The greatest way to observe how not to be a feminist is to watch reality television. No show my roommates watched this year fit that horrible stereotype more perfectly than "Rock of Love 2" in which Brett Michaels, the former lead singer of Poison, simultaneously dates/fucks 25 women.
Tonight was the Reunion show, where Brett and his Rock of Love, Ambre, met again while a studio full of slobbering apes, including him and his male co-host, leer at his female cast-mates.
I was roped into watching the show by a product of my weak will and the constraints of living in a patio home with two other people. I suppose I stayed in front of the television simply because it was too bad to believe.
Regardless, the highlight of the night was not the objectification of the French stripper, Angelique. What was perhaps the saddest thing I heard was the irony of a man who simultaneously dated over twenty women and made no secret of his "rock star lifestyle" (read: right to sleep around in a farce of a committed relationship) questioning the character of two women. In particular, runner-up Daisy DeLaHoya, who lived with her ex-boyfriend-turned-friend, and Kristy Joe Muller, who first went on the show while she was separated from her husband, and now claims that she has committed to six months of relationship counseling with him before she makes a final decision.
Oh the horror. You "fake" sluts; how dare you play with the emotions of a man who is sleeping with and dating many women at once while you are close friends with your ex or separated from your husband.
The cherry on top of the shit sundae was when Daisy angrily asked why Brett took advantage of her feelings for him the final night of the show to get some nookie. Admist snickers from the audience (how dare that woman question a man!) Brett replied, "well, I am a man".
Yes, of course you are. Brett Michaels would like you to know that men have no free will outside of the rushing of blood to their penis. The satisfaction of his manly libido is much more important than your feelings. Honestly Daisy, did you think you could possibly be equal to a man?
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6 comments:
I admit. I watched the first season of Rock of Love, almost in its entirety. Couldn't really tell you why, but I did.
The most disgusting part of the show was that Brett Michaels was constantly trying to sound like he was looking for a woman with a good head on her shoulders, someone with some depth, but then he turns around and talks about how much he likes boobs and sexy ladies. He was constantly objectifying the women on the show, while at the same time obviously understanding that that was wrong (why else would he pretend to be interested in a women's mind?).
It was gross. And you're right: most reality TV is like this. Ugh.
My favorite reality tv quote:
"I'm not interested in her personality. She's here to look sexy." - Douchebag fashion reporter on one of the models from the first season of Project Runway, who, god forbid, was trying to have a conversation with him.
I love Project Runway and though it has it's reality tv faults (like above, or how whenever they're given a challenge to use non-models or "real people," someone always bitches about how they hate designing for people who "don't have great silhouettes.") but the contestants usually work together and affirm each other - there's far less cattiness than some other shows. So I love it.
"How dare you play with the emotions of a man who is sleeping with and dating many men at once ..."
I knew it. Bret Michaels is compensating extravagantly for his closety gayitude.
And "Michaels" isn't even his real name!
Thanks Illusionary for pointing out my unintentionally hilarious spelling mistake.
You know, when I was watching the show I was struck with how much it resembled Texas's Mormon polygamy cult, except with better music and less clothes.
Thanks for your post. I've seen parts of Rock of Love a few times and I'm every bit as horrified as you guys are.
No matter how bad other teevee shows can get, nothing tops (or bottoms, so to speak) this one and on so many levels they're far too innumerable to count.
A lot of my office mates swoon over Rock of Love. They say they "love it because it's so trashy". This scares me a little. Somehow the trash of Bret's behavior is funny, and people loose conscious sight of his underlying womanizing and misogyny. Is that how socialization happens?
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