Values Of White Trash Essay Research Paper

Values Of White Trash Essay, Research Paper Values of White Trash Coming home from an exhausting day at work, you sit in your recliner to relax as you hear foul shouting blurting from your child?s bedroom. Curiously you walk towards the room to find the shouting coming from the guests on the Jerry Springer Show. You think to yourself, ?why is my child watching daytime talk shows,? or as the majority refer to it, ?Trash TV.? The storm clouds have been gathering for quite some time now. Is the end near for Trash TV? Concerned viewers, legislators, and press are worried about television show content in general, however, some of our trashy Talk Shows have received more than their fair share of attention in the last few years. What I?m concerned with is, ?What are these shows

teaching our children and how does this affect our culture?? Many of the guests on TV daytime talk shows are portrayed differently according to the topic; however, the guests seem to all have something in common: their background and behavior. Watching a variety of these TV daytime talk shows recently, I?ve observed that the bulk of these guests all appear to be whites, Hispanics, or African Americans of the lower or middle class. They all come from the same type of living conditions and crazy lifestyles. People may even mention the words ?white trash,? referring of course to the Caucasian guests. Insinuating that the background of the guests is inadequate, they do not mind being ridiculed for their outrageous beliefs and lifestyles. To these guests this is their normal

lifestyle; besides, why do audience members and viewers find these guests? lives to be so interesting? What make these shows so popular? It seems that the audience and viewers enjoy watching people spill guts about everyday garbage life. Viewers are entertained by the mockery of people whom they aren?t familiar with because there is no connection to the viewers? lives. Watching a TV daytime talk show from your home television is completely different from actually sitting in the audience and viewing . While sitting at home, we are protected by a screen, but at the show a lot of confrontation occurs between the audience and the guests which we find entertaining back at home. However, that confrontation may be damaging to the guests? emotions, and somehow we view that as

entertainment. ?In these shows, indecent exposure is celebrated as a virture? (Bennett 29). What has our world come to when we find people being hurt or taunted as amusement? These guests are also treated and represented differently at each show through the hosts. Jerry Springer tries to act, I think, as if he is actually concerned with the well- being of his guests; however, before his concerned ?last thought,? he will make fun or ?crack jokes? at his own guests. For example, Jerry will call transsexual guests ?it,? or he will simply make rude comments about his guests under his breath, which keeps the audience and viewers? entertained. The behavior on the Jerry Springer Show is so severe that the guests know that something upsetting is going to happen to them. Jenny Jones is

similar in how she treats guests because she seems concerned with their feelings, but she also throws out a joke or two mocking the guests? behavior. Jenny Jones is also notorious for allowing the exploitation of young children and teenagers. Occasionally teens are also exploited on these TV daytime talk shows concerning their sex lives, disorderly behavior, or supporting their parents. ?Send My Teen to Jail,? one of the Maury Show topics, viewed delinquent teenagers whose parents demanded their children be sent to a jail to teach them a lesson, and it seems that in every situation either the father or mother was not in the picture. This leads viewers to believe that children from single parent families are more apt to behavior problems. The children guests demonstrate their