Ohmigod. Last night, I flipped on the TV and
accidentally stumbled across the show, “Are You Hot?”
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, given
television’s recent thought-provoking plethora of
gems, such as “Joe Millionaire” and “The
Bachelorette.” However, this one took the cake when it
comes to utter pointlessness. And, of course, I was
glued to the TV the entire time. Ew.
Anyway, the show revolves entirely around men and
women competing for the coveted title of the country’s
hottest person. Ugh. Ego-challenged people from all
over the world flocked to casting calls just to see if
the judges would deem them attractive. And the
contestants’ high intelligence quotient was obvious.
One Elvis costume-clad woman announced, “I’m gonna be
America’s most sexiest.” Yeah. Yet another “hot” lady
astounded viewers with her intellect when she managed
to spit out, “Guys like me because… ahhh…” before
her eyes simply glazed over. And the men didn’t fare
much better.
All in all, the show’s results reaffirmed my
suspicions that nothing has changed as far as pop
culture goes — proclaiming that we’re not attractive
unless we’re shoved into mainstream medias’ prescribed
roles. The women who advanced to the semi-finals were
thin enough to invoke images of future feeding tubes
and therapy bills; the men (as usual) were given a
little more leeway, but they were all tanned and
muscular.
I finally made myself stop watching it. No, I
shouldn’t have been phased by the stupidity of such a
program. And yes, it was funny in a way. Yet something
about it did make me sad — and yes, maybe jealous
somewhere in the back of my mind. Who doesn’t want to
be thin and “attractive?” But wasting my time and
energy being thrown to the wolves by the subjective
opinion of some arrogant judge on what is and isn’t
“hot” is not on my agenda now or in the future.
Apparently, and pathetically, the pursuit of
physical attractiveness seems to have grown from what
should be a small part of life to the all-encompassing
meaning of it… at least for the participants of “Are
You Hot?” Again, this isn’t surprising, but when it’s
shoved in your face, you see it in fluorescent light.
And even in the form of a fine, fine man in
well-fitting swim trunks, it isn’t attractive at all.