"If the show simply featured young people, who didn’t identify with a particular ethnic or racial group, the bad behavior might be attributed to youth or attention-starved-reality-show-celebrities."

I do agree with your description of "othering" the Italian-Americans in the show. However I find a considerable amount of trouble with the above sentence. How does one not identify with a particular racial group? My initial reaction is to assume that the piece was written by someone who enjoys white privilege and thus assumes a white standard to be "race-neutral." This assumption of course in itself has some flaws but I am still curious as to what the author assumes a person without a racial identity looks like.

Victoria, I interpret that sentence differently. She says, "who didn't identify with a particular ethnic or racial group" and I take that to mean "who didn't identify with only one ethnic or racial group," as in "we are ALL Italian Americans." I really doubt she was saying that to fix the show you just need people who don't think they have a racial identity (which of course would be "white" people). The context of this post is about homogenous racial/ethnic identity on a reality show.

I think there's still room to critique that statement, though I don't watch enough reality shows to know whether people of color get othered in reality shows that are not racially/ethnically homogenous. I would easily suspect as much, but somehow I'd also suspect it's more complex than that.

Victoria,

"Young people" is plural. The author is suggesting that if cast members didn't ALL collectively identify (or weren't marked) as a single ethnic group (which has never been the case on The Real World, as it is on Jersey Shore)the bad behavior would be attributed to other factors. It's kind of a "no duh" statement to be sure, but it's quite unrelated to your critique (I simply don't see any place in which the author is implying that individuals don't have racial identities).

Of course, the cast members on Jersey Shore enjoy white privilege themselves, regardless of what they choose to do with it.

I think this is an interesting analysis of what is going on in this show. I'm particularly interested by this statement

It features, as does nearly every reality show involving 20-somethings, a lot of ridiculous, immature behavior, a celebration of party-culture and anti-intellectualism, and capitulation to the pornification of American culture.

I personally kind of feel to a certain extent you can take the American out of that sentence and you are describing a lot of non task themed reality tv world wide including the multiple formats of Big Brother (as opposed to say, Dancing with the stars/Strictly come dancing or American Idol).

Referring to Victoria's comment I think the other comments have kind of explained where you got confused but I think the point might be helped if you compare it to say, 'The Hills'. The people in it are white and clearly have a racial identity but it's not one that people watching are conditioned to think oh yes we're looking at a bunch of young white people. They have no identifiers so they are assessed as individuals.

I have to say, though, it's strange people aren't more bothered by Tool Academy, which is basically a show about telling women to stay in abusive relationships.

"It features, as does nearly every reality show involving 20-somethings, a lot of ridiculous, immature behavior, a celebration of party-culture and anti-intellectualism, and capitulation to the pornification of American culture..."

Another aspect of this show we could consider as offensive is the fact mentioned above. A great deal many 20 somethings aren't immature, ridiculous, anti intellectual party crazed kids. The situations they're put in are entirely manipulative. It's not so much the "behavior" of the 20 somethings but rather the producers paying them to gossip about eachother and make out on dance floors.

“If the show simply featured young people, who didn’t identify with a particular ethnic or racial group, the bad behavior might be attributed to youth or attention-starved-reality-show-celebrities.”

Even if the show only featured young people who somehow did not hold a racial or ethnic identity (I'm not quite sure how aside from perhaps not recognizing their racial identity as a result of the normative status of whiteness and white privilege), to state that the "bad behavior might be attributed to youth" is an AGEIST, ADULT-CENTERED notion that perpetuates the social construction of "youth" as being "bad."

I think a more critical question would be, why do adults think of youth in negative terms and what are the consequences? When one observes data with respect to the school-to-prison pipeline, or criminally prosecuting children as adults in legal proceedings, or the lack of resources provided to massive amounts of children in the United States and elsewhere, or the lack of consideration of children's voices in all sorts of domains, etc., I think a reasonable person would agree that theorizing children as "bad" and in need of "adult authority" results in serious consequences that violate children's rights.

So, I find it problematic to talk about the people on this show as "bad" as a result of them being "young." They may or may not be "bad" people--that is not something on which I am qualified to comment. But, their bad behavior should not be attributed to their age as that is ageist.

I find it hard to sympathize with these groups complaining about the show because they still have what we people of color don't have-- white privilege.

@ Victoria: You're missing the point. Usually MTV reality shows like "The Real World" do not feature 'contestants'/'participants' from ONE single group (as in: each cast member belongs to the exact same racial or ethnic subgroup). Therefore any idiocy of the cast does not reflect or is associated with a specific racial or ethnic group

@ Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist: So negative stereotyping is acceptable as long as it is done to White people??? What? Does that pertain to any and all White people? Could I stereotype deaf White people and you're down with that?

won't the people who accept the negative stereotypes portrayed in the show as being indicative of all italian-americans be people who already have a bias against italian-americans? i realize that the power of the media is strong (marketing works), but do we ever see the reverse? would portraying italian-americans in a realistic, positive light actually sway the people with a bias?

has that ever happened with an identity group?

personally, i see a reality show usually think, "wow, look at all the idiots". i don't see them as representative of anything other than the subgroup of people who like really bad tv.

Oh geez, I was hoping for a refuge from this stupid show. (I'm actually surprised you folks didn't cover it sooner.)

"Well, Italians are considered white and they're marked by some sort of privilege so I don't sympathize when they complain," is really silly to me. No offense, just saying.

Accepting stereotyping of supposedly privileged groups isn't exactly the answer to getting rid of the stereotypes or the privilege.

After watching that clip and reading a bit about the show, I'm REALLY glad I got rid of my TV.

The "Youth = Irresponsibility" theme is a recurrent one in our society right now, that is certainly helped along by reality shows - but that this blog is inappropriately reinforcing. Keep in mind that shows featuring thirty- and forty-somethings have just as much drama and just as many ridiculous antics, and not just from "attention-starved celebrities". This blog addresses all kinds of racial and gender-based issues, but not the age-based issues that are causing a generational rift in our society right now. I am a member of the rising tide of young entrepreneurs and professionals, and we are constantly bombarded with statements like "I would never let a twenty-five year old run my company" with the implication being that twenty-five year olds are too foolish and irresponsible to handle that level of commitment.

The biggest problem with the show that I see is that all of these people have been specifically selected because they're willing to reinforce a negative image of Italians. Actual American discrimination against Italian-Americans has decreased significantly - yes, stereotyping is still an issue, but it's very rare these days to see "Italians and Irish need not apply" signs and so on. It's not a large part of American culture today to think of Italians as being a particular way, except perhaps "loud" and "family oriented" (thanks, Olive Garden commercials). These young men and women are bringing back some of the negative stereotypes that were associated with Italians for so long.

Hello? I think the group being ridiculed is people from New Jersey!

A lot of the criticism from Italian-Americans about this show has to do with the use of the terms "guido" and "guidette," which I grew up as an Italian-American and embraced as a trendy subculture. Actually, I found the style outdated and was surprised at the transitioning definition by younger people.

The constant criticism by Italian-American groups, usually voiced by people 50+, of shows portraying this ethnic group is making me rewatch with a new awareness some of these shows. Sopranos criticism alway surprised me because the creator is of Italian heritage.

In conversations with friends of diverse ethnicity it is surprising how many people are unaware of the prejudices and diversity with the white race and the history within each white ethnic country (Italy has a history of discrimination of northern Italians and southern Italians, which was still an issue in my Italian-American circles) and within the United States. There are cultural and class issues in each ethnic group.

You know what to me is genuinely most disturbing about Jersey Shore?

That it is exactly the environment I grew up in and went to high school in and it is hardly exaggerated at all. I can't get over the whole internet freaking out about how "crazy" this show is when to me it really just looks like "the first 18 years of my life and the reason I moved out of there the second I got into college."

I wonder in fact how many of the stars are actually of Italian-American heritage; my town was primarily Catholic and primarily Italian, Irish, Eastern European, and then a mix of Hispanic/Asian/Middle Eastern. ("Real Housewives of NJ" was also largely filmed in and around the area.) It wasn't until I went to college (honestly) that I encountered a lot of "white bread" last names and realised that I grew up in a somewhat "ethnically diverse" town (sans African Americans) as opposed to much of America -- and realised later in life that it was somewhat unusual that for such a "wealthy" town, most folks were of the "less privileged" end of "white" -- Italian, Middle-Eastern-passing-for-white, Irish, former Soviet, etc, etc, and many only first or second generation Americans. Naturally of course still problematic and indicative of privilge blahdyblah since mostly everyone there was wealthy and still medium-to-pale-skinned, but it definitely isn't a standard subsection representative of "white America."

Anyhow, the point here is that there were plenty of "guidoes" with Eastern European, Irish, Asian, Hispanic, and Middle Eastern last names... It was more of a socio/cultural stereotype, a style, etc, than an ethnic group. Literally about 75% of my high school dressed, spoke, and acted like this, and probably only 25% of my town is actually Italian-American.

THIS I think might be the more interesting and deeper analysis here, rather than the eternally easy "this show is offensive to XYZ group because." In the same way that these folks are all about "Jersey" despite largely being from Staten Island, etc, I would reckon that a lot of them are not entirely of Italian heritage and are just 'identifying' with the stereotype and 'movement' of guido-dom. Isn't it unusual that as a subculture this is a.) COMPLETELY PERVASIVE OF MOST OF THE YOUTH OF THE NEW JERSEY AREA and b.) appealing to those who are not actually from New Jersey and possibly not actually Italian? Are these folks aware of their perpetuation of what we see as a negative stereotype against and ethnic group? (Doubtful.) What is actually going on when someone that is a.) not from New Jersey and b.) not even Italian perpetuates negative stereotypes against New Jersey Italians?

@ mc: Could you please explain what exactly "guido-dom" is? I don't get it.

@ urbanartiste: Yes, the internal Italian differences/animosities are very interesting. Also the whole Northern separatism shtick. I spent half a year in Italy (Firenze!) and boy, I had no clue how huge the identification as Northern and Southern with accompanying prejudices and/or complexes is. One "Southerner" story: I was standing next to him and remarked on his hair and skin tone. (Yes, I know I shouldn't have, were friends, yes, I know, I still shouldn't have) I said "Almost like a different race." He replied "Well, I am." Dead serious. So I guess he himself identifies as "tangentially White" or sth like that... Rather odd to me.

As an east coast Italian American I can tell you no one refers to themselves as a Guido. It seems like MTV is trying to market the word 'Guido', and make people self identify. The first episode the actors gave little monologues about what being a guido means to them. That seemed like pure producer invented crap to me. However, where I come from you get punched for calling people 'guido'. You would no more call yourself one than you would call yourself 'mook' 'dago' or 'douche'.

It's true, they're not even all Italian. One has the last name Farley and another Pivarnick. And Snooki was adopted from Chile by an Italian-American family and is attempting to "pass." Also, as has been pointed out, most aren't from New Jersey.

Guidos are like whiggers and chavs: Stupid, annoying punks, but nothing to get all worked up about.

Like.. tits.. and stuff.

such a rote, lazy reading of this show.

Their ridiculous behavior doesn't *reflect* an innate Italian-Americanness, it's the other way around. They are using ethnicity as an ingredient, a supplement, to a general douchebag culture. Being a Guido is something they cultivate and primp, no less so than their hair. To put it in sociological jargon, constructionism is the spontaneous ideology here. It's like any aspirational brand in our porny, late-capitalist America. No one innately has it, but it can be acquired (something that the actual, ethnic backgrounds of the characters attests to. As someone said above, plenty of ethnicities pass as Guido--it's a style). Everyone--the producers, most of the audience and not least of all the characters themselves is in on this joke. That's why MTV is basically getting away with a show featuring just "Italian-Americans." Because it's actually a show about people dumb enough to play them on TV.

Great picture on a Western European reading of "ethnicity", shades of Whiteness and what an Italian is supposed to look like:
Spanish, Italian, English, French

And yes, I know that that is not necessarily correct and that it is quite possible to be Italian, blond with blue eyes. But when I saw these Christmas cards of the Spanish royal family, I caught myself being puzzled, which showed me how much I had internalised the concept of "darker skinned" Spaniards and Italians.

They're not all italian. I think 1 or two of them are just American.

Its not targeting italian-americans, it is targetting a GUIDO LIFESTYLE.

That's like saying Flava of Love is targeting black people and we all should be ashamed.

i think the show is really funny and i am mostly itlian and i can even get a joke out of it

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