I Don’t Care That You’re A Mother
When X Factor hit our screens last year Simon Cowell made the decision to try and keep away from sob stories and instead focus some of the attention back onto the potential ‘pop sensations.’ However as the class of 2010 were boring to the extreme (apart from Glorious Wagner obvs) this left the story writers and editors with so much time to fill that some of them actually died*. Instead we ended up hearing about Rebecca Ferguson being a mother and how she missed her kids and blah blah blah.
This has become a worrying feature of reality TV. Watching American Idol last night and any female contestant that had forced new life through her beef curtains were immediately pointed out. Americas Next Top Model does the same, making sure that at least five minutes of each episode is spent with a woman weeping down the phone to a child that has barely learned to throw up. This has now seeped out of the world of reality TV and into how we talk about celebrities. How many times do we have to read about X, Y or Z finding it a challenge to be a Mom and work?
This sends out a bundle of worrying mixed messages. Foremost is the lack of men leaving their children at home, are these women creating children by themselves? As far as I was aware both a penis and a vagina are needed to create life, if this has changed recently can you please let me know. Why do we never hear about ‘Troy father of three who has left his children to become awesome” or Larry the Irish lumberjack with a home brimming with kids? Why in the world of television are men absolved from child care responsibilities? On one (patronising) hand this is saying; Look! Women are just as good as men, if not better, they can raise a child and become Americas Next Top Idol. Look how brave she is following her dream to help her family. On the other hand, telling us that these women have a family has a much darker subtext, implying that their selfish desire has caused them to abandon their family (can any one else smell the tale of Adam and Eve?)
I have no interest if these woman as parents, I think that its a grotesque short hand so please television people can you stop being lazy or start giving me the complete genealogy of all your participants.
*This may not be entirely accurate.
