Just when you thought reality television couldn’t get any more problematic, Lifetime introduces their new makeover show Girlfriend Intervention. The thinking behind the show? “Trapped inside every white girl is a strong black woman ready to bust out.”
Are you a black woman? You might find this offensive. Are you a white woman? You might find this offensive. Are you neither? You might be thinking at this point that you’re lucky to be left out of the entire thing. (Be aware, though, that no one is safe. Near the end of the first episode, Thomas exaggeratedly compliments the hotness of the made-over white woman by yelling, “Muy caliente, salsa picante mucho!”)
So it’s a team of black women making over white women with a healthy dose of shaming and some very problematic racial politics. Nice work, network television.
Team Blackness also discussed a clothing store that tried to sell a Holocaust T-shirt; more disrespect from Ferguson cops, this time directly on Michael Brown’s memorial; and how New York TV stations cover more crime committed by black people.
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Mnemosyne
Ironically, Lifetime is probably trying to attract more black viewers to their channel with the show. If it’s annoying enough, it just might work, too.
ETA: Annoying enough = people may want to hate-watch it, or at least watch to laugh at it.
Mayken
OMG! I just can’t even…
And, yeah, gee, I cannot think why so many black (and AAPI etc) folks are so mad at the Ferguson police. T’is a puzzlement… /sarcasm
scav
with a quick glance using the detect obvious specs: A) no Business coach present or needed, apparently all about the küche, Klothes, KatchaKock; B) what straight hair and dresses they all have, gramma.
C.V. Danes
This is wrong on so many levels that it’s obvious to even a white male of a certain age like me. However, having shared my life with a woman of color for almost 20 years now, I’m not above allowing Lifetime a certain level of shock factor, even if they’re doing it for all the wrong reasons…
C.V. Danes
@Mayken: Seriously. It takes a serious sociopath to let your dog piss on someone’s shrine in front of people who are grieving, but given the level of emotion running in Ferguson, this almost crosses the border into that inhabited by psychopaths.
Nicole
I freely admit I participate in a Project Runway liveblog (don’t judge; I like watching people make things) and when the commercial for this show came on, I just. I can’t. Oh God. I was embarrassed for Television.
And it doesn’t help that I really, really want the “Dungeon Master” tshirt one of the schlubs was wearing in the “before” footage.
Mayken
@C.V. Danes: Yep, pretty much. As has been pointed out on another thread, this force needs to be disbanded. And all the cops on it marked as unfit for police duty.
Butch
“Very spicy, hot sauce much.” Says about everything you need to know.
guachi
I read that article and still think someone from the Onion hacked the NPR website.
Villago Delenda Est
Exqueeze me, no shout out for all those hawt Asian babes? No Thai delight? Good tasting Chinese girls? Vietnamese vixens who will love you long time?
Geeze, Lifetime, let’s see if we can’t offend some more women someplace!
JustRuss
I’m just going to pretend this never happened and get on with my life. Which is pretty much how I get through most days.
TAGinMO
My partner and I were watching last week’s Project Runway on DVR over the weekend and caught a snippet of a promo for this show while fast-forwarding through commercials. We actually rewound to watch the whole promo after I said to him: “They can’t be doing Black Eye for the White Girl, can they??”
The Other Chuck
@Villago Delenda Est:
That on premium channel, ten dolla/month.
(With lines like that, I should write for Lifetime)
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Sounds like somebody’s been binge watching Sir Mix-a-lot vids.
BlueDWarrior
I was actually watching this by proxy in the break room at work last night.
I could not help my reflexive cringe.
Yet the mostly black women who were watching apparently either wanted to watch the train wreck, or just were better at hiding the cringe.
That or they liked it.
It’s really hard to say sometimes…
ThresherK
Already bothersome, to say the least.
And much worse, it could lead to just one white person saying seriously It was never easy for me. I was born a poor black child.:
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@ThresherK: I’m mad at you, but only because I didn’t think of it first.
rikyrah
I actually sat and watched this…well, I tried.
I was like…you gotta be kidding me.
Shook my head and clicked the remote.
It is as offensive as it sounds..
My people…there are somethings you dont do…even to get on television
Citizen Alan
Every day we edge closer to the Idiocracy, in which television is nothing but 24-hours of “Oww! My Balls!!”
Hal
Ummm. I’m not a black woman, but really? What kind of brain dead folks put this dreck together?
variety.com/2014/tv/reviews/tv-review-girlfriend-intervention-1201286220/
Tim in SF
They might have better luck giving black-woman makeovers to white gay men. I, for one, would be down for it.