Jersey Shore is a Pariah

Yesterday I was riding my bike to the gym, it's about a mile I think, and I see these two late-teen, early 20's fat women walking down the street. Now I know what you're thinking: Joe, isn't fat a bit harsh? Or rude? Hey, I'm calling a spade a spade and it's relevant so "fat" it is. They were all accessorized from earrings to belts and whatnot. Mind you, I only saw them for about 15 seconds as I rode by, but they made an impression on me: why is this acceptable for a young person (notice I did not say "women" here) in their late teens/early twenties to be in this physical shape and accepting of it? I'm pretty sure they weren't moms, so they don't have that to fall back on. They could have been from Wisconsin, in which case they were behind the eight ball from the start of their lives.....from the looks of things a large eight ball.

My issue is mostly with how obviously accepting of their appearance they were. They sort of looked like Snooki and carried themselves in that same way. That got me to thinking about what a pariah on our youth Jersey Shore has been. What is at all redeeming about that show (that I admittedly have only watched once)? Here are the messages that I see coming from it:

1) It's ok to be an idiot.

2) Women treat men like shit and it's ok.

3) Men treat women like something worse than shit and it's more than ok, it's to be applauded.

4) You don't have to work to be successful.

5) You never have on too much makeup.

6) Violence and screaming are the only ways to deal with problems.

7) Drama queens get the guys.

8) You can look like an oompa-loompa, not take care of yourself, get drunk on a consistent basis and as long as you put out, guys will like you.

I don't know, I kind of went all over the place in this entry but the two main themes are:

1) our youth are too fat and they shouldn't be happy about it and,

2) Jersey Shore is awful.