Not all Guidos down the 'Shore'

By Brooke Boniface

So I'm writing this article on Jersey Shore, Mom. I'm not sure if you know what I am talking about."

"Brooke, I know what it is. It's the one with Shnookie or whatever her name is. You know, the girl with the huge hair."

When these words came out of my mother's mouth I almost cried, because I knew then that popular culture in America has hit a new low. My mother, the woman who often has difficulties with the basic functions of her iPhone and whom I had to talk through attaching something to an e-mail, knows who Snooki from Jersey Shore is. Like the ultraviolet rays that seep into Snooki's orange skin, Jersey Shore has seeped its way into our everyday lives in all of its fist pumping glory.

Jersey Shore is a reality show featuring eight Italian-Americans who spend a summer together in a house on the New Jersey Shore.

The cast members did not know one another prior to filming, and the show follows their lives as they find love, work and parties in New Jersey.

As it gains immense popularity and attention among MTV's target audience, this show has also garnered some negative attention. It is controversial for a variety of reasons, the least of which are the ridiculous names of the cast members: "Snooki," "The Situation" and "JWoww" to name a few.

But their interesting nicknames are only the beginning of this show's low caliber humor. The names are compounded by over-gelled hair, tans so orange they resemble Sun-Kist bottles and some of the dumbest things I have ever heard said on TV outside of Fox news.

In one episode, while scoping out guys on the beach, Jenni "JWoww" Farley prompts her roommate to "get the f--- up because it's gorilla city out there." Now, for the rest of America who may not know, gorillas are tan Italian guys who have such big muscles they look like they are on steroids. To me that sounds sensationally unappealing, but for JWoww and Snooki, it describes their ideal man.

This show has also come under fire because of its negative portrayal of New Jersey and Italian-Americans. With only one cast member actually from New Jersey and the rest hailing from either New York or Rhode Island, many natives of New Jersey complain that the show is giving the shore a bad and inaccurate name.

"That's just not what Jersey is really like," remarked one Santa Clara student, who is a New Jersey native. "I mean Jersey has enough problems. Do they really need to add this crappy excuse for a show on top of it?"

Along with negative images of New Jersey, the show also presents the image of the "typical" Italian-American "Guido." A Guido is, according to Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, "a good looking, smooth, well-dressed Italian." However, according to ABC News, most people view the term Guido as a "pejorative term [which] reinforces negative stereotypes."

The term Guido is often associated with the overly tan, overly buff, hair conscious males found on the East Coast. Many Italian-Americans, such as the President of The National Italian-American Foundation Joseph Del Raso, are outraged that the show would, "attempt to make a direct connection between 'Guido culture' and Italian-American identity."

In my mind, anyone watching Jersey Shore understands that the eight cast members are not a representative sample of New Jersey life or Italian-Americans. We should not worry about people unintelligent enough to think otherwise.

This small percentage of people does not speak for the vast majority of other viewers who understand that Jersey Shore is purely for entertainment purposes and not to be taken seriously in the slightest.

Brooke Boniface is a sophomore history and political science double major.