cheers, xobolaji

the bone i have to pick with daryn jones is that it just isn’t “funny.” it’s lame.

i’m also grateful to hear somebody else “feel” me on this issue. sometimes i think that as much as i live in my own interior world, i can’t be the only person who hears how some of this language that is used to “empower” women only sets us up as women to judge other women. in all reality, it seems to be a fact of this present life that we are all judgmental. i think i try in my daily life not to be, or at the very least i hope that i judge with “critical perspective” rather than emotional insensitivity. anyway, no matter how u slice it, a judgment is a judgment is a judgment.

i will definitely check out your work. sounds fabulous. winnipeg is a hotbed of creativity and inspired thinking. please visit often. cheers, xobolaji

My husband and I have been taking issue with the term “real women” and “real beauty” in the last year or two as well (it started with him and then I started taking it out of my vocabulary as well). I thought this post (which I found through your comment to Shelby) was well thought out and well written. Thank you for taking the time to bring this to light.

Rodney and I run a photography studio for women in Winnipeg, Canada, called “Eve Studios”. Over the past year, Rodney did an art project which celebrates the beauty of the human body and spirit, called “Just As I Am”. He wanted to show others that beauty resides in all people, and that we’re all very different yet much the same. I hope you’ll check it out!

http://jezebel.com/5571900/mtv-is-lying-to-my-generation-again

Would love to read your presentation.

Interestingly, I recently came upon 2 blogs that preach “fat-acceptance” and talk about body politics in a way I had never contemplated. The first is called Fatshionista by Leslie Kinzel, and the other is “Young Fat and Fabulous” and features a young 20something girl who loves fashion.

They are both a breath of fresh air. And both women have an amazing sense of self and confidence. Truly inspiring stuff!

I’m not at the climax of this book yet, but Hillary Mantel’s “Experiment in Love” touches on these subjects…. I’ll keep you posted.

Thanks, Bolagi, for your wonderful writing!

i ain’t here to judge u, cuz i really don’t know your pain, neither am i inclined to delve that deep. it’s exhausting being a know-it-all, and it’s hazardous to one’s health to overthink crap. sorry u were insulted by my comments. to each his/her own. i think i may have made that point ad nauseum, but some folks are a little too fixated on being “right” and/or “righteous” to comprehend that. so, cool. u do u. and i’ll do me. and until somebody convinces me otherwise, i’m prepared to stay in my little corner and dis/like the things i dislike. cool?

if u intend to keep score as to whether i fit your version/definition of open-mindedness, well, that’s up to u, my job, as it were, is not to convince and coral peeps over to the “dark side,” my intention is to open a window and let u look for yourself, and perhaps offer a difference of opinion.

blah blah blah blah blah. the end. this trip is bumming me out already….

“what does my having to “loosen the fuck up” have to do with me watching a program that i find aggressively stupid? no seriously, i encourage you to make a pitch to my “delicate sensibilities” because i really don’t get it. ”

Well I don’t know what the other poster meant but I would say your having to loosen the fuck up would be the fact that you continue to watch a show that you dislike, and clearly gain nothing from. That in itself is fine. If you don’t agree that the show has humour and you think it is creepy fine. But others can appreciate what the show is and enjoy it without being made to feel like idiots because they do. For you to say there is no art in the show is a joke. You may like art by Leonardo da Vinci better then you like art by Picasso, but that doesn’t mean Picasso’s work wasn’t art. The same goes for T.V. and considering the show has been on the air for 4 years without being cancelled, enough people must like it.

“what are you learning from this show? what part of your intelligence is uplifted and enlightened by the “crude” offerings of this meandering creep-fest? what are the show’s redeeming qualities that i and many others, your demographic included, are missing? ”

What am I learning? Honestly, other then getting a satirical look at a few current events probably not much. But since when did every aspect of everyone’s life have to be educational. Since when did enjoying yourself for half an hour without increasing your intelligence become a crime? I mean Daryn Jones got his start in standup comedy playing generally the same character to an older generation (I guess they were all mindless MTV brainwashed idiots as well). Myself, I rather enjoy coming home after working all day and watching something that doesn’t involve too much thinking but I can still get a decent laugh out of.

“it would seem to me that you have been sufficiently brainwashed if you continue to find mtv live entertaining. ”

I think the only reason this is a debate, is not because you can’t find humour in the show but because your not open minded enough to understand that some people can watch and enjoy MTV live without being complete morons. You don’t know the VAST majority of the people who enjoy the show and for you to so easily lump every single person into one brainwashed group, makes you arrogant and misinformed. Your website says you want to have on going discussion, but from my end it seems you have your opinion and anything against it is irrelevant.

i confess it took me awhile to get through your comment mostly because your cultural references in the context of mtv live are disjointed and out of place. i was not born in the era you describe with disrespect, even though i can certainly appreciate the art-making of those times. the fact that you snicker at them, shows you have low-tolerance and appreciation for art that happened prior to your self-absorbed existence. but cool, that’s our culture today, and we can thank mtv, purveyors of sexy crap and kiss & tell culture for that.

if you know and understand anything about creativity, art-making and pushing boundaries then you could certainly appreciate why the times and people that predate mtv are the reasons shows like mtv live have a cultural presence in our world today. or did the mighty daryn jones, that bastion of clever repartee, fail to impart that little tidbit on your impressionable superficial soul?

let’s be clear: we are talking about TV, and we are talking about a CHARACTER that daryn jones “plays” on tv. this is not high art, this barely passes as low-art, this is not sustainable programming. tv is not “reality.” it may be “life,” but that too is debatable. what are you learning from this show? what part of your intelligence is uplifted and enlightened by the “crude” offerings of this meandering creep-fest? what are the show’s redeeming qualities that i and many others, your demographic included, are missing? what does my having to “loosen the fuck up” have to do with me watching a program that i find aggressively stupid? no seriously, i encourage you to make a pitch to my “delicate sensibilities” because i really don’t get it. now go on and make that same pitch to anybody who doesn’t have a craven desire to be on TV or who doesn’t believe that TV is real. now go forth and turn the table on daryn jones because he’s the real “winner” here. not u or anybody who knowingly participates in this crap.

mtv live is a full-frontal assault to my native intelligence and for the life of me i can’t fathom why ANYBODY would find it entertaining–the squirm and giggle factor notwithstanding. it would seem to me that you have been sufficiently brainwashed if you continue to find mtv live entertaining. sadly our pop-culture future rests in your fickle hands. gaga be damned, daryn jones and mtv live to the rescue!

the point is not WHO daryn jones is in the flesh, so to speak, but the CHARACTER he plays on tv. that is both the subject of my post and my thesis statement; meaning that i will base my comments on the “character” the human known as daryn jones “plays” on tv. you feel me?

if you read the post carefully, i am suggesting that the material he delivers masquerading as “comedy” is not funny, or intelligent. it’s borderline sociopathic and to my mind, there is no humour [or honour] in doing creepy shit as entertainment—particularly when your target audience is more often than not self-absorbed youth who wouldn’t know the meaning of grace if you slapped them over the head with it. personally speaking, i know for sure that i am not the desired demographic for mtv live, and that’s totally ok. i do own a tv, and i do live in this world and ya i can simply turn it off if it offends me, or if i find the content objectionable, but if the case is that the majority of people around me are gaining sustenance from this type of drivel, i need to know what it is, why others find it so entertaining, and how it will affect and infect my life, dig?

now, that’s just me. perhaps you easily enjoy this sort of thing. perhaps you can separate the good from the bad, and perhaps you are intelligent enough to catch the subtle and not-so-subtle messaging inherent in crap-tv without letting it ruin your day. me i can’t. i find it in-your-face and aggressively stupid, with no redeeming qualities, except for the fact that the nicole holeness “character” wears cute dresses[!]

the fact that you find the show “funny” indicates to me that you and i do not find value in similar things. which is totally ok. because that, my dear reader is what makes the world go ‘round. bon weekend to u and that sexy arse of a creep, mistah daryn jones! xobolaji

PS. i sometimes dislike using caps. that said, i do hope that you were able to get through my reply without too much difficulty, and were able to determine where the beginning of one sentence ended and the other began. [ouch!]. the. end.