In "honor" of "Jersey Shore's" third season premiering tonight, I thought I'd post this piece. Like some of my other pieces, this orginally was published as a Facebook Note back when I was a freshman. The show had just premiered at the time and so as an Italian American from New Jersey, naturally I was kind of pissed about it. I was bottling up my frustration until I couldn't take it anymore and had to write down my feelings about it, so at school between classes I wrote this. I got both praise and criticism for this piece, but it's understandable. This one takes more of a rant style as opposed to my other works, because obviously I was ranting and pretty angry. But I think it is a well written rant nonetheless, which is why I am posting it. Though I am still not a huge fan of the show, I have calmed down since. There are times when I even laugh about it with my friends, so it's all good. This is basically just an initial reaction, so I apologize in advance if anybody finds this too harsh or offensive. Enjoy.
I'm hearing an awful lot of hype about the new reality show "Jersey Shore." I am a huge fan of New Jersey, born and raised here, and I absolutely love the shore. It is an amazing place unique to our state and I have been going there since childhood. However, I am tired of my state of residence being ripped apart because of some negative stereotypes. New Jersey is an amazing state with a lot of history and landmarks and it is completedly offensive to have the state represented in such a way. New Jersey has had a bad rep for such a long time now and it has to stop somewhere. It would be nice if MTV respects the wishes of me and my fellow New Jerseyans and helps us out with this by discontinuing the series and stop feeding into the mockery that has been in existence for ages.
I am also 50% Italian, so therefore I have opinion on that aspect as well. I have been told that because I am Italian, I am automatically a guido and should know how to frolic. There is a HUGE difference between guidos and Italians. For one thing Italians are NATURALLY tan. We are family oriented, damn good cooks, and are NOT dumb despite popular belief. Italians are a pure-bred nationality whereas guidos appear to be "fake Italians." To say that guidos represent the Italians of New Jersey is just outrageous.
I know from personal experience, however, that New Jerseyans do a lot of stupid stuff and we often are stereotypical. We're loud, we fight, we drop F-bombs, we flip people off with our middle finger, but we do NOT pump our fists in the air! WHO DOES THAT? We are also NOT idiots who constantly break the law and brag about our "hotness."
To have New Yorkers represent us is a disgrace because duh, they're from New York, not JERSEY! We are two very diverse groups of people. Our accents aren't even the same no matter how much they may seem similar!
Incidentally I've never seen the show considering I do not have MTV. I am just going by people's reactions on Facebook, the many fan pages and groups against it, and the promo I have seen. Regardless, I am still annoyed.
Of course, some of my fellow New Jerseyans may actually find the show funny and entertaining and feel that it's good thing to laugh at ourselves. I'm all for laughing at myself, but my whole point is that the people being portrayed on the show are not us. Guidos do not make up the full population of New Jersey, only a portion of it. Trust me, I would laugh at it if I could relate to it.
Maybe people are always mocking us and our ways because they are jealous and frightened of us. Sure, we fight and are loud, but we FIGHT FOR WHAT IS RIGHT AND FOR WHAT WE BELIEVE! WE WANT OUR VOICES TO BE HEARD! We pick arguments for a reason to prove a POINT. People are afraid of us because of our determination, will power, intelligence, strength, and NUMEROUS TALENTS THAT DO NOT INCLUDE GELLING OUR HAIR!
MTV, please don't act like you know what we're about, because you obviously don't. Don't belittle us, because you're only embarassing your network.
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