by Rachel PughI can’t get enough. I will watch every episode in a row and then watch them again. And I immensely commend the brilliant marketing tactics, engaging me in every character’s life within only four episodes. Give me more “Jersey Shore.”
I first heard about the now highly talked about show through a coworker. So when flipping channels and seeing the MTV reality TV show on, I immediately stopped flipping so I could see what all the chatter was about. After watching two hours of the show and hating myself for it, I was hooked. Why do I love this ridiculous trash? Because it’s awesome, that’s why. And I love to hate it.
Vacationing in Seaside Park, N.J., for my entire life, my family and I are huge fans of the area. My mom was born and raised in Seaside Park and owns a business there today. Careful to never mistake my mom’s roots stemming from Seaside Heights but rather Seaside Park, she would tell us stories of how her father used to call it Suicide Heights. When we did visit the boardwalk in the Heights, we went in groups, as it has always been and still remains to be rather sketchy. But oh how I yearned as a preteen to someday frequent the Heights and go dancing at all the wild-looking clubs. So at 21, that’s exactly what I did.
I visited Club Bamboo, The Aztec and the now defunct Club XCess and Temptations, not being able to wait to hear the techno music and ending the Seaside Heights mystique. And if you want to know what all those places were like, watch MTV’S “Jersey Shore.” The stereotypes exist for a reason. Every club had overly tan pretty boys, scantily dressed women and lots and lots of people from New York and North Jersey. These places were designed to try to impress members of the opposite sex. They were filled with city kids letting loose at the beach and DJs spinning club favorites pumping the crowd up to, as they call it on “Jersey Shore,” “battle” on the dance floor. It was cheesy. It was meathead central. And it was great. It’s exactly what I envisioned Jersey Shore clubs to be like and I hope they never change.
Does it make me hate the Jersey Shore? Not at all. It just means I don’t have to hang out at these clubs because I’m no longer in that scene. But guess what, these types of places exist everywhere, and you could take the group of “Jersey Shore” characters and put them in any town and they would react the same way. It is them, not the environment. I’ve been to similar places in New York City, Boston, etc., seeing similar types of people, and I certainly don’t think less of those cities because of a handful of clubs and some morons who frequent them.
But of course, as there is with everything, there must be an overly sensitive group within the population. With the show being criticized for portraying Italian-Americans in a negative light and presenting Seaside Heights as nothing more than a party town, some people are being very vocal about their worries and have asked MTV to cancel the show. For that population, I say this: Get a real cause to be passionate about. The show is not depicting Italian-Americans in a negative light because this group of 20-somethings does not represent the entire Italian-American population. Sorry, but these types of people, or as they refer to each other on the show, “guidos” and guidettes,” are alive and well, and whether the public wants to believe it or not, they go to the Jersey Shore, and to California, and to the super market, just like everybody else. Are the characters model citizens? Certainly not, but if you feel they are giving all Italian-Americans a bad rap, you are taking giant steps backwards by saying a group of seven idiots have such influential power. It is not a group of French actors pretending to be Italian. These people are portraying themselves. They’re jerks being jerks. We all understand the show is nonsense. We all understand the people on it have probably never read a book in their lives. But if forced to envision an Italian-American in my mind, these seven would not be the first to appear.
If you asked me to envision “guidos” and “guidettes,” people trying to portray this image, well, that’s a different story. I’ve met a ton of people just like the ones on this show, and some of them aren’t even Italian, they’re just losers. The only bad reputations they are forming are for themselves and their families. Let them hang their heads in shame, not an entire culture. MTV, have fun with your brilliant low-budget show. You’ve made stars overnight. No matter which way you slice it, that’s called a success.
w
