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Today, Ritar
watches television; soon there will be no cable, so she must watch and watch
and watch, drinking the gin she buys instead of meat and vegetables.
She sees
that the reality shows have created a Malthusian generation. You’re eliminated. Fired. Out. Go
home.
The reality
shows train people in servitude as the 21st century wants it.
Despite
humiliating, impossible challenges, despite verbal and physical abuse, no one
wants to go home.
Perhaps
there is no home to go to.
And despite
the horror of going home, as though all contestants were ACAs born into
hellholes, no one cares when someone goes home.
Contestants
grovel before the judges and snipe at other contestants.
Fired. Out.
Go home.
Snipe
willingly, enthusiastically and eagerly.
Go home.
“At least it
wasn’t me.” They not only think, they say.
Do it to Julia.
Competitors
detract from one another, the performances of other competitors. Their
characters. Their looks. Meanly.
It is, Ritar
sees, class war: The judges are from the upper classes; contestants are usually
poor. The shows deign to allow one working class hopeful entrée to their world,
at least temporarily. Fame, if short-lived. The promise, if not the substance,
of wealth. Temporarily, for a lottery time.
Do it to Julia.
As in the
Project Runway episode with Team Luxe. In which the team, losing, made a pact
not to “throw any of their members under the bus,” not to scapegoat anyone to
go home. Solidarity, temporarily. And the persistent attempts, ultimately
successful, of the judges to make them––the team, not the judges––choose
someone to be sent home.
“Someone’s
goin’ down,” snarled Michael Kors, later characterizing the group’s attempts at
loyalty and cooperation as stupid, explaining “You have to be more
self-sufficient.”
Betrayal and
treachery, now termed self–sufficiency.
“Who is the
weakest?”
“We don’t
want to…”
“WHO is the
weakest?”
“We…”
“WHO…”
“…Michael…”
“Michael…”
“Michael.”
“Michael!”
“MICHAEL!!!!!!!!!”
Do it to Julia.
And the
winner of Season 7 tells the world that he is inspired by Russian and German
military fashion, walking with his lead model, who is wrapped in a swastika.
Do it to
Julia.
And the
lexicon of all these shows, television staples in a time of unemployment, is:
STEP IT
UP!
Step it up.
Work harder
(for less money.)
.
Because you
are inadequate.
Because your
performance (painting, cooking, comedy routine, dance, enterprise, design,
sewing, attitude) was not good enough. Was lousy, in fact. Should never have
seen the light of day. Sucked.
Ditto: your
face, pores, hair, legs, teeth, butt, breath, facial expression, feet.
Sucked.
Your
too-happy, too-sensitive, too-creative, too-too-too-too self.
Sucked.
Sucks.
And it
wasn’t because we asked too much. Gave humiliating tasks. Judged unfairly.
IT WAS
BECAUSE YOU WERE NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
DIDN’T
MEASURE UP.
SUCKED.
Ciao. Auf
wiedersehn. Toodles.
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