I was watching television over fall break and while flipping through the channels, I stopped on MTV to watch a promo for an upcoming program. The promo was called “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila” and was set up like a dating show. Tila, a woman of Vietnamese descent whose main “claim to fame” is having the highest number of friends on Myspace, is looking for love on an MTV program. The only hitch? Tila is bisexual, and on the show she will be dating one group of straight men and one group of lesbian women, and neither group will know about the other (for a while, I am sure the producers can’t wait to introduce the two groups.) At the end of the show, Tila will decide who is right for her, one of the lesbian women or one of the straight men.
Watching this television promo really got me thinking about the “norms” that we had talked about in class. In the discussions about Ma Vie En Rose and Anne Fausto-Sterling’s The Five Sexes, we often discussed open scenarios where one could explore one’s sexuality. I think that the show’s idea is very progressive but I really don’t know if the format of the show is appropriate for gaining acceptance for bisexual individuals. The secretive aspect of keeping the two groups apart as well as the intended shock value when the two groups find out about one another places more value on attention-grabbing tactics than education about bisexuality. I would hope that the show breaks through age-old barriers in mainstream media about bisexuality, but I fear that the program will simply reinforce or create negative stereotypes about bisexual people.
1 comment:
Imagine how embarrassed I feel to admit that I actually watched the show (there was LITERALLY nothing else on)....
In any case, it's funny that you mentioned it, because I was so overwhelmed by how cheesy the show is to even think about its relevance to our class and to a possible growing acceptance of bisexuality or other less widely accepted forms of sexual orientation. It never would have occurred to me that a dating show could have the power to cause viewers to be more open to different forms of sexual orientation, but I think you make a very valid point. While I certainly think in this instance, Tina's bisexuality is used as more of a shock factor, I think that a more mainstream show like "the bachelor" might help alleviate some of the stigmas in our society regarding these issues.
Unfortunately, however, for any other network besides MTV to test out these watersis highly unlikely because it might backfire. I'm sure I'm not the only person who, in response to intimate scenes between gay or lesbian scenes on television or in movies, has heard people responding negatively. As much as I'd like to believe that a show like this would open people's eyes ("hey, they're just like me!"), I'm worried that people might reject the show completely, which would have the potential to set us back even further in our progression in accepting people of differing sexual orientations.
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