August 21, 2008

MTV Scrapes the Barrel....Again

In what may be their dumbest, most dangerous and calculated attempt to boost their ratings to the dizzying heights of double figures, MTV is now casting a new "Reality" show where impressionable teens will be required to suffer borderline-anorexia in order to win fame on the Runway.

"MTV is looking for girls willing to shed 30-80 lbs to become a model and win $100,000!" says the brazen announcement for 'Model Maker' on MTV's site.

There's no other word for it: This is sick.

Driven by the incessant and powerful influences exerted on them by the media this show's target audience of teenage and young-adult girls are already susceptible to the slightest negative perception of their appearance or value. And now a network, whose content and performers could be justifiably cited as a prominent source of this withering propaganda [Try and name one plus-sized Singer or Model?] plan to selfishly exploit this terrorizing insecurity and need for validation to boost ratings and their own bottom line.

The show's still in casting and may not debut for months [or, please God, ever!] but the mental imagery is already worrying; I see long lines of young girls and their Mothers standing patiently in line outside MTV's offices, keen to let the station exploit their young darling's paralyzing fears about her own value and worth...which MTV helped create in the first place.

If anyone has suggestions as how we might change MTV's [excuse me while I use an irrelevant term] 'mind' about this, I'd be happy to hear them. Meantime, I'm off for a sandwich...

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This blog is written by Michael J. Austin.
Created in Linux, with Open-Source software.
Contact me at: HarlequinMail @ GMail.com