Tuesday, February 07, 2006
I have a confession: I've been watching bad television. Don't laugh -- I've been watching Beauty and the Geek. (I know; you can't help yourself.)
I think part of the appeal for me is that I understand the Geeks so well. Each Geeky guy is given a one-line identifier -- "Dungeonmaster"; "Studying to become a neurosurgeon"; "Has kissed 2 girls"; and my personal favorite, "MIT Graduate" -- so really, how could I not feel a certain kinship with them?
And now my criticisms: first off, the show does nothing but perpetuate gender and geek/non-geek stereotypes. The guys are socially inept and have bad hair; the girls can't figure out how many feet are in 12 yards, even when told that there are three feet in a yard, or put together a computer, monitor, keyboard, and mouse. What they learn from each other: well, the guys learn to look better, and the girls learn ... not much. (With bodies like that, who needs to learn anything?) Yet, when one of the guys refers to his girl teammate as "academically disinclined", he is shunned as a mean brute for suggesting that he might be better than she is at something. (Note that in her teary protest, she couldn't even repeat the phrase. Now, I'm not condoning insults, and it was a mean thing to say, but really, if the girls spend all day telling the guys how much better looking the girls are, shouldn't the Beauties be able to handle a little truth thrown back at them?)
The show is billed as a "social experiment". Perhaps I expect too much from poor Ashton, but I didn't find it very experimental at all. At the end of the day, we're supposed to love all of them, and all this tells us is: we love pretty girls, and we can love even unattractive guys as long as they're smart enough. How about something a little more subversive: let's pair some geeky girls with some gorgeous guys! Let's see if the men can handle learning how to back up their hard drives from the women. Let's see if they can learn to love even unpretty ladies for their minds. There's a show I'd like to see. Heck, maybe I should be on it. :-)
I think part of the appeal for me is that I understand the Geeks so well. Each Geeky guy is given a one-line identifier -- "Dungeonmaster"; "Studying to become a neurosurgeon"; "Has kissed 2 girls"; and my personal favorite, "MIT Graduate" -- so really, how could I not feel a certain kinship with them?
And now my criticisms: first off, the show does nothing but perpetuate gender and geek/non-geek stereotypes. The guys are socially inept and have bad hair; the girls can't figure out how many feet are in 12 yards, even when told that there are three feet in a yard, or put together a computer, monitor, keyboard, and mouse. What they learn from each other: well, the guys learn to look better, and the girls learn ... not much. (With bodies like that, who needs to learn anything?) Yet, when one of the guys refers to his girl teammate as "academically disinclined", he is shunned as a mean brute for suggesting that he might be better than she is at something. (Note that in her teary protest, she couldn't even repeat the phrase. Now, I'm not condoning insults, and it was a mean thing to say, but really, if the girls spend all day telling the guys how much better looking the girls are, shouldn't the Beauties be able to handle a little truth thrown back at them?)
The show is billed as a "social experiment". Perhaps I expect too much from poor Ashton, but I didn't find it very experimental at all. At the end of the day, we're supposed to love all of them, and all this tells us is: we love pretty girls, and we can love even unattractive guys as long as they're smart enough. How about something a little more subversive: let's pair some geeky girls with some gorgeous guys! Let's see if the men can handle learning how to back up their hard drives from the women. Let's see if they can learn to love even unpretty ladies for their minds. There's a show I'd like to see. Heck, maybe I should be on it. :-)
