I want to marry Harry, does he look like the Prince? Would you buy it?

[+ deej]

I am baffled by the popularity of reality TV.

 

They're game shows, which are as old as TV itself.

 

ALL of "reality TV" is just a repackaging of "What's My Line?" from the 1950s, or later "The Dating Game" or "The Price is Right".

 

"Survivor" is a game show. "Amazing Race" is a game show. "Got Talent" is a game show. "The Bachelorette" is a game show. (Albeit a game show with some beefcake, usually.)

 

Even the "Housewives" series are game shows. Who's your favorite? "Candid Camera" was yesteryear's version of today's "America's Funniest Videos".

 

It's the same cheaply-produced time-filling pablum we've been seeing since TV started.

 

There's absolutely nothing new about it. (But I'll keep watching the ones with beefcake, thank you very much. It'll just be muted.)

[+ FreshFluff]

And as far as predecessors go, we can't forget the 70s version, An American Family.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Family

[+ purplekow]

Okay I guess I have been convinced that some of the reality shows are somewhat staged. But professional wrestling, that is real right?

[BSR]

deej pointed out another sub-genre of reality shows, game shows. While Survivor and Amazing Race are far more elaborate than Wheel of Fortune, they're still game shows. The Bachelorette and other "romance" shows are, in my opinion, a hybrid of game shows and the steaming pile of cow plop that I'll call staged-reality shows (like the Kardashians). While the dating and choosing aspect of The Bachelorette are like a game show, all the accompanying dialogue, scheming, and drama are staged-reality (i.e., where they do multiple takes to capture a supposedly spontaneous conversation). I did watch one season of Survivor (Thailand, back in 2002) because the guy who ended up winning was scorching hot. I didn't even pay attention to a damn thing happening on the show. I just wanted to see Brian Heidik almost naked week after week. But shows like The Bachelorette are too much for me. It's tempting because the shows are chock-full of beautiful guys, but the oh-so-faux staged reality is beyond unbearable.

[McLeanspider]

I don't really understand what you are saying.

 

First you say women don't know that guys want to 'get off'. Since when don't women know this?

 

And what exactly do guys love- having lots of dates with middle- aged women with no sex because women no longer want to feel used or are the guys loving using women?

 

And then of course none of this really applies to me in the end. I did say 'if I were straight....' But the operative word was 'if'. I'm actually gay.

 

Gman

 

I meant several guys like you as, several guys your age and body type who unlike you and I happen to be straight and who are having a great time with so many out there looking for love. You're the only person who doesn't get this point when you made the point yourself saying "if I were straight".

 

About the rest, it's so obvious I'm not going to explain it again.

[McLeanspider]

My experience is a bit different. Even in a large metropolis, it's pretty easy for a woman to date and get married, if marriage if and of itself is her goal. But if you're educated and want something more than an equal, it's tough.

 

I don't know where do you live but that sounds hard to believe, here in DC women are desperate trying to land and keep a guy, they'll do anything.

 

Women pursue a career as a continuation of college, there are some careers that might make an issue to get into an LTR like medicine, journalism or others that involve traveling, long hour schedules or a commitment to your job over anything, other careers involve working 9 to 5 as so many of us do. I think it's a 70's point of view to think women have to choose between a career or a husband.

 

.... Being wealthy, on the other hand, hurts a woman rather than helps, because it intimidates the guy.

 

In this society where more people are making money the old way, inheriting it... Money does matter, and might help close the deal on a potential husband/wife, specially when college graduates step into their professional lives with a huge debt and owning a home in a big city is so hard to achieve.

[+ FreshFluff]

I don't know where do you live but that sounds hard to believe, here in DC women are desperate trying to land and keep a guy, they'll do anything.

 

I'm in Manhattan. As in DC, there is lots of competition here, lots of hot women But there are also plenty of decent guys looking to get married and plenty of women, models and not, getting married in their 30s and up. Of course, it gets harder as women get older and/or if they're seeking a very particular type of guy; that's probably the case with the women you're seeing. (I'm seeking the same thing, but I try not too act too desperate.)

 

I've gotten 2 proposals up until now, (one in my 20s and one in my 30s). I accepted neither, and regardless of what happens, I'm glad I didn't. I've found that I'm most lonely when I wish I were alone.

 

I think it's a 70's point of view to think women have to choose between a career or a husband.

 

I agree 100%. Most women I know worked after marriage and even after having kids.

[+ quoththeraven]

I think writer, teacher, and gay porn star Conner Habib has it right when he says:

 

The point of imagining being single – and happy that way – forever isn’t that you will be single forever. Although that’s a possibility. It’s just that your happiness can be located in the moment. It’s where you’re at right now.

Source: http://www.pattiknows.com/you-dont-have-to-be-in-a-relationship-ever/

 

His four reasons to have sex right away (http://www.pattiknows.com/right-away/) are also worth reading. Actually, just about everything he writes is worth reading.

[+ FreshFluff]

I think writer, teacher, and gay porn star Conner Habib has it right when he says:

 

The point of imagining being single – and happy that way – forever isn’t that you will be single forever. Although that’s a possibility. It’s just that your happiness can be located in the moment. It’s where you’re at right now.

Totally agree with him here. As I said above, I'd rather be alone than with someone I don't care about and am not really attracted to.

 

His four reasons to have sex right away (http://www.pattiknows.com/right-away/) are also worth reading. Actually, just about everything he writes is worth reading.

 

Most of the benefits of sex he cites --such as being able to tell if you're attracted, seeing their body, and so on--don't actually require intercourse or even oral. You can tell whether you're attracted just from making out with someone (or even before that) and, if you care about abs and so forth, you can see that as soon as he takes his shirt off.