Reality TV reaches a new low (1 Viewer)

[Chuck L]

Well I think that a goal of the show as well is to simply show just how hard, even if you are gay, of telling who is and how isn't. For many gay men, believe it or not, they aren't clubbers, so meeting people can be hard. At the same time, there are many times within a gay man's life, that you will develope feelings for another guy, only to discover that they aren't gay, but straight.

The set up in that line is to show just how hard and how easy it is to be confused about who is and who isn't gay and that those sterotypes that you perceive about what is and what isn't gay are very fuzzy and hard to put a finger on.

I hate to say it, but I really believe that the main reasoning for this thread and calling it a 'new low' is simply a masked event of gay bashing. Not to make fun of the people that asked when the lesbian version was coming out, but to most of the mainstream population those are the only people in the homosexual community that people care about. And why, because they get a sick fascination about and it is one of the only things that gets them sexually stimulated. I have yet to find a single hetro woman that gets off by thinking or watching two men go at...but how often is it that you will find straight men that just love the simple thought of two women.

I applaud Bravo for this...and while I might not agree in the way that they are doing it, at least they have the balls to do it. The four big networks sure don't give a damn about 'real' gay people, only the 'gay community' that you find on "Will and Grace."

If you have a problem with the program or the fact that Bravo will run gay related problems, don't watch the channel. But keep in mind that everytime you watch the Man Show and you get stimulated by the beautiful 'lesbians' on the show, that you contribute nothing to acceptance of gays and lesbians...though they are all around you...Duality isn't a pretty thing.

While I will also agree that the term reality television has gotten out of hand, may the only reality in this one is to show that gays and lesbians are a reality and that it is time to stop 'closeting' it up.

 

[MickeS]

According to Zap2It, the "gay bachelor" will have his best female friend help him with the selections, and the twist about some of the suitors being straight "will be revealed midway through the series". So my question above seems to have been taken care of.

I think it could be an interesting series, certainly it doesn't seem any worse than anything else in this genre.

Oh, and I agree with what Chuck L wrote above.

 

[MarkHastings]

I hate to say it, but I really believe that the main reasoning for this thread and calling it a new low is simply a masked event of gay bashing.

Chuck, I would agree that even shows like Joe Millionaire are horrible...Does that mean I'm a Straight Basher? Why do people assume you are "gay bashing" because you don't like a show that has gay people in it?

I think reality shows have also reached a "new low" by the upcoming American Idol for kids. No show should exploit any specific group of people for shear entertainment.

I would think people have more pride in themselves than to be riddiculed by these so called "Reality" shows. I see this new show as nothing more than a way of exploiting the gay community, which is truely a horrible thing to do.


p.s. Your Man Show connection isn't a good one because there are plenty of people who are disgusted by that show as well. Unfortunately I don't have a term like "Gay Bashing" that I can use to throw in the face of someone who dislikes my straight lifestyle, so I think it would be most appreciative if you didn't throw around terms like that.

Thank you

 

[Chuck L]

Alright Mark I understand your point...but the point that I want to convey is that alot of the time double standards do come into play in regard to gay issues.

I think that the biggest part of the problem though is the fact that while this thread will more than likely vanish into HTF history in about two days...there are over twenty plus pages of text available on the American Idol thread. Mainstream American's love reality program. If not, That Incredible wouldn't have been a hit over twenty years ago. It doesn't matter really what the topic if, people will watch. I can honestly tell you that of reality television that has been on television in the past three or four years, I have watched about 15 minutes of it...simply doesn't interest me.

While you took offense at the term 'gay bashing,' if this was a show that was going to center around another minority group and someone used the words "new low" in the subject heading, you would have people flying of cliff in support of it saying that they were wrong for saying it. That is where I take offense.

No harm done Mark and I agree with you...and that is why I have just said what I have said. In another ten years, I don't think that we would be having converstations like this. By then, everything will be fine and cool, and America will find another minority group to rally against.

The Man's Show comments come from a place of which I have seen first hand. There are still many people that are willing to send every guy man and woman onto an island to survive and die off, yet at the same time, they love the pictures in Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler and the like, and shows like the above mentioned, that protray lesbianism. It is a double standard and a stupid as hell one. If it is wrong for one sex, then it is wrong for both, not just the one that a said person finds 'offensive' or wrong. I think you know what I am getting at...again, it is the duality in it all...

ALSO...it is like the proposed reality series coming on HBO where they are going to have film crews going from trailer park to trailer park around the county. You know and I know that the first people they are going to focus on are the stereotyped 'trailer park-white trash-15.7 kids' kind of fare. Not a real representation of those parks throughout the country or the people that live there...BUT that it the food on which our society feeds upon...sensationalism and biased. It will be a hit if it comes into 'reality.'

 

[Patrick Sun]

Well, NBC has a show "For Love or Money" where the gimmick is that each of the girls know that if they can get the "bachelor" to pick her, she wins a nice tidy sum of money, but the bachelor thinks he's in it for love (and doesn't know about the prize), but the women are mainly in it for the money. Talk about crass.

 

[ThomasC]

Damn, "For Love or Money" may even be worse than this...

 

[MarkHastings]

Agreed Chuck, I am not blind to the fact that most people think it's ok for one lifestyle but not the other. I guess my true disgust is over all of these reality shows as a whole...There may be some that don't like this new show for the mere fact that it deals with homosexuality, but others (like myself) are just getting annoyed at all these shows popping up all over the place.

Not a real representation of those parks throughout the country or the people that live there

But how is a show like Joe Millionaire a real representation? Why did he have to be a good looking guy? Why did all the women have to be good looking? For once, I'd love to see a REAL "Reality" show where 'normal' people are the stars, and not these Hollywood types pretending they are the average person...Who can identify with ANY of them?? It's just not REAL!

If you want a Reality show, follow some guy around all day who busts his ass to put money on the table for his family or an overweight guy who is ignored by women because he's not a major "Hunk" (hint hint ). Now THERE'S a "REALITY" show.

 

[Chuck L]

I agree with you all the way Mark...but there is a problem with our way of thinking...

People don't want their own reality so why do they want that on television? That is why soap opera are so popular with women. That is why the X-Files was so popular with men and women (and those men that couldn't get laid on a Sunday evening). That is why fiction books are so popular.

Television and movies and music are all an escape from reality that people are craving. It amazes me how you will even have magazine editors bitch about how the world is obsessed with beauty...yet when was the last time you saw a average looking person on a magazine cover.

We all gripe about wanting reality but it doesn't happen. And why, normal life isn't marketable. At the same time, if you did have a network that put 'normal' people on a show such as one of these, people would watch for about five seconds and turn it off.

I mean come on...it isn't like normal looking or non-attractive people get to spin the big wheel on the Wheel of Fortune or Price is Right. It is never anyone with a handicap or a burn mark on their neck and face...

Why no true 'reality'? Reality sucks...at least in the eyes of executives.

 

[MarkHastings]

So then we should change the name to "Hyper-Reality TV"

Enough with the faulty advertising.

 

[Dave Gorman]

but others (like myself) are just getting annoyed at all these shows popping up all over the place.

As long as the shows are profitable for the producers and networks, the will continue to pop up all over the place.

 

[Malcolm R]

It's called Cops.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

I hate to say it, but I really believe that the main reasoning for this thread and calling it a 'new low' is simply a masked event of gay bashing.

Chuck,
As the person who started the thread, I apologise if you perceive it as being an opportunity for gay-bashing. That was not my intention.

Basically, I speak as someone who generally has disliked reality TV from the moment I heard about Temptation Island. Then there was The Bachelor, and Joe Millionnaire. And then, I thought that was it, reality TV cannot get any worse. And for a while, I seemed to be right. I mean, Mr Personality didn't sound much worse than anything else (indeed, I suspect that was why they got Monica to host - to give it some shock value). I hadn't heard of For Love Or Money - in NZ we haven't seen either Mr Personality or For Love Or Money yet - but that does sound awful.

Basically, I would say that both Boy Meets Boy and For Love Or Money are inherently based on deception. "Well, so was Joe Millionaire", I hear you say. There is a difference. In Joe Millionaire, the only people who are affected by the deception were any women who went into that show looking for a chance to marry for money, not love (to the degree that true love is possible in reality TV world). And I don't really care about them - if that is their motivation, then I am happy for them to be deceived and end up looking like a fool.

But in Boy Meets Boy or For Love Or Money, the person decieved isn't the person with seedy ulterior motives. It's the guy who is looking for a partner, and who doesn't know that half his selection is automatically unavailable or that the women are just after money. Now, it's not the person with ulterior motives being deceived - it's the guy who is being honest and open about his motives who is being decieved. It is deception of the innocent, not the guilty. That is what is offensive about these shows, and that is why they reach new lows in reality TV.

It would be equally offensive if they had a straight Bachelor show, but half the women were happily married. Or (as someone commented) half the girls were jailbait. Or a female impersonator. Each of these shows would be as offensive, and be a new low in reality TV for exactly the same reason as Boy Meets Boy.

So I apologise to anyone who thought this thread was intended as an exercise in gay bashing. It was not so intended.

 

[Ken Chan]

"Clearly, they've hit a new low," Lafferty said. "What's next after `Boy Meets Boy'? `Boy Meets Sheep'?"

Their fascination with beastiality is peculiar....

//Ken

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

I dont think the show of having gay men date is necesarily a bad idea, its that they are putting a hetero in there to break someones heart.
We need a show thats the opposite of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette but to deceive people like Joe Millionare and even worse its pretty crappy.
Would they have thrown some lesbians into the mix of Joe Millionaire and then told him after he had picked them?
NO!

I could see that the thread could be misunderstood as gay bashing from the title but from what Ive read here it isnt.
I think the misunderstanding came from the way the title of the thread was fraised.

I too am sick of not being able to find anything decent on TV and having shows like Miracles cancelled in favor of this new trend.
Sure I watched a few and I mean, Joe Millioare and Who's Hot but that was just to see the bods but it seems strange that so many people are sitting around watching this crap and making them so popular.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

You must not have been to many QAF sites. There are tons of straight women who get off on watching two guys together. They might not articulate it the way straight guys do watching two women, though.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Are y'all ready for Simon Cowell's "Cupid" that will be showing up soon? The pitch is 1 girl, flanked by her 2 best friends grill prospective guys to go out with the 1 girl. If there is a "match", and the couple marries and stays together for at least 1 year, they win $1 million.

The girlfriends grilling the guys is sort of funny, in a "rubber necking at a car wreck" fashion.

 

[MarkHastings]

I made a comment (years ago) that I like to think sums up the whole issue about why most men like to see 2 women go at it and why most women don't like 2 guys to go at it.

Guys like to watch people having sex, but are grossed out by naked men, so the "woman on woman" action is a way of seeing sexual acts and naked women without having to see a naked man. It really has nothing to do with lesbianism...most guys don't care if the women are gay or straight.

I'm not exactly sure about women, but I think they'd prefer a man and a woman going at it because women aren't as grossed out about their own gender naked as men are, so seeing a naked woman (for most women) is acceptable.

Just my thoughts

now back to your regularly scheduled program...

 

[Robert Ringwald]

I don't think most guys are grossed out by another naked man so much as they're afraid if they don't go "Ewww, that's f-n sick!" they'll be considered gay.

Frankly, I don't think most guys actually mind seeing another man naked, they might not get off on it, but I don't think most of them are as "Ewwww" about it when they're alone.

 

[MarkHastings]

I am

 

[Dan Rudolph]

I thought the point og game shows was to humiliate people aand to see how much humiliation they'll take for money. So it follows that these reality shows, which are in essence, extended game shows with huge prizes, should humiliate them more. Anyone who goes on a reality show has some understanding of this if they've watched tv at all.

Besides, nothing in the press releases I've seen indicates the bachelor doesn't know some of the guys are straight.