The basic definition of a stereotype is “an oversimplified conception: an oversimplified standardized image of a person or group.” We all know stereotyping is BAD. Not all Asians are smart, not all Native Americans are violent alcoholics and not all Mexicans airbrush Jesus on their El Caminos. On the other hand, most every Irish person I know does like to drink, so go figure.
For the purposes of this post, it is important to point out that NOT ALL ITALIANS ARE GUIDOS, ok? But unlike most negative stereotypes where people generally try to disprove the image, there is a subculture of Italian-Americans who embrace the image of the Guido, believe its a great thing and really don’t seem to care about what anyone else thinks about it.
On MTV’s new phenomenon “Jersey Shore”, they take a bunch of Guidos and Guidettes and put them on display for all the world to judge as superficial morons. While we are all aware of their existence (at least in NY/NJ),  we rarely would ever get the chance to judge them so closely without getting a pinky ring to the face.  It’s almost like watching a dangerous group of rare sharks you could never get close to in reality but always heard about.  There has been a lot of hoopla about this show encouraging a “negative” Italian stereotype. I think MTV is definitely exploiting this group of people and their behavior/looks/cultural interests (jaegermeister and self tanner, I believe) as a joke. Yet I dont believe that anyone of the people on this show views themselves as a bad example of an Italian person, though.  I am from New Jersey and I can tell you that the Guidos take themselves very, very seriously. Within their closed community, they truly believe they look amazing, sound cool and are very cutting edge. They spend a lot of time on personal health and maintenance and like to dance and have fun. What is negative about that? MTV created a bullshit environment with Italian flags and Cadillac symbols painted everywhere that screams Italian idiots live there, not just run of the mill douchebags.

Put it to you this way: If MTV had a show called “Murray Hill” and showed a bunch of Jewish college graduates living in the Rivergate with big stars of David painted on the walls and dreidels spinning from the ceiling, with the girls wearing Jimmy Choo sandals while fighting over which Essie nail polish color is the best I would be offended by the show’s portayal of my people, not because it isn’t true to a certain degree.

PS. I never lived in the Rivergate, so eff off.

Um, please don’t make that show, MTV… although I would totally watch it.

This entry (Permalink) was posted on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 8:18 am and is filed under Wait, What?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site.