Short blog about news article
Sunday Mail’s Kylie Lang despairs that “impressionable young viewers are lapping up all this sleaze and vitriol” in her 3/4 page demonising of the Reality TV show The Bad Girls Club. Should it be banned just as the gyrating hips of Elvis were banned from the Ed Sullivan show all those decades ago? It was feared young viewers would rush off and have illicit sex. Or, is there more to this Reality TV show than other shows such as Big Brother which causes people to leap to the high moral ground?
An interesting slant on this perennial problem of morality is put forward by Bernard Gert, Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. He divides moral behaviour into ten rules: “The first five rules are ‘don’t kill, don’t cause pain, don’t disable, don’t cause loss of freedom, don’t deprive of pleasure,’ Gert said. The second five are “more social.” Those are ‘don’t deceive, keep your promises, don’t cheat, obey the law, and do your duty’ as required by your job or role” (Dehnart, 2008, 10 rules of moral behaviour, para. 1). These are the ones broken by Big Brother contestants.
The “alcohol fuelled physical altercations” of The Bad Girls Club must, at the very least, cause pain. One episode showed a very inebriated woman driving off in her car while the cameras continued to roll. The potential here for danger to self and others and the lack of responsibility by producers is reprehensible. Some people have to be protected from themselves. E can be spared “the tasteless images”. There are enough of them on the news after the excessive celebrations of Melbourne Cup week. It’s time we sent the bad girls home.
Posted by Cecily 26/10/2011
Reference:
Dehnart, A. msnbc.com contributor (2008) Reality TV presents plenty of moral dilemmas
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