Thursday, May 29, 2008

Trashy TV

Why why why do people in trashy TV shows all look like they're from LA? I don't get it. I just happened to be watching A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila last weekend, and one of the contestants is supposed to be a reporter (or something) from Seattle. Except she's clearly not. Nobody in Seattle looks like that. Straightened hair, oodles of makeup, dressed like she's out to go clubbing.

Everybody on the damn show had the exact same style -- overgelled hair, clothes like they're going to a job interview, men up to their Abercrombie-andFitchiest -- and I don't get it. I have to see this crap every time I go out, but why is it appearing on my TV as some grim parody of reality? Do people who make these shows think that this represents some form of reality that their viewers actually identify with? Or is this really just the way that the contestants look in everyday life, and those are the only people that are interested in trying to appear on reality TV shows?


  1. First- Why are you watching reality TV?

    Second- Maybe it's because they're all shot in LA and the hair/makeup/wardrobe people LAify everyone.

    Third- So, is Tia Tequila worth it? She's physically attractive, but is she at all charismatic?

  2. No, I'm sorry, she is not attractive. She is a walking health textbook on the ravages of STDs.

    Joseph, I'm pretty sure you have a little condition I like to call "selective memory." Next time you're in Portland... well, okay, downtown makes it hard because it's all boomers and gutter punks, and Hawthorne is its own little universe... but NE Broadway, NW 23rd, SW, Beaverton, Hillsboro or Tigard at any time; or downtown on a Friday night is just full of those girls. DC is full of them. Those girls are everywhere. That's just how 20-something girls want to look in this country these days. I think you've just had the privilege of living in very unique communities for so long that you stopped noticing them. That's my theory. READ ABOUT IT!

  3. I am going to have to agree with Syd. There are an unfortunate number of people aiming for that look all across the country. Even out here in Astoria. It is just easier to avoid in them in most of Oregon.

  4. I'm watching reality TV because I was over at my friend's house drinking some crazy thing called Shoot the Root (root beer schnapps in Budweiser, if you were curious). I didn't actually pay more than fractional attention to the show, so I can't tell you any more than that.

    Sydney -- I know that those people exist everywhere, but the density of them is just so vastly higher in LA than anywhere else I've ever been to. I don't think of your typical Portlander as dressing like that, but that's definitely your standard Angelino. I guess this plays into the self-selecting theory more than anything else...