Underground Journal

The Jersey Shore on MTV

Jersey Shore is a reality television series on the MTV circuit. It revolves around the lives of eight Italian-American housemates who live on the New Jersy shoreline, and centers around how they spend their time living in the house and spending their summer. Since the jersey shore show‘s conception, a great deal of controversy has been sparked about the show’s subject matter and image.

The debates have all been sparked by the housemates constant use of the word “guido” and its female counterpart “guidette”. Many people have found the use of this word very offensive, especially considering the history and evolution of the term. Guido originate as a disparaging racial slur against lower class Italian-American immigrants, first coming into use in the 1970s. In recent times, the word has been used to describe superficial Italian-Americans who are overly concerned with self-image and, for the men, an unabashed sense of machismo.

Critics find that the show casts Italian-Americans in a very negative light and stereotype the residents of the New Jersey shoreline to be as men and women concerned with petty appearances. Many organizations run by Italian-Americans have come out to protest the show for their publicizing of an offensive caricature of the average young Italian-American. Others praise the show for keeping up with the times and being modern. The old saying, if you can’t beat them, join them, comes to mind for many people who aren’t particularly offended (or care either way) about the show. At the end of the day, what it all comes down to is personal opinion and value. If you choose to be offended by a word, or an association of that word, so be it – otherwise sit back and enjoy the housemates antics while finding other reasons to dislike the show, because I have a hard time trying to find ways to dislike it.

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