Rant of the week
By Fox showcases American greed
We gasped, we cringed and we moved a little closer to the television set: Last Tuesday Fox aired "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?," which rolled a thunderstorm like none other into the moral consciousness of American society (holy cow, it still exists). It seems the sanctity of marriage was violated in one fell swoop of judgment made by Fox executives. A cultural value was desecrated in ruthless pursuit of the almighty dollar.
What did we expect?
Jerry Springer and Montel Williams have already blazed the trail of cultural vandalism. Their genre of talk shows brought our morbid fascination with tragedy to afternoon lunch breaks, and we eagerly - if not self-consciously - devoured the opportunity. Something innately human in us (at least those of us who will admit it) finds pleasure in watching cultural norms shatter before our eyes. For talk shows, those bypassed norms generally remain within the realm of sexual perversion, adultery and disrespectful teenagers. In this sense, Fox's show simply took the limits a little farther, encompassing blatant greed with a matrimonial mockery.
The American public has already successfully made a joke out of marriage anyway, even without the aid of ratings-seeking television programs. With that oh-so-popular divorce rate of 50 percent looming over potential matches, it's not like marriage was a holier-than-thou state prior to last Tuesday's show. The only thing that made the event a little different from every day life was the blatant money factor. These women stood on that stage ready to marry for simple financial comfort; much as we might not want to recognize it, financial marriages happen all the time. Maybe not in the form of a televised competition, but they do happen.
Don't get me wrong. The very idea that 50 women pranced around in swimsuits and wedding dresses with intent to marry a total stranger provides a sad commentary on our society. Those women stood up there and allowed themselves to be judged on their beauty, and allowed themselves to judge a potential mate, a potential father of their children, based on the size of his wallet. Perhaps the blatancy of the event horrified viewers; it certainly wouldn't be the theme itself, because prejudgments on looks and money abound in society.
What I found a bit shocking, yet reassuring, was that this display instigated such an outpouring of disgust. Maybe it was the combination of a Miss America Pageant, Jerry Springer direction and the game show component all converging on the one thing we'd at least like to pretend is a pure and safe entity. Any way you slice it, however, this event was coming. Who knows what we'll be watching next time sweeps season comes around? At least next year, instead of an outpouring of anger toward the network, let's turn some of that anger around onto ourselves.
Melissa Peterson is a sophomore French/political science major.