My American-Idol-Related Anguish
So Johnny Quest's brother is a kind of techie on this show called American Idol. So that means that his parents are convinced that we should watch it to see his name at the end. So that means I've had to watch like three episodes of that damn show. And last night I had just bought Battlestar Galactica season 2.0.
Man, that show is mean-spirited as hell. I can't believe how awful they are to people. Is it supposed to become o.k. to be cruel so long as a bunch of people are watching? And why are people watching this? Is it the train-wreck-like aspect of the thing? And what's with all the making fun of people for their weight, or for their awkwardness, or for their gender? That's some #*@%*&-up $#!# right there.
(Incidentally, 'gender' doesn't mean 'sex.' Why did people start misusing that term? The gender distinction is masculine/feminine, not male/female. The male/female distinction is a distinction between sexes. So e.g. a feminine-acting man has a sex (male) and a gender (feminine) that don't match up in the ordinary way. Anyway, so much for Hollywood's liberalism.)
So why post about it?
Because if I have to suffer, you have to suffer. That's why.
Anyway, I think I've done my duty. Three hours of that show is more than enough. Fortunately, JQ agrees. I think she can stand about one more episode herself.
So Johnny Quest's brother is a kind of techie on this show called American Idol. So that means that his parents are convinced that we should watch it to see his name at the end. So that means I've had to watch like three episodes of that damn show. And last night I had just bought Battlestar Galactica season 2.0.
Man, that show is mean-spirited as hell. I can't believe how awful they are to people. Is it supposed to become o.k. to be cruel so long as a bunch of people are watching? And why are people watching this? Is it the train-wreck-like aspect of the thing? And what's with all the making fun of people for their weight, or for their awkwardness, or for their gender? That's some #*@%*&-up $#!# right there.
(Incidentally, 'gender' doesn't mean 'sex.' Why did people start misusing that term? The gender distinction is masculine/feminine, not male/female. The male/female distinction is a distinction between sexes. So e.g. a feminine-acting man has a sex (male) and a gender (feminine) that don't match up in the ordinary way. Anyway, so much for Hollywood's liberalism.)
So why post about it?
Because if I have to suffer, you have to suffer. That's why.
Anyway, I think I've done my duty. Three hours of that show is more than enough. Fortunately, JQ agrees. I think she can stand about one more episode herself.
posted by Winston Smith at
2:31 PM
5 Comments:
A few winters ago, I had to sit and watch "Raggedy Ann and Andy on Ice" one night and a special given by the Country Music Awards folks the next night, as that's what my dad's then girlfriend(now ex-, praise Odin) wanted to watch when I was staying there over the Christmas holiday.
If you ever start to feel sorry for yourself, remember the old Hollywood saying:
"I cried because I had no Golden Globe, until I met the man who had no Oscar."
The OED puts the use of gender as sex at about 1963 as part of the feminist movement.
Becca,
I sort of thought that this mistake began with recent feminism, but wasn't sure. It's weird b/c old-style feminism was so intent (rightly) to distinguish between sex and gender.
Dark Avenger,
OMFG. I feel better already by comparison...
Here's one to maybe make you feel better: a guy of my acquaintance once had to spend his vacation driving from NC to Arkansas, where he spent several days wandering around the "Precious Moments" museum, because that's how his wife wanted to spend the vacation. "Precious Moments" dolls are those psychotic little ceramic statues of, like, crying kids in sailor suits that you sometimes see on the back covers of things like _Parade_ magazine.
*shudder*
At least he got to drive the length of Tennessee. And I'm serious about that.
Substitution of 'gender' for 'sex' is a very typical avoidance of a word because another sense of it brings connotations the speaker wants to avoid. Using 'gender' keeps you from having to talk about sex and avoids the giggles attendant to that in our perpetually pubescent culture.
Even American Idol ads show more cruelty than I'm interested in seeing. Has right-wing PC replaced left-wing PC because the former is cruel, where the latter is too soft and sympathetic?
Anyway, if I want cruelty, I can always wait for the torture scenes in 24. Now that series is good television, but sheesh, stay out of the CTU infirmary if you value your life.
WS, I once had a job supervising the 'developementally disabled', and one of the tasks they had was to clean a house that could've been an annex to the chamber of horrors you're talking about. I only had to work there twice, but that was enough for my lifetime and hopefully
You also made me check my curio cabinet, and I examined the two shelves where I keep the remnants of my mothers collection of "statues" of children in Victorian clothes, and not a one made by Precious Moments, although one is based on a drawing made by Maud Humphrey Bogart, who history remembers as the mother of the dude who played "Rick" in Casablanca.
Do you remember the "Night Gallery" episode where a hippy-type gets sent to 'hell'?
The punchline is where the devil tells the guy, "You know what's funny? They have a room just like this one(points upward) upstairs."
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