My POV on Reality TV (pt. 2)

I can't help but question America's view with American Idol. The new Sanjaya conspiracy has really riled up the country into a unison view of hate. Yet, even though no-one supposedly hates him, how does he keep managing to stay out of the bottom three? Apparently, the show has the right to mix up the contestants in the bottom three. I don't believe, however, that they have the right to boot contestants from the show even if they didn't have the least amount of votes. Who knows? Maybe the producers want to keep Sanjaya in because he makes people tune into the show (to watch him get kicked off). As controversial as it is, I still believe that it's business...

However, I do recall on one particular show that was labelled "immoral." If anyone recalls the reality TV show The Swan, the main point was to turn "ugly ducklings" into beauty pageant contestants, where they competed to become "The Ultimate Swan." Why is this immoral you ask? If turning plastic surgery into a contest doesn't make you think twice, I don't know what will. Many people disliked the show based upon the fact that it basically told young women everywhere "If you don't like they way you look, there's a way to fix that." And if there's a cure for bad looks, then there's a cure for everything...right? Had the show not been cancelled at the end of 2004, I think that there would be a lot more people going under the knife. However, I am only presenting one (slightly extremeist) view point. Keep in mind that the main goal of the show was to help women overcome their own view of themselves. Plastic surgery wasn't the only thing they underwent to compete in the pageant - they had fitness trainers, stylists and the like. But amongst all those, they also had a phsycologist. Keep in mind that many of these women thought that they were the most hideous being to walk the planet. Having that kind of self esteem is definetly unhealthy, and this show was supposed to help "cure" them. Cure them it did, but in doing so, turned plastic surgery into something that it shouldn't be: a game show.