Delayed Flight # 8

The other day I discovered my wife watching a television show called What Not To Wear on some lifestyle cable channel.
For those of you who don’t know, this is a sick and twisted version of getting your so-called friends to change your fashion sense by ridicule and slander that will ultimately lead to you caught in the verbal crosshairs to change your tastes or else continue to receive further abuse from your friends.
The alleged fashion gurus who host this show begin the verbal stoning by putting you up on display like a public execution and demand you repent your wrongdoings, or fashion faux pas, in the name of god before being hung in front of the masses.
The abuse you receive on television reminds me of a terrorist hostage tape sent to all the major news networks as a ransom note with you, starving and beat up, chained to a rock while telling the camera about all the fashion sins you have committed before falling at the hands of your enemy’s machete.
The other problem with this show is it promotes a false sense of hope and proclaims the only sure method to fix your problem is by way of reality television. All the doctor talk shows and weight loss game shows that are aired on primetime try to prove the only way your problem will be fixed is if you embarrass yourself for all to see rather than seek real medical attention or an artistic outlet that can get to the root of some self-esteem issue or repressed anger.
We live in a world where celebrities and television network consultants have become our saviors, our means of therapy that lobby for their own gain and revenue when the heavy product endorsed television show goes to commercial and fills the dead air time with ads for prescription drugs we do not need. They promote band-aid remedies for our problems than real solutions that are not covered by the already corrupt medical insurance field.
What’s wrong with this country, when did we become so superficial that the mannequin display of our outer selves became more important to fix, rather than the root of most of our problems that fall under the bitter strain of human emotion? Don’t you think we should fix our battered thoughts of how we perceive ourselves first, before dealing with how other see us?
If my friends decided to put me on a show like this, I would know they are not my friends. If someone, anyone ever put me on some television show to embarrass me it would warrant an ass kicking. And I’m not talking about some slap in the face, I’m talking about all out anarchy in the studio set where I would stomp the shit out of any two-bit waste of life that felt obligated for their own emotional benefit to make me feel as if the real Me standing in front of them did not exist.
Understand your problems will not be worked out on a television show. Understand there are other methods, even more proactive ways of dealing with your problems than displaying them on some ratings hungry network.
And if reality television still feels like the outcome you need to feel better about yourself, fine, just don’t feel as if that was your only hope if you don’t get on. Do not allow those repressed feelings to slip further down into the pit of your stomach where the world feels against you and the only result is deadly harm to yourself or to others.
Someone in the world cares for you. And if you have trouble finding that person, just look in the mirror and tell yourself everything is going to be ok.
There are enough assholes in the world that dress and look like everyone else, and you should not feel obligated to become one of them.