Saturday, July 26, 2008

Shallow and Racist, a McArdle Double Play

WEEEEEE!

So speaking of guilty pleasures,
Oh, Megan, I love your conversational tone. You make me feel like we actually were just speaking of guilty pleasures. Such a joy.
one of mine is "So You Think You Can Dance", the dance version of American Idol. I don't watch any of the other reality shows, the ones that bloggers proudly lay claim to, like Project Runway or Top Chef. No, I just like watching people dance, mostly because I don't Think I Can.

"Guilty pleasures" is such a god awful ridiculous phrase. She was just recently mocking the pretension of those who don't own a TV. Why in the fuck would she feel bad about liking something simply because it's not high brow enough? I guess you're only allowed to be condescending about your entertainment in certain ways around Megan. It's okie, honey, you're allowed to like stupid things. We won't judge for that. Well, we will, but not the dancing.
What's struck me about this season is that with eight contestants left, three out of the four men were black.

1) I love how often Megan gets struck. If only she'd get struck by something larger occasionally.

2) I also love the giddy sense of foreboding I feel every time she starts to talk about race. What amusing bits of clueless derision will our heroine put forth next?
For the last three seasons, the show has tended to be very, very white by the time it gets down to brass tacks. This may be because the black dancers are very disproportionately hip-hop dancers, and don't have the technical skills of other contestants. Or it may be racism.

How magnanimous of her to allow for both the possibilities that black people may be inferior, or people may just think that black people are inferior. Her worldview is all encompassing!
Or it may just have been a fluke. But it's interesting to see this turn around, at least temporarily.

Yes, I always think to myself "Wow, here's an example of cultural if not overt racism playing out. How INTERESTING!"

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"the ones that bloggers lay claim to."

Ugh. Please, Ms. McFartle, make that some bloggers. And while you're at it, kindly get a grip on the definition of "laying claim" and then explain how the !@#$ someone can do such with a television program.

I'm not even touching the crap she wrote about race. I don't like being overcome by urges to commit acts of violence against another human being.

Susan of Texas said...

Megan is making progress. She's gone from saying that thinking about race is a waste of white people's time to wondering about Blacks. I hope she doesn't get a Native American friend, because then we'll get posts on how whites were just working for their shareholders when they gave small-pox infected blankets to the natives.

Adam Eli Clem said...

McArdle fantasizes about re-enacting "Blacksnake Moan" with Steve Gilliard.

P. Spindrift said...

Megan had a Steve Sailer moment. But remember, the whites who can't dance can call each other "cracker," and shouldn't have to hold anyone's hand through this.

clem - awesome.