My Reality TV Show

One of the many ways in which I'm weird is that I almost never watch tv. I mean this literally. Months can go by and I don't turn the tv set on. Especially when there's no new Sopranos. I watch a clip or two on Crooks & Liars, but, generally, I just don't have time.

And I have to admit that I think I'd genuinely prefer having a root canal to watching what Americans are pleased to call "reality tv" shows. I've read enough to understand the idea behind Survivor. I once made myself watch a reality tv show that was on SciFi, called, I think, Weird, Weird House, because one of the participants was a Wiccan who's managed to turn herself into a minor celeb and I wanted to see if I thought she was helping or hurting -- was she showing that lots of normal folks practice Wicca or was she making it seem weirder than it really is? In the end, the show had so little to do with Wicca, that I really couldn't decide.

But I've come to realize that this form of narrative -- the "reality" tv storyline -- is a narrative that lots of Americans do understand and are willing to follow. I'm the weird one out on this. (But, honest, I'd rather have a root canal. Two root canals.) And I've been wondering if there are worthwhile ways to use this narrative format.

A few weeks ago, there was a bit of a dust-up when some tv stations refused to show a reality tv show that asked neighbors to consider several possible new neighbors and the gay (male) couple won (i.e., was selected to move into the neighborhood). The xian right was up in arms over the notion that people might actually accept gay neighbors. (Duh! Are they that stupid? EVERYONE knows a gay couple will improve property values. It's happened all over Capitol Hill!)

So, I got to thinking, there should be a reality tv show that follows some women through their abortions. And, it should be graphic. If we can show plastic surgery on tv, we can show abortion. People should get used to seeing it. They should see what a simple procedure it is and how quickly women recover from it. I guess at the end, some judges could vote on who moved on with her life the best or whatever, just as there's some reality tv show that's always on in my gym where judges vote on the person who lost the most weight that week or whatever. People should see that women have abortions for lots of reasons, that the women who have abortions are pretty normal folks, that the doctors who do abortions are kind, caring healers.

I don't like this narrative form. But maybe there's a way to use it.