Easter night I saw there was a preview for the TV show "Real Housewives of New Jersey" and OK, I bit. Being real, kind of a housewife, and definitely from NJ, I was curious. The characters? housewives? were an extended family with the men "in construction" and the women have children, buy stuff, and work out. And they're Italian. Ummm, hello? Italian, from N.J. and "in construction"? Isn't that white-people-speak for mob? You know like when someone leaves their job to "spend more time with the family"? Or when a guy has a "neat apartment, likes show tunes and Barbra Streisand"?
It's pathetic that this is the extent of being Italian American. I was a big "Sopranos" fan, I thought it was incredibly realistic and well done. I saw a lot of the people, places and things on the screen that reminded me of my relatives (one of them actually was a relative...). But there was at least some human drama--decisions made, actions taken. A wide range of characters and viewpoints. This reality show is so incredibly vapid and horrible (yes I can tell that from watching 15 minutes! Let me rant!) but I can't even really whine about stereotypes because these people are 100 percent real. Of course there's a lot of control in editing, but let's not split big hair.
I'm not going all b.s. highbrow on you either. I love me some mindless tv like the next person. During the first sleepless new baby months I watched a marathon of America's Next Top Model and then like a coke addict pawing through a shag carpet hoping against hope for a little forgotten nugget, started flipping thru the channels looking for more. Dark days. TV-watching does trigger the same responses as drug addiction. But I'm getting off my topic here.
I guess despite the fact that these people are fascinating in a trivial way and entertaining like a car accident, I'm just done with this stereotype. It's gotten so incredibly stale. Here's some other wops from Jersey: Bruce Springsteen, Janeane Garofalo, Tom Perrotta. More like these, please.
In the meantime I'd rather hang with the real real housewives of NJ, i.e., my friends down the street. Eeeeey. Fuggedaboudit.
