Wednesday evening I watched the American Idol finale. I was here by myself and at first I was a little disappointed. I prefer watching things with my family. After awhile though, I was relieved. And I was glad I have a DVR.
There was a time when the 7:00 hour was family programming. And if I'm not mistaken, I think American Idol is considered a family show. So why was the two hours so littered with things that are completely inappropriate?
Am I the only one who found some of this offensive? Maybe I'm an old fuddy-duddy. Maybe I'm not "with it." I remember uproars in the past. Madonna was a lightning rod when it came to controversy. Britney (along with Madonna) took it up a notch. But I don't remember those things being flung at families during the prime time hour. The Madonna/Britney nonsense was late in the broadcast of The Grammys. I don't remember anyone ever pushing the Grammy's on us as a family show.
Wednesday night, we saw sexual dancing, skimpy costumes, freak-show Lady Gaga singing about what I can only assume by the lyrics and the presentation, had everything to do with sex. Then Beyonce sang a song that repeated the line "make love to me" over and over. Marc Anthony sang a song while his wife danced seductively around him and then Ryan joked "we know what they do when they're alone."
WHAT?
Is this okay with everyone? The two finalists were high school students. There were comments all season about the young girls that were voting for Scotty. Is this what we want our young girls to think is normal? Or our young men? We wonder why there are men in the world with so little respect for women. Are these women showing any respect for themselves?
Where are we headed if this is deemed appropriate family programming? When are we going to take a stand?
I don't count for much. I'm sure they won't even notice I'm gone, but I won't be watching American Idol again. Every so often, a show pushes me too far and I have to scratch it from my television schedule. And it makes me sad because it makes me realize that we just keep sliding down the slippery slope. If we keep tolerating things that should be intolerable, we'll eventually be buried by an avalanche that is too much for us to dig ourselves out of.
Maybe it's too late now. I hope not.
As I've thought about the parts of the show that disturbed me most, a quote keeps coming to my mind.
"Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity."
— Margaret D. Nadauld
There was a time when the 7:00 hour was family programming. And if I'm not mistaken, I think American Idol is considered a family show. So why was the two hours so littered with things that are completely inappropriate?
Am I the only one who found some of this offensive? Maybe I'm an old fuddy-duddy. Maybe I'm not "with it." I remember uproars in the past. Madonna was a lightning rod when it came to controversy. Britney (along with Madonna) took it up a notch. But I don't remember those things being flung at families during the prime time hour. The Madonna/Britney nonsense was late in the broadcast of The Grammys. I don't remember anyone ever pushing the Grammy's on us as a family show.
Wednesday night, we saw sexual dancing, skimpy costumes, freak-show Lady Gaga singing about what I can only assume by the lyrics and the presentation, had everything to do with sex. Then Beyonce sang a song that repeated the line "make love to me" over and over. Marc Anthony sang a song while his wife danced seductively around him and then Ryan joked "we know what they do when they're alone."
WHAT?
Is this okay with everyone? The two finalists were high school students. There were comments all season about the young girls that were voting for Scotty. Is this what we want our young girls to think is normal? Or our young men? We wonder why there are men in the world with so little respect for women. Are these women showing any respect for themselves?
Where are we headed if this is deemed appropriate family programming? When are we going to take a stand?
I don't count for much. I'm sure they won't even notice I'm gone, but I won't be watching American Idol again. Every so often, a show pushes me too far and I have to scratch it from my television schedule. And it makes me sad because it makes me realize that we just keep sliding down the slippery slope. If we keep tolerating things that should be intolerable, we'll eventually be buried by an avalanche that is too much for us to dig ourselves out of.
Maybe it's too late now. I hope not.
As I've thought about the parts of the show that disturbed me most, a quote keeps coming to my mind.
"Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity."
— Margaret D. Nadauld
Comments
i am glad to say i didn't watch american idol this year. i have gotten more and more sick of them each year that i watched and this year... i felt a lot of freedom not to have to watch so many hours of american idol nonsense.
sorry it was such a bad experience to watch the finale. i am glad you are taking a stand not to watch it again... we may only be a drop in the bucket... but we will feel better NOT watching rubbish television.
good posting.
We used to watch American Idol together as a family - but this year I didn't even attempt it with the kids not knowing what was going to come out of Steven Tyler's mouth (even with the AI blipping sign)
I DID watch the finale - and like you I was shocked! I DVRrd it - but I'm ashamed to say that I didn't fast forward some things fast enough - and now the damage has been done inside my mind.
The 2 runners up were teenagers - and I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't have seen anything like that on a high school stage (I hope I'm not wrong!!)
It saddens me that it is so hard to find good wholesome entertainment on TV. I LOVE to unwind by watching movies and now it's hard to find a PG-13 movie that hasn't inserted the F-word somewhere that totally did not need to be there. (It had no point to the whole story line and now has ruined the movie for me)
So, I too, like you have had to scratch shows from my TV lineup - this year it's AI & Glee (which just keeps going too far) Sad to lose these shows, but your quote from Margaret Nadauld buoys me up.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.