Quality Reality TV

Reality TV bores me to tears. I can't imagine why anyone would want to watch screeching people get yelled at by abusive thugs. But apparently, it's popular. Grace says that there's good stuff, if you look for it:

One of the things I really like about the show is that the two "stylists", Stacey and Clinton, take the time to study the lifestyle of their chosen subject and then discuss it with them before making recommendations. There have been many shows featuring young mothers who spend more time on their children than themselves. Stacey and Clinton tell them that they are important, too, and help them change their style in realistic ways. They always consider the work requirements and the style preferences of their subjects and point out ways they can look better within that context.

They try to understand the individual first and then help them second. Stacey and Clinton don't try to make the mom into a high fashion model. They don't try to turn the casual clothes lover or a young punk rocker into a tailored preppy. Often they are psychologists, helping people accept the inevitable changes in life. That thirty year old woman still dressing like a pre-teen for example. The young man still wearing that collection of ragged college fraternity t-shirts several years later in an executive type business enviornment. Those who are overweight are urged to self-acceptance. One of their standard pep talks is that whether or not you lose weight in the future you deserve to look and feel your best right now, in the present moment.

We want to think that we can change our lives for the better--and isn't that the promise of the Christian faith? We often try to change others: our family members, our friends, and our co-workers. We want to make them over into something more pleasing to us without respecting their individuality and needs. Our "make over" impulse would be better directed in loving others more than loving our need to change them.

Good for them. As for me, I can't watch Reality TV shows of the makeover variety without gouging my eyes out with an icepick, but I'm glad that some of it is socially redeeming.

Anyway, here's my idea for a Reality TV show: get six of the ultra-thin, ultra-pretty sorority types that flock to these shows and tell them that they'll be competing as models against each other. On the first show, tell them that the person who weighs the heaviest in one month will be given $1,000,000.