CBS/Viacom is proposing a new reality show that will take Amish teenagers and plop them down in the middle of a major metropolitan area and then laugh at them. The idea is that these poor naive Amish kids will be shocked and apalled by the vulgarity and depravity of big city life, and boy won’t that be fun to watch.
I grew up Mennonite (closely related in beliefs to the Amish, but more worldly) in Elkhart County, IN, in the midst of one of the 4 or 5 major Amish communities in the U.S. My parents were both born in Lancaster County, PA, home of the biggest (I think) Amish community in the country. My dad’s dad was raised Amish and converted to Mennonite when he was a teenager, and he taught . All this to say that I have a lot of sympathy for, and identification with, the Amish community.
I guess my response to the bigots and idiots who run TV is, go find someone else to mock you yahoos. Arrogance loves to mock that which it is ignorant of; just leave them alone. I’m so sick of TV, how it guides and shapes our society.
Turn it off! Turn it off! You’ll never regret it. I haven’t missed it one bit.
I think Lancaster has fallen to 2nd or 3rd in terms of population. Many Amish have sold off farms to those city folk from Philly and NY wanting to move to the quaint countryside. Holmes County, OH, is the largest now by population.
During the winter, Sarasota, FL, probably breaks into the top 5.
By the way, it’s slightly off topic, but did you hear about the movie being filmed in downtown Goshen? Some Bethany grad I think is directing or wrote it? Don’t know the details…it’s probably at Goshen News or other newspapers by now.
Oh and speaking of Mennonites, the top Jeopardy winner ever (Tom Walsh) is a member at my church. Yeah, we’re proud of him. Look for him in the Tournament of Champions.
Just out of curiosity, have you seen the documentary “Devil’s Playground”. It’s about Amish teenagers on their hiatus from Amish life. I thought it was pretty darn interesting. I also think that it did a good job of avoiding condescension.
No, saw it on the shelf at the rental store though.
Not sure the exact focus of the movie, but the hiatus is fairly common – especially for young men. Some will leave for good, most return because of family/community connections.
In general it can be a pretty tough “exploration” – they (like most 16-18 yrs olds) can get into just about every form of illicit behavior, and I’m not talking cow-tipping either.
Exactly. Which is why i’m a little surprised by Foos’s shock at this. Many Amish kids get their “leave” for a while, and do crazy things. These folks are just putting it on camera. They also had a show that was somewhat the other-way-around called “the simple life.” They took two rich, rural kids and plopped them down with some “country folk.” Yes, they made them look like idiots. Or they made themselves look like idiots. I’m not sure.
I want to order cable, but will only do it when i can buy just the channels i desire.
Oh, and I know some folks at Bethel and live about 5 minutes from Elkhart and Goshen….Small world.
from the NYT – last line is insteresting…
“Several weeks ago UPN, a sister network to CBS, announced a new reality series tentatively called “Amish in the City,” in which Amish teenagers would face the shock and temptations of the big city for the first time.
The idea seemed similar to CBS’s plan last year to fashion a reality comedy out of a 1960′s sitcom, calling it “The Real Beverly Hillbillies.” which was to follow the lives of a rural, lower-middle-class family as it moved into a luxurious Beverly Hills house. That plan foundered when rural groups protested that the show was intended to denigrate the rural poor.
“We couldn’t do the `Beverly Hillbillies,’ ” Leslie Moonves, the CBS chairman, who also oversees UPN, told television critics and reporters in January. But the Amish, he joked, “don’t have quite as good a lobbying effort.”
- nice huh?
I’m not shocked by it, Todd — where did you get that idea? On the contrary, I expect nothing more than this tripe from television — the vast wasteland.
Random guy quoted the NYT article that finally pushed me to write this post. What bothers me is the complete lack of respect that it shows for the Amish and their beliefs. Precisely because Rumspringa is a part of their practices, it should not be shown on TV. The Amish would prefer that we didn’t even take pictures of them.
Someone who appeared in an internet sex video is not going to be exploited by being in a reality show, even if it does highlight her complete imbecility. On the other hand, TV teaming up with Rumspringa to expose Amish kids to the worst that our modern world has to offer — not just the depravity that they would normally experience during Rumspringa, but debauchery and vulgarity to the max! — is both bigoted and exploitative.
One thing that the NYT article noted but didn’t pursue was that most Amish teens, after going through Rumspringa and getting a taste of what the modern world has to offer, turn their backs on it and go back to the plain lifestyle. Intriguing, no?
No, Jer, I hadn’t heard about it. Send me more information if you find out anything more about it.
Surely the Amish kids they will be filming have given their permission? I mean, they can’t film them without it, right? If I’m wrong in thinking this, Jacob, please correct. However, if these kids have given the network permission to sexploit them, they are as much to blame for the negative effects it will have on the Amish as the network is. And they are, to my mind, a smidge more guilty if that be the case.
Exploiting people with their consent is still wrong.
Josh-
“Exploiting people with their consent is still wrong.”
Especially when they get paid oodles of money after they give their consent, right? And enter into a contract of their own free will?*
Exploiting people with their consent is, in my opinion, not wrong but rather morally ambiguous. I’m pretty sure that once the “exploitees” give their consent freely & recieve a bucket o’ cash, they can no longer be classified as exploited. Their culture as a whole can be, but it would be the cash-recieving “exploited” individuals who would then be exploiting their own culture (making them exploited exploiters.)
I guess where I am going with this is: I find it hard to feel sympathy for people “exploited” by reality TV, because if no one agreed to star in these shows we wouldn’t have them.
* I am not saying the Amish kids did this, but if they entered into a reality-TV contract for a purse of monies, then I wouldn’t really call it exploitation of the individuals, just the culture. None of this “poor Amish exploited teens” stuff, if this is the case.
Right, because we aren’t responsible for our actions. We are powerless at the hands of the exploiters. If CBS drove a dump-truck full of money to my house, I’d have no choice but to spit on my ethics too.
Also: Is it just me, or is turning teenagers loose in a culture that they don’t understand and aren’t equipped to deal with both stupid and dangerous?
Penultimately: CBS isn’t doing this because they hate the Amish. They’re doing it because people will watch. Your scorn should be directed at them, and the Amish who made this possible. If any scorn remains, I suppose you can direct it at CBS, but as a corporation their first responsibility is towards their shareholders. The responsibility of viewers and participants should be their conscience. In short, they are the ones who are failing to the greatest degree.
Finally: It is likely the kids (if they are 16 or so) are too young to enter into a legal contract with CBS. In this case, their parents (who are supposedly full-on Amish) must have given their consent as well.
Looks like Helena and I had our posts cross in the ether
Great minds think alike, but maybe we should both get back to work.
Quite to the contrary. If a 40-year-old man convinces a 16-year-old girl to have sex with him in exchange for money to feed her coke habit, he’s still done a despicable thing, despite the fact she gave willing consent. Human will does not define morality–even if I give my consent for you to do something immoral to me for personal profit and pleasure, it’s still immoral.
Josh S,
Although I’d like to agree with you in principle – and morally it’s wrong to exploit – the example you pose is one of legality. It’s illegal to do that. But if a contract is involved…it’s legal, but perhaps immoral in our view.
Is that strawman the best you can do Josh?
No comment on the responsibility of the Amish kids, their parents, or the viewers who make the venture profitable? Or do you still insist that all blame lies squarely with the “exploiters”?
My problem is that CBS has so little respect for the Amish way of life that they will lampoon it for ratings. I don’t care if individual Amish kids sell their souls — although I suspect that they wouldn’t really know what they are getting in to, since they don’t know much about TV — but CBS is willing to use anyone for a ratings kick. Not just CBS, but all TV. Whatever sells, no matter the cost to the people involved, is the only standard that TV has.
If you don’t want to call it exploitation, fine by me. It’s still wrong, and it’s still another good reason to avoid TV like the plague.
If you could please point me to the post where I said, “all blame lies squarely with the exploiters?” please do. All I did was object to the idea that mutual consent absolves both parties of any moral culpability for how they might use each other.
I also don’t believe that right and wrong defined by civil law. I don’t take an “If it’s legal, it’s ok” view of anything, probably because I’m so out of the political loop these days, I don’t much give a crap what’s legal.