As usual, Sasha Frere-Jones is KILLING it on his blog. Today, he has one of the funniest set of hip-hop reviews I've read in a long time where The Bravehearts, Northstar, Young Gunz and Memphis Bleek all get ravaged (as they well deserve to be).
"Variety reports that there's a new reality show in the works based on Gilligan's Island! Stranded together, the contestants will fill the roles of characters from the original show: Gilligan, Skipper, the millionaire, the movie star, et al."
The soul of Bob Denver weeps (and he's not even dead yet). Hey, but since we're at it, maybe we can recast some other TV classics as reality shows: I Dream of Jeannie (don't think this hasn't been discussed over many a power lunch on Melrose - hot chick in belly dancer-wear, having to "serve" her master? I smell Emmy!); Happy Days (except this time, instead of getting all weepy-eyed nostalgic for the 1950s, we can set in the far-back era of the '90s, where Al's is now a strip mall convenience store); and just to flip it, we should do The Real World but with all actors, working off a script every week. It's like post-ironic irony!)
What's been lost in much of the outrage (on both sides) concerning the ridiculous Superbowl "Nipple-Gate" incident is not that a breast was bared but is the allusion to violence that came with it. Some folks have pointed out that it's not like Justin simulated, oh, forced sodomy on Janet but ripping open someone's shirt to expose their breast - especially staged - is pretty f*cked up and if you think that's a prudish thing to say, then you're probably a misogynist who gets off on that sort of shit to begin with. I have no problems with nudity but I have problems with any act, on national television no less, that somehow makes being sexually violent towards women seem acceptable or laudable. I defer to the Dirty Whore Diary blog where the author says what needs to be said in a posting today:
"I hope that the next time a female nipple is shown on network TV, it's because a smart, successful woman opens her own clothes and proudly bares it, rather than a staged scenario where a creep like Justin "rips" her top. Bravo, CBS. Nude female breasts are verboten, but apparently they're a little more palatable as long as their revelation involves an act of assault."
Heads are already rolling for this debacle and you know what? Good.
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