Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Not cool: a brief rant

For some time now, the bane of my existence has been MTV's My Super Sweet 16, a show that celebrates decadence and glamorizes super rich spoiled girls throwing tantrums and fits over various astronomically superficial matters despite having extravagant hundreds of thousands of dollars birthday parties being thrown for them as if this is something other children should aspire to.

Teens fly into the party in a helicopter. They make potential guests gather outside of their home and beg for an invitation. They cry when their daddy won't buy them the hundred thousand dollar car they want on the spot. The actual behavior at the parties looks like something you might see at a club in Cancun during college spring break. One girl performed a half-naked belly dance at her party.

If I was turning 16, I would be embarrassed to have so much money spent on me, especially spent on me in front of friends. I'd be ashamed to have a couple hundred thousand dollars spent on a birthday party when there are people starving to death who'd be happy to earn a hundred dollars a year. Of all the episodes, there is only one episode that didn't glory in the wasting of ridiculous amounts of money on spoiled brats, and that was an episode in which the birthday girls used their super party to raise money for charity.

To sum: it is the most offensive show on television, and the following quote from that link perfectly reflects my feeling of it: "There may be no better contraceptive than that show, as its pampered, materialistic brats are enough to make anyone reconsider procreation."

1 comment:

Alan said...

I've seen this show once and it was disgusting in a sense.

Note I have nothing against rich people. I don't object to their being able to splurge on materialistic goods as is their right to do so. But these kids are a sad reflection of mindless, hedonistic and most of all ignorant materialism.

Once upon a time rich children were expected to use their privilege as a means to attaining the best possible education. To then use that education to pursue some noble cause whether it be law, the arts or science. Now thanks to Paris Hilton, et al, they only aspire to ignorant MTV party lives.

But perhaps I shouldn't judge the whole young heir/heiress generation by the examples of a few bad eggs. Still its sad that TV execs choose to glorify the it (though they may argue they are poking fun at it).