What is your ‘Reality of Choice’?

Posted Jun 28, 2010

Reality Breakdown – As I see it……….

Reality is such a loaded word these days.  First there is the underlying idea that reality television is very “low brow” – which let’s face it, it is.  However, I think it has become the daytime soaps of our generation.  I mean if you’re not indulging out in the open, you’re quite possibly sneaking a peak on your trustee TiVo or DVR.  Most intelligent people will toss it off as a meaningless “guilty pleasure”, but down deep inside those same successful people are chomping at the bit for the next hit of their “reality of choice”.

Whether it’s the high-end more forgivable shows that feature talented individuals battling it out for some kind of life-changing grand prize, or the “to tacky to live” bottom feeders – let’s face it – reality TV is here to stay.  No great revelation I know, but as a society I still think we treat this ever-growing phenomenon of reality television as a dirty little secret.

Here we are gorging on reality television day in and day out to such a degree that Network television is all but dead and buried, and we still want to pretend we’re above it.   As you will come to know I am first, last and always a philosopher at heart.  So I am truly fascinating by the ever present paradox that exists in the watchers of reality television.  We are an ever growing ever evolving society always seeking higher knowledge and enlightenment.  Yet when all is said and done we are utterly enticed by the promise of seeing the inner lives of other people played out in front of our eyes or the seduction of quick fame and quicker fortune.

And that’s where we find ourselves, a technically advanced well-meaning people that consist of an endless amount of vapid fame-seekers all willing to sell their souls for “reality stardom” – and the rest of us – who can’t take our eyes off them.

So yes I both suckle at the teete of and am simultaneously repulsed by the power of reality television and where I know it’s headed.  And yes that makes me a hypocrite.  But at fashionCOW we don’t shy away from being hypocrites rather we embrace our status and enjoy the narcissistic self-analysis it leads to.  So that’s how it is, a self-reflective diatribe one minute and the next a breezy breakdown on this week’s Real Housewives of New York, live with it!