The Tyra Show

When you work from home you get the opportunity to have the television on as you work. I used to turn it off, but I found that I lost track of the time so much easier when I didn’t half-hour/hour long shows to show me how time was passing. I’d listen to podcasts or Pandora and suddenly three or four hours would pass and I wouldn’t have nearly as much done as I hoped. I find that bad daytime TV, especially shows like Maury and Cheaters, are great as time monitors and, occasionally, you get some great mid-work moments like when Maury pulls out the DNA test and neither of the men that the girl brought on the show as the father of her child ends up being the father of that child. It’s horrible, but I’m not above schadenfreude.

However, when I work from Rene’s house, as I do from time to time, she does not have cable and I just leave the TV on one channel. Most of the day this is fine as background, until the Tyra show comes on.

I’m not a fan.

I don’t understand why this woman has this show. She is condescending, judgmental and regularly tries to force her opinions on her guests. Sometimes it feels like she brings people on her show just to point her finger and laugh.

I’m also not real big on how Tyra, a super-model and has been a super-model for most of her life, likes to try and play the “I’m a regular person” card. That is very frustrating. She makes broad moral judgements without any regard for her guests circumstances. I don’t like that. I can deal with, and used to really enjoy, hosts like Jerry Springer. They openly mocked their guests, but all of their stories were so extreme that even the guests could laugh at themselves, but Tyra takes on some very serious subjects and then applies only her myopic view on them. That’s just trashy television.

And the worst part is that her show is AMAZINGLY popular with teen girls. Very impressionable teen girls. At least for the most part Tyra rides her moral high horse, but when it comes to body issues and weight she sends two very different messages. On her talk show she is all about loving your body and being comfortable in your skin and “kiss my fat ass” but then you see her other show, America’s Next Top Model, and all they talk about is how fat a size 2 girl is and how a size 6 is a plus size model. How are these two messages supposed to jive?!?

Rene does a much better compare/contrast in her blog, but I saw Tyra’s show on teen pregnancy today and it just infuriated me. Now I feel better.

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under body issues, grrr, TV

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