The other day, while writing a post discussing a TV show that seeks to find a middle ground between pornography and reality television, I loudly (perhaps too loudly) announced to our obliging (perhaps too obliging) office that I would rather watch 20 minutes of the worst porn than one episode of any reality series. Instantly, people started sending me links and videos and I was forced to retract my statement after watching just seconds of one. Instead of disregarding it completely though, I downgraded it to this: I respect any porn star more than any reality TV star. I then thought it would be interesting to examine why.

Well, the first reason is that I’m biased. It’s not that I love pornography (I acknowledge and appreciate its purpose but I’m not running off to join the industry, not that they’d have me), but I hate all reality television. Hate, hate, hate it. And I don’t say that lightly. When I was in elementary school, I once told my father that I hated all poetry and he gave me a stern lecture; Never dismiss an entire medium or artform because you’ll inevitably find an exception and you’ll sound like an idiot in the meantime. It’s a good lesson and something folks like Roger Ebert should keep in mind. However, reality television, or what most people think of when they say “reality television,” isn’t really an art form. It’s a bastardization (ahem, subset) of one (documentaries) and therefore I can dismiss shows like Jersey Shore or Flavor of Love or Keeping Up with the Kardashians without having a second thought.

But my biased hatred of watching reality television doesn’t affect the plain argument I presented because the argument is not about the viewer, but about the participant. Sure, I lose a little respect for people that watch these series, but much more for the people in them.

Both porn and reality stars consent to being exploited and degraded in front of a film crew, but here’s the difference; porn stars are exploiting their bodies while reality stars are exploiting their lives. Porn stars typically use stage names and are usually playing roles. Even if they’re not, the viewers aren’t thinking that they have sex with attractive pizza delivery men in their free time. But that’s not the case with reality stars, they’re not playing anyone. The shows are presented as if this is the real person; this is what they’re really like and this is what they really do. And, more importantly, every single reality series on the air today is purposefully shot and edited to make all or most of the cast members look bad. Seriously, think about it.

There’s a reason that so many former reality show cast members come out and complain about how they were depicted. You could say, “Well, if you didn’t want to look like an ass, you shouldn’t have acted like an ass,” but, you know what, there’s a good chance that they didn’t. Nearly everything shown in modern reality series is fake, either staged on the day or, worse yet, concocted in an editing bay. You could be a perfect angel on set and then, because the producers thought it would fit the “story line,” you’re edited to look like a monster using spare footage (watch the great video below to see how). And, when shows like the ones on MTV are constantly plying their cast members with alcohol, there’s always going to be juicy spare footage lying around.





So, suddenly, the world thinks you’re a monster. And it was all in your real name. Meanwhile porn stars, using fake names so they can escape these identities if they care to, are being shot and edited to look as good as humanly possible (with the obvious exception of porn that deals in humiliation). Society may tell us that reality stars can be public officials while porn stars should be shunned, but they’re missing the fact that it shows much worse judgement to go on one of these shows than to take off your clothes for some camera.

So why do people do it? Why would they give up their lives to some giant corporation who is going to make more money by making you look worse? Fame. And herein lies the rub. Porn stars do it for money. They may aspire to fame as many of us do, but mostly they want that fame so that they can request more money for making their movies. And I can understand that. Getting paid to stay in shape, look beautiful, and have sex on camera? It’s not something I want to do, but I understand why people would do it. But people who want to be famous for doing nothing, absolutely nothing, and are willing to sacrifice their real life and real name for it? I can’t understand that and I never will.

Porn can be disgusting. The videos a couple of my co-workers sent me proves that. But there is nothing more disgusting than a fame whore.

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