A post about yucky things

I decided yesterday that I'm going to confess a few things.

In the spirit of full-disclosure.

Not bad things. Just some secret (totally legal) pleasures of mine that not many people know about.

And now, I am going to put them on the internets.

I thoroughly enjoy the agony of watching junk-TV.

Hello, my name is skyewriter and I am a junk-TV junkie.

Here are some of the shows I watch that may lose me some street-cred. I cannot quit these shows:

The Bachelor:

Such drama, such MELODRAMA (pronounced mellow-dram-a). Seriously, I don't ever remember being that desperate being single.

I did the eharmony thing for about a year. I met some nice guys and some HUGE jerks. One fellow I met turned out to be one of my neighbors (a block away) and we've remained friends. He even came to our wedding last year.

But go on TV looking for love? That's just stupid and I cannot not watch.

The Real Housewives of Orange County:

I love watching these people who are so fixated on THINGS and one-upping each other. I wonder what it's like to live in a place where it's 76 and sunny every day? That would make me pretty happy.

And frantic about my appearance.

I can stand shaving only part of the year, thank you very much.

The City/The Hills:

These young ladies are WAY younger than me, but I love watching them be uncomfortable in the weird situations that the producers so obviously stage.

I cannot even imagine if my life in my early 20s (early 1990s) was filmed. I was living in Montauk, NY (one of the most beautiful places on Earth in every sense of that word). I rented a furnished room in a woman's house a block from the ocean. I walked or hitch-hiked everywhere. Everything I owned was in three big boxes. I had "friends" but went everywhere by myself. I wanted to be a writer and was convinced that drinking would make me a good one. Yeah, I was that person sitting at a bar with a notebook, pen, and a Dewars on the rocks.

It was a great time in my life and as a woman, I am grateful for the many lessons I learned.

But I'm also glad it's not on DVD for all eternity.

Hell's Kitchen:

I love Gordon Ramsey. What can I say? I love a man with an accent who shouts and treats people like shit. Not really. I think he's hi-larious and reminds me of some of my favorite teachers (the tough ones who really are softies underneath all the bluster).

One of my dream lives includes owning a catering business and having a cooking show.

I know.

I can feel these words leeching my ethos down the drain with every letter typed.

I do draw the line, however, at Rock of Love; that Bret Michaels needs to just admit he's addicted to hookers and strippers and take it off TV; and Shot at Love-- I only know about this show because of students. It's gross, trust me.

As a feminist, I am ashamed that I support three of the four shows above. They display the worst of the worst of the female half of the species. Nasty, bitchy, back-stabbing, materialistic, appearance-obsessed.

However, I do think they have value in that they expose part of (mostly) white, heterosexual women's lives that may not be so obvious. Our insecurities. Our fascination (and frustration) with men. I think they demonstrate how INVISIBLE and UNREPRESENTED most women are in our country. Very few non-white women (except Real Housewives of Atlanta--but I didn't see any of those), no gay women, no low-maintenance women. In other words, no real women.

In a weird way these shows make me grateful for the life and love I have. I may not shave during the winter, don't have fake boobs or a French manicure, or drive a Mercedes. But I do have a wonderful life with an awesome husband, a great family, and realistic dreams that continue to come true.

I still dream a little. Maybe that's at the root of my addiction.

But I don't think so.

I think.

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