiscious, in-your-face vulgarity by saying “I’m not a prude,…,” because anybody who criticizes in-your-face vulgarity gets the prude label slapped on them.
When Mrs. Patrick Campbell, a Victorian-era actress, said “I don’t care what people do, as long as they don’t do it in the streets and frighten the horses” she was being remarkably open-minded for her time. Nowadays, her insistence on privacy would win her the title of – prude.
michele dont you think yor asking for sympathy on wrong site… you and the rest of the people on this site are black hating and muslim hating.
Michelle, MTV has been putting this cr@p on for years. I really do not understand this selective outrage. These idiots are self-labeling and self-promoting. Nothing is being inflicted on them.
The promotion of promiscuos sex, binge drinking and all the resultant activities is the hallmark MTV. Just because the “cast” is Italian shouldn’t be an impetus for sudden concern.
Being seriously shocked by anything on TV seems really quaint to me. This has been going on for a decade or more. They will, and have, put anything on the air that will get ratings, and almost anything will.
mr:
Oh good, I’m on the right site.
Well, if its any consolation, Joel McHale mocks them mercilessly on his E! show, The Soup. If you have tried to watch it and failed, give it another shot or two. It’s only a half hour and it is outrageously funny as it gives these people (and many others in the ‘entertainment’ media) the ridicule they deserve.
WELL SAID StephenW!
Why, Michele did you feel you had to premise your valid objection to such an abhorrent and idiotic program with “I’m no prude but….”? This relativism that has infected our society has got to be, not only challenged but fought against with ferocity.
It has come to the point where an ivy league university had to issue a rule that forbid a student from having sex while their room mate was in the dorm room. It’s come to this, no warmth, no self respect but the intimacy of two dogs humping and it’s programs such as THIS that promote it.
Television is continually pushing a lifestyle of narcissism and instant gratification to our young people to a degree that is astonishing in it’s intensity and yet we sit back and meekly accept it, more afraid to be thought a prude then of the harm such filth does to our children and teens.
I didn’t realize that there are actually people in our society who truly embody a stereotype to its fullest extent until I found out about this TV show…which is, of course, on MTV – where else?
People will always slow down to view a train wreck……….
Okay. So I flipped this on and tried to sit through an episode. *boring*
-But_
My husband [3/4 Italian 1/4 German] laughed when he glimpsed it whilst walking by and shouted, “Yo! Vinny ovah he-ya! Hoooooo!” in much the same way he made fun of Joey Buttafuoco in his best Andrew Dice Clay voice.
Seriously though, this show is lame AND boring.
Who watched this crap?-INDEED!
Unfortunately, this is typical MTV which looks to ridicule their reality people & exploit them for its own revenue. All MTV reality shows are like this. All of them. I’m not sure why this show has got more attention. Could it be New Jersey is next door to New York?
I’m sorry but … Joey Buttafucco.
Joey F’ing Buttafucco, baby!
If you’re lucky enough to be Italian (with all the blessings that entails) then at least be quaint enough to get over yourself.
I fail to see how this is any different than 90 pct of MTV programming over the last 20 years. I suppose because the stars of the show are Italian, it just gets more press.
Well, what did we expect? I watched a few minutes of “Jersey Shore” and really was disgusted and not in an entertaining or humorous way either. I do think the defensive I’m-no-prude-butism’s are unnecessary (though I suspect Michelle’s experience writing tells her otherwise and I respect that) and detract from the overall impact of the article.
The fact is that the characters on “Jersey Shore” are to the human race as vomit is to food, so if you feel a sense of revulsion when watching “Jersey Shore”, congratulations, it’s an indication that you still have some self-respect, sense of morality, and an understanding of the term “civilized” – unlike the walking stains-on-society depicted in that program.
Please, PLEASE don’t say Italian when you mean Italian-American. The cultural difference is enormous, even when you remove the Guido Factor.
It seems to me that anyone objecting to this is a prude who is also envious of these young hard-bodies. You just can’t stand that these young people are having mind-blowing sex all the time, and YOU flabby middle-aged prudes can barely register a tingle between the thighs.
Ahhh…If but for only one beautiful tarantella upon the tilt-a-whirl…
Michelle, you forgot one level of disgust. Not just as a parent, not just as a woman, not just as an Italian and not just as a human being but AS A CATHOLIC, this show really sets me on edge. There is no doubt these guidos and guidettes were raised by the sort of Catholics who identify as such because it is part of their “culture.” They the First Holy Communion, and they get Confirmed and then that’s it until they get married, and then, when they have kids, they start the cycle of “I’m-Catholic-but-it’s-meaningless-to-me” nonsense with their own children.
Which is why I will not be unhappy to see the “smaller” church that Pope Benedict envisions in our future. If people can’t be bothered trying to live by the precepts of Christianity, I wish they’d remove the big gold chains with the big crosses, from their necks.
So basically, with the exception of the weird names, Jersey Shore resembles your typical soap opera.
Got it.
From True Romance and the man called “eggplant” by Dennis Hopper:
“Vincenzo Coccotti: Sicilians are great liars. The best in the world. I’m Sicilian. My father was the world heavy-weight champion of Sicilian liars. From growing up with him I learned the pantomime. There are seventeen different things a guy can do when he lies to give himself away. A guys got seventeen pantomimes. A woman’s got twenty, but a guy’s got seventeen… but, if you know them, like you know your own face, they beat lie detectors all to hell. Now, what we got here is a little game of show and tell. You don’t wanna show me nothin’, but you’re tellin me everything. I know you know where they are, so tell me before I do some damage you won’t walk away from.”
Nothing could be closer to the truth than that statement. Look at the Gotti’s and then the Sopranos…they love being guidos and goombahs!
I am Irish, not Italian. I can only hope they never do a south Boston episode. This is a train wreck from top to bottom and they are exploiting young impressionable people. I am sure there are producers there egging these “contestants?” on and encouraging them to exhibit base and immoral behavior. That said they are adults, so they reap what they sow. They will have to answer to there mothers and fathers and priests when they don’t become the next John Gotti Jr. Jr.
This show magnifies every negative Italian Stereotype. Of the close knit ethnic groups in America they can get away with doing this with Italians, Jews, Irish, Polish, Scottish, Russian, Slavic, maybe Hispanic, but that is it. It in bad taste so I will not watch.
I live one mile from the house these kids were in.
Several of the guys at work watched the first episode…We’ve been laughing about it for weeks.
Trust me. This is the realest of the reality shows. The producers could have gone up on the boards any weekend in the summer and grabbed the first half dozen guidos they saw and got the same types.
Families go to Point beach, the bennies and quidos go to SeaSide.
Ahhh…If but for only one beautiful tarantella upon the tilt-a-whirl…
Lighten up. I like PJM because it doesn’t tell people how they ought to live their lives–even if they (or I) disagree with what people do with the freedoms they are given. I’ve seen the trailers, though not the show, sure: it looks bad but if that’s what those kids wanna do, let them. And like whyyeseyec said, people will slow down to watch their train wreck BECAUSE IT’S THEIR RIGHT TO DO SO IF THEY WANT TO TOO.
Why doesn’t MTV just call it the Pavlov Experiments instead of “reality show’…Or does that just have to be with “food”?…Either way, it’s tough to beat the Italians.
I can assure you that NO..ABSOLUTELY NO..ZERO GIRLS on the JERSEY SHORE LOOK
ANYWHERE LIKE THESE BABES…unless you think Mrs Potatohead in a MuMu is
hot stuff.
Michael: Holy Crap would a Southie series be great! Like the first 20 minutes of “Good Will Hunting” over and over.
trainer: I was waiting for a real NJ Shore guy to talk about “bennies.” We just wait until after Labor Day to head for Cape May.
Donna V., I have to agree with you (and, nice of Crusader to come along, and help make your point for you, by accusing us all of being prudes because we don’t adore this show, and dare criticize it!)
I say “prude” is a badge we start wearing with pride!
(By the way—does anybody remember the days when MTV actually made, you know, music videos? And featured honest-to-God musicians? Ahhh, I guess it’s prudish to long for a return to music. Much better to watch freakazoids punch each other in the head, and shout BLEEP!—When they’re not facing the camera, talking endlessly about their boring problems, and dysfunctional lives. We’re just jealous, because they’re so wonderful.)
And, of course, the term “reality show” is an oxymoron; there’s nothing real about this stuff. (It’s a lot cheaper for the networks to put on, though, instead of an actual drama, or comedy.)
Let’s see, liberties are being taken with people’s sensitivities. Viewership goes down. Advertising revenue goes down. Television networks are crying, baksheesh.
Well, as long as the culturally myopic deformed souls, zombies, reprobates, conclude there is money to be made by assaulting community standards – they will perpetuate their behaviour.
This show is a testament to the greatness of America. What other country, at any other time in history, would people this vapid, dimwitted, and self destructive be able to not only survive past childhood, but actually procreate and attempt to integrate in society as adults. If this was the 20′s these people would be walking advertisements for the Eugenics movement (“three generations of guidos is enough”). We have advanced so far technologically that people with no…ZERO life skills are able to live as adults in our society. It’s utterly amazing when you think about it.
I’m Italian and I think this show is hilarious. These tools need to be outed on television lest they continue to procreate and for generations perpetuate this retarded stereotype. Nobody I know, who’s got half a brain, would even begin to think this is the way “everyday” EYEtalians act.
Top 3 reasons why people should laugh and/or ignore this crap
Reason #1 it’s MTV….with shows like “16 and pregnant”, “the hills”, “my super sweet 16″, “the Osbournes”, and “jackass’…. all stellar examples of true life in America…… the same degenerate channel that continues to shove their progressive agenda down our throats on a daily basis and this is the only thing they could come up with to tune viewers in….
Reason #2 Look at them?!! Anyone who looks at any single one of these Ra-tards or them as a collective and thinks this represents an accurate depiction of any part of the Italian population needs to have their lobotomy reversed… use your brain people and insist that others use theirs as well. MTV also had a program named “The Idiot Box”….. If you pay to much attention to this show and get all bent out of shape over it, guess what? The box converted you….into an IDIOT.
Reason #3 I think the 1st two reasons covered it pretty well but people like the number 3 when it comes to reasons so here you are….
I could give a damn about a group of douchebaggered, mangina, frosted tip, fistpumping fairies and their over processed hair having, gum smacking, whorish housemates that look like 10 pounds of italian sausage in a 5 pound bag.
All us WOPs need to realize that we buck the stereotype every day by not being “Them”. screw anyone else who chooses to see this as reality.
Benny go home!
I have family that live on the Shore and this show nails it. What I want to know is who told these women that were the hottest thing around? I bet the guys are barely partially versed in anything but product for their hair, creotine shakes and doing reps.
Enjoyable & condemnable too. In fact any scene U see and brand as good, sweet enjoyable is condemned by otherfolks and the spectrum of these folks too change over time !
people will slow down to watch their train wreck BECAUSE IT’S THEIR RIGHT TO DO SO IF THEY WANT TO TOO.
Here you are absolutely wrong and short sighted. Your statement is based upon the false premise that if they destroy their lives it has zero impact on anyone else. Anyone whose life turn into a train wreck absolutely affects others, and the assumption that it is only their family and friends is also terribly wrong and short sighted.
Why you ask?
Because if one of those idiots ends up in jail they are fed, housed, and guarded by our tax money. Our tax dollars pay their probation officers, judge, and public defender. The other side of the spectrum is if one of the girls gets pregnant and ends up on government assistance because she has no idea who the father is to get child support from and has no life skills to actually support herself, that becomes her robbing you (and every other tax payer) by government proxy. Its not really that much different than if they were to walk into every home in your neighborhood and steal $50, the only real difference is that having the Government do the stealing makes it legal.
People who screw up their lives impact society in numerous ways and cost each and every one of us more of our income as the financial burden of the criminal justice (police and courts), penal systems increase (prisons and probation), and social programs rises. That doesn’t even take into account anyone harmed by them or potentially by their unwanted children.
The more taxes you pay the less you and your family have. For example, maybe you could afford to retire when you wanted to if you were able to keep more of your income over the years and actually pay for your kids college rather than taking out a second mortgage you have to pay off. Maybe if you were able to keep an extra 5-10% of the income you worked for you could afford to take regular family vacations somewhere nice, or afford a little bigger home or nicer car. Maybe you could give a little more to your favorite charity, or maybe have to work less and be able to spend a little more time with the family or donate that time to doing charitable work.
If you actually lived on an isolated island and only affected yourself then sure go right ahead make whatever mess of your life you like, that would be your right. However none of us actually live on an isolated island, your “rights” end when they begin to impinge upon another’s. When I have to give up more of my income because of your poor life choices your trampling my right to the fruits of my labor.
What’s the surprise? These folks are the logical conclusion of the 60′destruction of anything that was not based on instant self-gratification through greed,and sex.This show is merely more marketing of filth,after Madonna,and others who pioneered it,made millions through obscene vulgarity. These guidos and their female auxiliaries are perfect democrat voters Think Clinto and Teddy Kennedy.