Andrea Peyser: If You Watch Reality TV, You'll Turn Into Slut

Just like these girls did

Andrea Peyser, the New York Post columnist who hates both art and atheists, has found a "new" societal ill to lash out at: reality TV. It's turning girls into sluts! All of them! Because they're all too weak-willed to step away from the big box! Crisis!

She rallies against VH1's Flavor of Love, a show which hasn't actually been on the air since 2008, for "celebrating every ugly stereotype attached to females." She calls the stars of MTV's 16 And Pregnant, which the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy found works as a teaching tool in after-school programs, "trailer trash." She compares TV producers and advertisers, "fond of pimping out virtual kiddie prostitutes to turn a buck," to pedophiles and lambasts "budding train wreck" Miley Cyrus and "obscene" Lourdes Ciccone, who, last we checked, aren't on reality TV.

“The media has gone to the dark side,” one conservative mother tells Peyser, which conservative mothers have been saying since approximately the birth of media. It's probably for the best that Peyser doesn't seem to know any independently-minded, educated and self-respecting women who can enjoy a night of reality TV without blurring the lines between what they see on the screen and what happens in real life. She might be forced to choke on her own words.

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By Jamie Feldmar in Arts & Entertainment on December 15, 2011 5:29 PM

Comments [rss]

Guest

I don't see anyone else putting forward proposals for the de-slutification of society. All of you critics, if you don't think that banning reality television is the way to go, let's hear your proposals for achieving this result.

Militant Conformist

Why in the name of God, sorry Christopher Hitchens' ghost, would I want there to be a de-slutification of society?

Guest

Clearly you are not trying to raise a child in today's media culture.

smalll

Well, it doesn't help.

Why are some people so ideologically committed to the complete denial of the fact that culture affects people?

Does a lot of Reality TV advance "sluttiness?" Sure! Does "gaming" de-sensitize people to violence? Sure! Do we have a First Amendment that, rightfully, prevents censorship of such things? Sure. But people also have a right to speak up against less-than-healthy cultural expressions. That's all the weirdly-hated Ms. Peyser is doing here.

Look, I'm a smoker, and I have an issue with smoking bans. I still have the right to smoke. But do other people have the right to tell me, other smokers, and anyone else that smoking isn't good for one's health? Sure.

We need MORE, not less, speaking up like this in the cultural sphere, even on a personal level -- if you cover yourself in tatoos, wear porkpie hats, give your kids ridiculous names, proclaim yourself a foodie, or speak with "vocal fry", I'm going to point out how ridiculous and noxious you are. I'm going to say the same thing about the worst of Reality TV or video games. People have a right to express themselves; they have no right to be free from criticism.

nunyadamn

Porkpie hat, foodie, vocal fry - I'm really hungry now.

Sorailes

Haha, I just had to look up what "vocal fry" is, and apparently some people think it's a "trend" or a "thing," as though people/kids these days are deliberately choosing to flavor their speech with that tone. Most amusing 5 minutes of my day!

masterjarvis

nobody said that Andrea Peyser does not have the right to express herself so im not sure what your whole rant was about. In fact, the point you are trying to make can be used to support gothamist's bashing of Andrea Peyser cant it?

swizzard

"People have a right to express themselves; they have no right to be free from criticism."

I agree! You're a dick.

You have opinions, trite, generic anti-hipster, Grr-kids-these-days-amiright?! opinions. Just because other people have different opinions doesn't make them "ridiculous and noxious." It makes them different than you. Criticize them for legitimate reasons all you want! But at least have a genuine conversation with them first, one in which you listen instead of smugly judging them in secret for their "vocal fry" (which, do you have a "fake twentysomething 'trends'" Google alert?)