Women Behaving Badly

I love reality TV as much as the next girl and usually if its on VH1, MTV, or Bravo I am tuning in. I also know that the more drama there is, the higher the ratings are. However, there comes a point where enough is enough with the dramz. The point where bullying (Basketball Wives I am looking at you especially) and pure nastiness occurs and its just too much. It loses its entertainment value and really just becomes unwatchable. I mean these are usually made up of grown-ass women. And in the case of many, grown-ass WEATLHY women. One would think that they would have some idea of common courtesy and class. But you know what Countess Luanne says "Money can't buy you class. Elegance is learned." She apparently speaks the truth. (Too bad she doesn't always follow her own advice.)

Usually in these reality shows, these women are forced to be around each other and booze in involved. Lots of booze. And when this happens, tempers seem to flare even more. I understand that most of the women probably wouldn't be friends or even spend any time together if the cameras weren't rolling, but geez. Some of the ladies actually do claim to be friends when the cameras aren't rolling and still go at each other's throats. It's amazing to me. And not in a good way.

It seems more and more shows are featuring the women's cattiness and trash talk and actually encourage it. Producers set up scenes where it can be featured and often times, situations seem to escalate where there is no reason for it to. Below are a few shows where this happens more times than not. I currently only watch one of them (I stopped with the rest), but am disgusted by the women's actions and thinking I might call it quits before the new season airs. You would think that the women who star in these shows would want a positive light to shine on them in the spotlight, but I guess sometimes any light will do.

Basketball Wives. This season was pretty dramatic. It has been pretty well documented in the tabloids and in the blogs about what has been going down with Tami, Evelyn, and the other cast members. Plain and simple, there is lots of bullying. By grown women. And the other women just sitting back and watching. No one stepping in to calm things down and stop the situation from getting worse. It really is disgusting to watch. On what planet is it acceptable for adults to bully each other to tears and even get physical with one another? And then when one woman gets physical with another and that woman presses charges, its frowned upon? No one should put their hands on someone else. Especially if a camera is filming it all. It's evidence. Duh. You cannot and should not get away with it. And a simple "I'm sorry" isn't going to cut it either.  In some of these altercations the old saying "You can take the girl outta the hood but you can't take the hood outta the girl" really is evident. 

Also in the season finale, I think for the sake of saving some face (and very staged I may add) main character and executive producer Shawnie met with "her pastor" to discuss all the negative behaviors of the women and her concern over being associated with it all. Shawnie honey, if you are so against it and embarrassed by it, either stop instigating many of these altercations or step in and tell your "friends" how inappropriate and repulsive their behaviors are. You are by no means an innocent bystander in this situation. You created this monster and you really have done nothing to tone it down. (In fact, it was just released yesterday that Basketball Wives just released three of the most drama-free characters from the cast and will replace them next season.)

Bad Girls Club. I haven't watched this show in about three years. I think I stopped a few episodes into the Miami season because I had seen enough. There was just too much yelling. Too much screaming. And way too much immaturity. Now I know the premise of the show is for so-called "bad girls" to live in a house together and try and get along, but each girl tries to outdo the other as the "baddest bitch" around. Cliques usually form. Girls bully each other verbally. They also mess with each other's stuff. Not cool. Why would any woman sign up for this? Are you really proud to be a "bad girl?" Why? It's gross. 

Mob Wives. Ugh, Reneé. I watched this show for almost an entire season and just couldn't deal anymore. And Reneé was was my biggest reason. She was way too dramatic for me. Everything always had to revolve around her and she was the one that started most of the shit that went down. This show once again, has too much yelling. Too much fighting. And all for pretty unnecessary reasons. Petty stuff. And in very public places too. Why are these women allowed in restaurants and clubs? They always start trouble and make a scene. Ridic. 

I am sorry though that I missed season two of Mob Wives because of all the Big Ang rage. She seems like a reality TV gold mine from the limited scenes I have seen online. (This is probably the reason she earned her own spin-off.)

I even gave Mob Wives: Chicago a chance but just couldn't get through the first episode. Being from Chicago I figured I would at least like it for the scenery but no dice. Same shit, different city. No thanks. 

Jerseylicious. I actually just stopped watching this one. The cattiness became too much. Too scripted and too much bickering. If you women (hello Olivia and Tracy) hate each other so much, why do you continue to work together? And why continue to put yourselves in situations where you are in the same room and have to be so close? Oh that's right, because producers tell you to. That doesn't mean you have to engage each other with conversation. Ugh. Is the paycheck worth all the aggravation that you seem to go through by being around each other?

All of these shows pull in big audiences and have large fan bases. I don't get it. I know there was a boycott called for Basketball Wives following this season because of the bullying behavior, but really, all of these shows do the same thing on one level or another. So why boycott one and not the other?  I will never figure this out and although I no longer tune into to almost all of these shows, many women (and girls!!) do. I hope they at least realize the behaviors of many of these women are ones we want to avoid and not ones we aspire to have. Many of these women are mothers and have to remember that their children will see this behavior. Unacceptable. Embarrassing. This should be enough to encourage them to better themselves. Hopefully. If not, the apple will not fall far from the tree.