i think i've only watched one episode of "survivor" - the one where colby lost to that nurse (?). i think it's obvious why i saw that.
i thought the "newlyweds: nick and jessica" was a joke. not because it had a dumb blonde and a former boy band member, but because said "bimbo" and husband have managed to trick people into making them millionaires (what were jessica and nick before this show? C-list celebrities, that's what. now somebody explain to me how one could live up to the ripe old age of twentysomething and not know that "chicken from the sea" is not fowl but fish. and the next time you eat buffalo wings, see if you can mistake it for anything but chicken. unless a person was raised in an alternative world where poultry is non-existent, i really doubt one could remain oblivious to the fact that humans have been feeding on these lovely feathered beings, who, incidentally, also lay the eggs you fry and eat with bacon and ham, since prehistoric times.)
i gagged at britney and whathisface's documentation of their "love", the osbornes bored me, and unlike everybody in my generation who benefited from the sudden popularity of cable TV and thus had access to MTV, i was never into "the real world" and "road rules".
so, yes, watching a camera follow a bunch of people being "real" (how can you NOT be aware that every move you make and every word you utter could potentially be seen by hundreds of people?) never appealed to me that much.
which begs the question: why have i been avidly watching the roloff family?
part of me thinks that maybe dan kennedy was right when he said the show validates voyeurism and allows me to satisfy my curiosity without making me feel that i'm doing something wrong or insensitive.
but dwarfism never interested me that much. i've never felt the need to stare at them, or observe how they look like or how they are. i don't know anybody with the condition, i never encountered one when i was an intern. in fact, apart from the less than a dozen times i've seen an actual little person in the mall or whatever, my exposure to dwarfism could be summed up by that old 680 appliances ad and that court jester that made gulliver's life miserable in brobdingnag.
and yet this show fascinates me.
we've all experienced being embarrassed by our parents, cringed at what they wanted us to wear, hoped THEY wore something else, worried about what our friends and boyfriends/girlfriends would think of them and other infantile things like that. so just imagine how it's like to be 8 or 12 years old and a whole foot taller than your parents. seeing these kids shrug it off and just deal with the inevitable stares, whispers and pointing fingers is something that truly amazes me. personally, i don't think i could handle it as well as they do.
my most favorite part of the show is when they touch on the relationship between the twins: average-sized, golden boy jeremy and earnest little zach. when they talk of how the difference in their size didn't really matter when they were younger but is proving to be more and more obvious now, i'm just transfixed, thinking of the intricancies of such a relationship and how these would affect each of them as they continue to grow up and have these differences between them become more and more evident.
seeing their 34-acre farm with the pirate ship, the old western town, the castle and this really fanstastic treehouse, you believe it when the father says that he built it because he wanted his kids to have what he didn't as a sickly child. between the parents, you get the sense that the dad is the less practical one. he's the one who quit his job to form his own company, dreamt about this farm/fantasyland, and is the one who thinks of all these wild, money-making things to do around his farm. you get the impression that he's enjoying every moment of it, reliving his fantasy childhood through his kids.
on the other hand, the mom, who i probably admire the most out of everybody else in the family, defines practicality. not only does she have two jobs, she's also a soccer coach. not a soccer mom, but a soccer coach, leading kids taller than she is. it just amazes me how both of them have accomplished so much despite the limitations (and not always the physical kind) that their condition provides them with.
i've often thought about how i feel out of place and of how i don't fit in anywhere, but seeing how these people go through life in a world that doesn't seem to be made to accomodate them (their cars have to be fixed, ATM's, counters and sinks are sometimes too high for them, etc.) and sometimes doesn't even welcome them, it gives you a whole new perspective about how it is to be really different.
but as much as i am inspired and humbled (zach stated that he doesn't want to be anything other than a dwarf, that he was made that way for a purpose and that he wishes to have three sons, all little like him. had i been in his shoes, i'd probably spend years wondering, and yes, resenting, why all of my siblings are average-sized) by all this family has done and is doing, sometimes i just find myself watching an ordinary family. one with parents occasionally fighting over money, boys with extremely messy rooms, children giving their parents a hard time, a girl deciding to play a sport other than what she and her brothers grew up with so she could do her "own thing", doting grandparents - things that you would expect to see in almost every other family in the world.
somehow, i think this family would appreciate knowing that more than the admiration.
i thought the "newlyweds: nick and jessica" was a joke. not because it had a dumb blonde and a former boy band member, but because said "bimbo" and husband have managed to trick people into making them millionaires (what were jessica and nick before this show? C-list celebrities, that's what. now somebody explain to me how one could live up to the ripe old age of twentysomething and not know that "chicken from the sea" is not fowl but fish. and the next time you eat buffalo wings, see if you can mistake it for anything but chicken. unless a person was raised in an alternative world where poultry is non-existent, i really doubt one could remain oblivious to the fact that humans have been feeding on these lovely feathered beings, who, incidentally, also lay the eggs you fry and eat with bacon and ham, since prehistoric times.)
i gagged at britney and whathisface's documentation of their "love", the osbornes bored me, and unlike everybody in my generation who benefited from the sudden popularity of cable TV and thus had access to MTV, i was never into "the real world" and "road rules".
so, yes, watching a camera follow a bunch of people being "real" (how can you NOT be aware that every move you make and every word you utter could potentially be seen by hundreds of people?) never appealed to me that much.
which begs the question: why have i been avidly watching the roloff family?
part of me thinks that maybe dan kennedy was right when he said the show validates voyeurism and allows me to satisfy my curiosity without making me feel that i'm doing something wrong or insensitive.
but dwarfism never interested me that much. i've never felt the need to stare at them, or observe how they look like or how they are. i don't know anybody with the condition, i never encountered one when i was an intern. in fact, apart from the less than a dozen times i've seen an actual little person in the mall or whatever, my exposure to dwarfism could be summed up by that old 680 appliances ad and that court jester that made gulliver's life miserable in brobdingnag.
and yet this show fascinates me.
we've all experienced being embarrassed by our parents, cringed at what they wanted us to wear, hoped THEY wore something else, worried about what our friends and boyfriends/girlfriends would think of them and other infantile things like that. so just imagine how it's like to be 8 or 12 years old and a whole foot taller than your parents. seeing these kids shrug it off and just deal with the inevitable stares, whispers and pointing fingers is something that truly amazes me. personally, i don't think i could handle it as well as they do.
my most favorite part of the show is when they touch on the relationship between the twins: average-sized, golden boy jeremy and earnest little zach. when they talk of how the difference in their size didn't really matter when they were younger but is proving to be more and more obvious now, i'm just transfixed, thinking of the intricancies of such a relationship and how these would affect each of them as they continue to grow up and have these differences between them become more and more evident.
seeing their 34-acre farm with the pirate ship, the old western town, the castle and this really fanstastic treehouse, you believe it when the father says that he built it because he wanted his kids to have what he didn't as a sickly child. between the parents, you get the sense that the dad is the less practical one. he's the one who quit his job to form his own company, dreamt about this farm/fantasyland, and is the one who thinks of all these wild, money-making things to do around his farm. you get the impression that he's enjoying every moment of it, reliving his fantasy childhood through his kids.
on the other hand, the mom, who i probably admire the most out of everybody else in the family, defines practicality. not only does she have two jobs, she's also a soccer coach. not a soccer mom, but a soccer coach, leading kids taller than she is. it just amazes me how both of them have accomplished so much despite the limitations (and not always the physical kind) that their condition provides them with.
i've often thought about how i feel out of place and of how i don't fit in anywhere, but seeing how these people go through life in a world that doesn't seem to be made to accomodate them (their cars have to be fixed, ATM's, counters and sinks are sometimes too high for them, etc.) and sometimes doesn't even welcome them, it gives you a whole new perspective about how it is to be really different.
but as much as i am inspired and humbled (zach stated that he doesn't want to be anything other than a dwarf, that he was made that way for a purpose and that he wishes to have three sons, all little like him. had i been in his shoes, i'd probably spend years wondering, and yes, resenting, why all of my siblings are average-sized) by all this family has done and is doing, sometimes i just find myself watching an ordinary family. one with parents occasionally fighting over money, boys with extremely messy rooms, children giving their parents a hard time, a girl deciding to play a sport other than what she and her brothers grew up with so she could do her "own thing", doting grandparents - things that you would expect to see in almost every other family in the world.
somehow, i think this family would appreciate knowing that more than the admiration.
