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Back to the USA...
Cecilia Sardenberg (cecisard@ACS.BU.EDU)
Fri, 3 Mar 1995 23:40:58 -0500
Dear fellow listers:
After living in the US for nearly 14 years, I went back to Brazil. Eight
years went by, and then, finally, here I am, back in the USA... Since I
had lived here before, I never thought I would experience 'culture shock'
again. But it is happening, and I thought it would be interesting to
share with you some of my thoughts about contemporary American culture,
particularly as to some of the things that have been 'shocking' me. So
that I don't clog your mail with a long message, I will discuss one
'shocker' each time.
Today's topic is 'Spill out your guts on TV-shows':
(Obs: I do not mean the O.J. Simpson trial. This will be a forthcoming
topic).
Please, help me to understand when and how all the game shows in which
people dressed in funny clothes to chose between doors to win money,
evolved into game shows in which people still dress in funny clothes but to
be 'game' themselves, bare out their most intimate 'exotic and erotic'
no-nos, and get butchered on the screen by everybody and their mother too...
Could it be that Americans have turned so much inwards and self-centered
that it is not enough to stare at their own belly-buttom, they have to
get inside it and bare it out too ? (I say this because even the 'World
News' here now seems to spend 90% of the time talking about US news
instead.)
Or is it a matter of Madonna having succeded in making S & M such a
big thing that you can have it on day time TV (all day long) ?
How do American anthropologists views/explain these TV shows?
Cecilia Sardenberg
cecisard@bu.edu
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