The other night I was more or less "forced" to watch a couple of episodes of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" on Bravo. Really, this has to be one of the worst shows ever.
The obvious reasons are its crass, almost ironically so, materialism, and celebration of idle wealth. But really, is this the only way women can attain wealth in our society? By blowing wealthy men really well, be they athletes or corporate tycoons or second-generation trust fund babies? The show reveals women who lead incredibly empty lives, filled with aimless driving of SUVs, endless gossping on walkie phones, and gaudy social gestures that seem deep and meaningful within their bubble but appear as unbelievably superficial and shallow to anyone who lives on Earth.
The most hilarious storyline on the show had to be a divorcee, Sherie, who attempts, pathetically, to launch a fashion line in Atlanta. It turns out her ex-husband was Bob Whitfield, the All-Pro offensive tackle for the Falcons, and one of the best linemen in recent NFL history.
The whole thing is supposed to be a show of her independence: she's doing her own fashion thing all by herself (but with his money). She's "worked really hard on it" (even though she didn't draw the designs, or sew the dresses, or actually do anything other than make lots of phone calls, bitch at people, hire unnecessary seeming staff assistants, and ogle male models who competed for the humiliation of standing around in underwear painted with her moronic "She" logo).
In a fitting turn of events, Sherie's shit gets all messed up. The day of an event she had scheduled at a hip gallery to show her line, her dresses arrived at her home mangled, poorly sewed, and unfit for public exhibition. So she had a show anyway, complete with media and hipsters in attendance, but with no dresses - just half-naked guys in fashion paint and blown-up sketches of her dresses (which she herself hadn't even drawn).
In other words, there was literally no there there. A fashion show with no clothes - an appropriately postmodern tribute to the women on this inane show. And it doesn't really matter if they're not like this in real life - this is how they and the producers choose to portray them.
Thorstein Veblen's head would explode if he had to watch these fucking shows. He thought New York's nouveau riche circa 1900 flaunted its wealth excessively by holding costume balls in faux Versailles palaces, or dining on tables made of gold, while thousands starved mere blocks away.
Were the Vanderbilts or the Rockefellers or the Carnegies as stupid and self-absorbed as the idle rich portrayed in the "Real Housewives" series? At least they started meaningful philanthropies and didn't invade people's living rooms every week.
Would that Bravo would do a "Real Real Housewives" show set in Flint, or any inner-city housing project, or some rural backwater in Louisiana or something. As my wife pointed out, it might be the same thing - women who aren't working with lots of time on their hands and wildly inflated delusions of grandeur.
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