Jersey Shore and the G Word
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JERSEY SHORE AND ETHIcS IN THE G WORD MEDIA ew Jersey has been a much-maligned state in media depictions and the public’s consciousness, either shown as an industrial wasteland, home to the Mafia Boardwalk( Empire, The Sopranos), or Nas poor stepchild to much hipper Manhattan across the Hudson River. Jersey Shore has been MTV’s most-watched series ever, and has made celebrities of cast members such as Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino and Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi. Even before it aired, however, it started controversy among Italian-Americans. Ads promoting the show used the word “guido,” a derogatory racial term for Italian males, which drew complaints from some Italian-American groups. The term was changed in the ads, but when the series finally aired the term was used by all cast members to refer to themselves. Guys were guidos and the girls called themselves guidettes. Despite more complaints by the public, and some advertisers such as Domino’s remov- ing their ads from the show, MTV refused to bleep out the term. They said that if the cast members themselves use the term to refer to themselves, and are apparently proud of the term, then they will leave it in. Some scholars suggested that the term may have changed meanings across genera- tions. Rather than being a racial epithet for an Italian-American “just off the boat,” it has been adopted by younger generations as a badge of coolness and ethnic identity, much as young blacks often use the N word with each other. Regardless of whether one finds the term offensive or not, a larger question is how it may perpetuate cer- tain ethnic stereotypes of Italian-Americans. Historically in the media, Italian-Americans have been depicted either in blue-collar jobs or associated with crime, and one study found that 74 percent of young people be- lieved that a majority of Italian-Americans actually are associated with organized crime in some way. The antics of the Jersey Shore cast members do little to dispel negative stereotypes about young Italian- Americans from New Jersey. And to add insult to injury, residents of the Jersey Shore community Seaside Heights, where the show has been filmed most seasons, point out that the cast mem- WEb LINK bers are not even from the Jersey Shore but other places in New Jersey. Stereotype This www.stereotypethis.com several years “paying dues” and establishing connections with others in the indus- try before getting into a position that is professionally and financially rewarding. ▼ SAlARIES IN ENTERTAINmENT Just as jobs vary greatly in the entertainment industry, so do salaries. Just be- cause a movie studio makes a blockbuster movie one year does not mean that every 332 PART 4 / MEDIA PERSpECTIVES www.oup.com/us/pavlik Pavlik_3e_CH10.indd 332 11/11/11 11:34 AM.