Nothing real on reality TV
One of the primary reasons we all have an idiot box is that it can help us escape reality.
But in the TV world today, night after night, we are bombarded with the very thing the box is supposed to help us escape.
This theatre of crudeness that is reality TV attracts millions, makes billions and attributes its success to the baseness of deceit, degradation and dishonour.
So it comes as no surprise that the Shilpa Shetty-Jade Goody racist row on the set of the British reality TV show ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ has become the biggest story of January.
Goody, a large breasted foul-mouthed star joined two others on the show to ridicule Shetty - a sultry and sexy siren from Bollywood.
The verbal catfight that was beamed into thousands of homes showcased British linguistic prowess in the forms of slurs like Paki, wanker, F…ing loser and “you’re so stuck up your own arse”.
Shetty cried and the world was set aflame.
There were demonstrations in India, a global chorus of outrage, the matter hit the House of Commons, the show’s sponsor walked out, Goody’s perfume line was withdrawn and Britain’s television watchdog logged a record 38,000 complaints.
At the same time the ratings for Big Brother took off, Shetty became a hometown hero and Goody was voted off the show by a judicious British viewership, guaranteeing her further profitable infamy.
This cheap melodrama has now been repackaged as a war of cultures by the rabid media aimed at showing the differences between an English working girl and a privileged Bollywood princess.
But the actual realities that underpin the angst remain unattended to.
Interviews with the average, lower middle class Briton, whose eyeballs are much sought after by the producers of Big Brother, stated there was no racism on the show.
The vulgar expressions were deemed typical of conversations in pubs, schools and soccer stadiums.
What was being done to address this cultural rot, nobody caught up in the debate, seemed to care.
Instead, the producer of the partly-taxpayer funded show was defending his right to air British reality, warts and all, instead of spending the money on programmes to eradicate the social cancers of his society.
As for the Indians who raced to the pedestal to shout out their indignation, it will be wise for them to look in their own backyard when it comes to racism.
The farcical objections in India and by the Indian diaspora should be refocused to put a spotlight on the ravages of racism by South Asians on South Asians.
Many of India’s one billion people still live within a hierarchy imposed by the Hindu caste system.
The system ensures the powerful and privileged retain their domination by exploiting and barring the lower castes.
Many Indians live by the unwritten rule that people must be put into rigid social classes. They don’t have a problem being racist against their own kind and their condemnations make a mockery of what they claim to defend.
Reality TV shows do nothing to educate anyone about the realities that matter.
Watch at your own peril.
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