Exiled!

This blog is messy because I have no patience to figure out how to place pictures. It is undoubtedly so simple that a nine year old could do it but I just don't have the will. I have exams, and clinics, and a game theory paper to write.

The worst thing happened tonight. I planned on Gossip Girl and the Hills being the part of the day that took me away from all the stress of school and bitter ugliness and depression. But the CW decided to freeze a picture of Leeza Gibbons to be displayed the entire hour while I could only listen to B, S, etc. This picture of Leeza also remained throughout One Tree Hill but it's not like I am gonna sit around and listen to OTH for an hour. I did however sit there and just listen to Gossip Girl. It was still good, but it's just not the same without the outfits and the shots of Brooklyn and Manhattan. I even called the local Twin Cities station and left a message. I also sent them an email. Ugh.

One interesting thing I saw after the Hills is a new show on MTV. Eight of the most spoiled gauche My Super Sweet Sixteen Girls will be getting even more air time when they are all sent to various developing nations to rough it for a spinoff entitled Exiled! Seriously, these pampered princesses are going to live in huts and pee in buckets. Although I think it would be good for them to see how the less fortunate live, it still makes me uncomfortable.

1. I know they are going to make ignorant (and inevitably racist) comments and make the lives of the people they live with even harder.

2. These girls feel entitled. They are perfectly fine with the fact that their unearned privilege comes at the expense of oppressed peoples in America and around the world. That is the whole point of the My Super Sweet 16 -- these girls are all about excess and making themselves feel better than other people.

3. It might be a nice story. Rich girl goes to Africa and lives in a village like the natives and comes back to America so grateful for what she has and with a newfound respect for her parents. Yet, all she will be thankful for is that she was lucky enough to be born with a silver spoon in her mouth and that her daddy worked hard enough (or exploited enough people) to give her whatever whenever.

4. It is offensive. (Yes, I may watch it. ) The premise reminds me of one of those stories where a white man disguises himself as a black man and experiences bigotry and then purports to know what it's like to walk in someone else's shoes. In reality this is impossible in part because the protagonist will at some point return to his privileged status as white. My fear is that these girls are gonna come back to their charmed lives pretending to know what it's like to be poor when in fact this experiment is only temporary. There will be camera persons, and these girls will assuredly not be exposed to malaria carrying flies or sweat shop labor.

But perhaps I am judging to soon. Maybe these girls are multilayered people who will come out of this experience with some new insight to share. It can't be worse than Tila Tackyla.