Since my DVR hates me, I was only just able to witness the season premiere of "Jon and Kate Plus 8" a few hours ago, and not with the other record-breaking 9.8 million viewers on Memorial Day. I have to admit--I was wholly intrigued and embarrassed by the fact that I cared what was going on in their marriage so much. I suppose it has been a slow celebrity news cycle these last few weeks, because the Gosselins have graced the cover of every rag tag in the business of late, and I was actually fully confused as to why. So that made me wonder...why do we care?
Reality television is usually popular due to the fact that we can make fun of people for putting themselves in these asinine positions, but every once in a while, you find a show that is intriguing simply for the normalcy it conveys. What is so odd is that how is a family who has 2 sets of multiples be so normal?
First of all, the Gosselins live in central Pennsylvania. I can say with first-hand experience that there is no other place in America that is so wholesome and "American" without shoving fire and brimstone down your throats. The Gosselins have always been extremely religious, but they have never pushed it on any of their viewers--they just believe what they believe and people respect that. Same goes for the Roloff family in Oregon--which I believe is TLC's second most popular show behind "Plus 8." Christianity is laced in the fact that there is no swearing, there are a few Bible quotes on the cabinets, but there is never any judgment passed on to us as viewers.
Second, families can watch with their children and watch Kate punish her children for being naughty, and it reiterates their own child disciplining choices..."see Scooter? Kate puts Alexis in time out too." Nothing makes a mom feel better than finding out another mom has the same anguish and daily problems such as going to Target as her. Misery loves company.
Next, in the first few seasons, the Gosselins were not poor by any means, but definitely not wealthy. Kate was always cutting coupons, cooking or playing with her children sans makeup and in pajamas. Jon worked all day and came home to open-armed children and (organic) dinner cooking over the stove. How relatable!
So what happened?
The simple answer is always money--but it actually goes a bit deeper this time and for some reason I want to figure out why. We always knew Kate was a bitch. She constantly emasculated her husband, ordering him around like a dog or a child, and admittedly never really liked the cameras in her house nor her fans. So what happened to where we all went, "wait a second! She was a mom--now she is a MONSTER!"
Oprah et all, is always telling moms that they need to put themselves first every once in a while, and all of a sudden, Kate listens and America revolts--BIG TIME. She fake tans and gets her nails done--oh big woo. I am from Texas--that is basically every bitch in a Lexus SUV picking up her kids from school...it's a right of passage. We also knew that every vacation was paid for and any product mentioned on the show was given to them for free--if you couldn't figure that out, well then sorry, I hate to tell you that there truly is no such thing as pure reality television. But now all of that is being thrown back into her face. "She got a free tummy tuck! She got TWO Whirlpool washers and dryers!!!" We ALREADY knew this...what changed?
One word that makes every relationship fail: expectations.
As an audience, we expected Kate to stay relatively "momish" with her "Mom to the 8th Power" t-shirts (gag) and boss poor Jon around because he wasn't listening again. But all of a sudden, Kate figures out that her family is not only a business, but a very profitable business. But instead of working on her attitude, she worked on her appearance. She got a personal trainer, a new wardrobe and a tanning membership and middle America doesn't know what hit 'em.
Also, Jon quit his job 2 years ago to make the show more workable. Obviously if he was at a job 8 hours a day he is not going to be on camera getting his balls cut off enough. I do not know the statistics but I can only guess that marriages where a major shift in "homemaking" and "working" happens, a high percentage in in failure. Jon expected to be the breadwinner of the family for the rest of his life--that was pretty much his only masculine quality left. But then he quits to make more money with TLC and where does that leave him? I have no doubt he loves being at home with his children, but as someone who has no role other than whipping boy, that doesn't leave him anywhere any of us would want to be.
So our All-American Family is in turmoil and that scares the shit out of half of our population. So all the things that we saw in the Gosselins that we saw in ourselves has now turned on us, so we have to play the blame game in order to distance ourselves from the problems that they obviously have been having for quite sometime. Because if we like them for their normalcy--and we are normal--but now they are greedy and sad--then....uh oh...paging Dr. Freud, we need a mirror please...
I am in no way Kate Gosselins biggest fan, but I also feel sorry for her. One could argue that they put themselves on television and therefore allowed this to happen to them, but I mean, really? On TLC? I don't think the paparazzi follow Clinton Kelly anywhere...
So, I will continue to watch as much as my slingbox or American Forces Network will allow me to watch, since this is most likely my last post on American soil, and hope for the best for the Gosselin family. God speed--and may Kate not lose her hair gel.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment