November 16th – I guess I’m as guilty as the next
person. Trouble is it’s really easy to fall into the stereotype-trap that’s
baited for us incessantly in every branch of the media if you don’t pay attention;
and as those who know me will tell you, suddenly not paying attention is a
given with me, and damned infuriating to boot, I shouldn’t wonder. If
television advertising is to be believed then 95% of women only really care
about four things; men who still think three-day stubble is a good look, how
many chocolates they can scoff, does
putting a ready-meal into the oven count as a home-cooked-dinner and how shiny
their hair is. I wait to be politely corrected…or hung from the nearest
lamppost by my testicles.
As featured before on FB, I’m not a lover of TV talent shows
(oxymoron number 1 right there methinks) and any form of reality entertainment
show (oxymoron number 2). I think they denigrate the meaning of talent,
entertainment and ability, reducing everything to the power of the dollar or
give already overexposed has-beens more airtime thereby denigrating the meaning
of worth. In both cases they are just cheap TV which, in the first case, people
do for nothing and in the second come at a budget-rate. It’s like a really tame
form of the Gladiators in the Coliseum…hang on…wait a minute. Do you think we
could combine the two and make talent shows exciting? Howsabout we incarcerate
all the wannabes into one aircraft hanger where they can entertain the shit out
of each other incessantly until, one-by-one we get to vote them off the show
and then, as the losers walk out the layered-in-smoke central door, they’re
shot by specially trained members of the public dressed as clowns who have also
been through a competition in order to get to pull the trigger? Worth a pitch
to the commissioning editor of PICK TV
d’you reckon?
Deserving of extra-special dislike for me, however, are the
judges and continuity people of these, the basest form of TV. That’s because of
the way they’re portrayed in countless editorials, Red-Top front pages, sleb-style magazines and rolling news
bulletins. The unpleasantness, the back-biting, the intolerance and the ill-mannered
behaviour frequently overshadow the, albeit, empty vessel of the programme.
Now, I know that a lot of this is generated to boost ratings by publicists and
other members of the lowest form of life, but it has to be said that they’re
not doing anyone any favours; least of all their client. Repeat this behaviour
often enough and stridently enough and we start to believe the hype and begin
to brand similar, probably perfectly nice people who inhabit the same cage; we
call it bulk-stereotyping, the these folk
are all the same mentality that can pollute once clear streams of thinking and
damn whole groups of people…similar to overt racism really. Take Jewel
f’rinstance.
Ms. Jewel Kilcher is a singer-poet-songwriter but as co-host
of a songwriting reality TV show, Platinum
Hit and a judge on the talent show, The
Sing-Off (there’s so much wrong with that title it makes my head spin) she
hasn’t figured much in my lexicon of pop/rock performers…it was when I read a
quote by her that I blushed slightly and decided to slap myself and pay a
little more attention. This was the quote:
I don’t
think I started off young as a feminist. I read a lot of books in Alaska, I was
pretty isolated where I grew up, and I think that I never thought I was any
different than a man; I was raised in a place where pioneer women were very
strong still. They’d shoe horses and build their own homes and were very
self-sufficient. It wasn’t really until I’ve gotten older that I really became
a fan of women, and a fan of what women are capable of balancing and achieving,
by just being them.
With the help of her mother, Ms. Kircher founded (and they
still run) the Clearwater
Project of Higher Ground for Humanity
(HGH) in back in 1999; a NfPO which is dedicated to bringing safe and clean
water to remote areas of the world…you know, the direct opposite to that other
caring organisation, Nestle who only
want to charge people for water because;
…water
isn’t a right it’s a commodity just like gold and timber and people should be
expected to pay a fair price for it…
bless.
On this day in 2000 she streamed one of her concerts and all the
monies accrued went to the fund, and she regularly performs (often with others)
benefit concerts for her project funds. She is a passionate advocate for the
homeless and has been a staunch supporter of breast cancer awareness and has
been at the forefront of a campaign to put a stop to what are known in the US
So, there we are, my huge slice of humble-pie has been
consumed…I just hope I don't sick it back up when I see the next report about Mr.
Cowell or Ms. Campbell…
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