Serendipity strikes again as the exact book I needed found me at the exact time I required it. As I was browsing through some library audio books, Brene Brown's book practically jumped off the shelf and into my hands, along with a couple of others I had on my list of books I must read right now! A few months back I had seen Brene Brown on the Oprah's Lifeclass show and found her discussion on the topic of vulnerability intriguing. I guess it's no accident that I should happen upon her book at this moment. "This show seems to be bringing all my issues right up to the surface," I confided to my friend, Kristin, after the last couple of horrendous rehearsals. I guess all shows do that to a certain extent. However, since I do shows so infrequently, no more than one or two a year, I forget …show more content…
If this were Broadway, I would be soooo fired right now. No. Forget being fired. I wouldn't have even gotten cast because obviously I can't dance my way out of a paper bag! What am I doing here?!" This internal dialog is crazy of course, and I know this, but I go there anyway. And then I beat myself up for going there. The truth is, I wasn't the only one who had that "deer in headlights" look the other night during our first dance rehearsal. One gal said, "I feel like I'm living my recurring nightmare right now. The one where I'm in a show, it's Opening Night, and I haven't been to a single rehearsal." Phew! It ain't just me. So, we're all in this together. I know we'll all eventually get it, and the show will turn out fine because everyone is not only talented, but also extremely dedicated and focused. I just have to keep BREATHING! Oh, man. The experience of this show will either help turn me into a remarkable human being or I'll need major therapy when it's all
In her NYTIMES bestseller, "Daring Greatly", Dr. Brown contends, "We equate vulnerability with weakness and poison. Whereas vulnerability is actually the birthplace of joy, love, and empathy". In order to live a full, "wholehearted" life, we need to gain a better understanding of the true nature of vulnerability. Millions of children have been exposed to vulnerability by author J. D. Salinger. Salinger was vulnerable to rejection, criticism, and failing.
Humans live constantly in flux between vulnerability and invincibility. The change in the state of being is so fluid that it has blurred together into the medium of the human experience. The fact that the feeling self-consciousness is what develops the character of people has become lost on the masses. However, Michael Chabon’s “The Lost World”, uncovers this deeply buried secret. “The Lost World” directly supports the fact that vulnerability is the key to the human condition and a more perfect life. Life is about tradeoffs- with all disappointments come surprise and with all joys come disappointments.
I always wonder who does the housework on The Cosby Show. Perhaps the Huxtables are naturally perfect, and we are natural slobs by comparison. Nevertheless, when I watch television I do not want to feel guilty. I want to relax and laugh at others in realistic situations. Just one time I would love to see Mrs. Huxtable wake up late, be unable to decide what to wear, scream at the kids, and have to call a taxi because she can't find her car keys.
...ws. How real can you get when you are not even seeing their whole stay. Many of the episodes are different scenes just blended together, you could be watching a scene from the first two weeks of their stay along with one from the last two weeks of their stay and not even know it.
It is no secret that reality television shows often present contrived situations as reality. Many producers claim that there are no scripts used in the production of reality shows. They maintain that nothing in the lives of the participants is planned purely for viewers’ entertainment, and that what is presented in the show is their actual reality. However, most people know this to be untrue to a certain degree. The events and situations in reality shows are often staged, re-enacted, or cleverly edited to make them appear more dramatic, thereby more interesting, than they are. Elizabeth Larkin writes, “After so many “reality” programs, we can discern a pattern of “characters” that isn’t very far different from the stock characters found in fictional programming. There’s the sweet and naive person from a small town looking to make it big while still retaining small town values. There’s the party girl/guy who’s always looking for a good time and who shocks those around them—and the list goes on” (Larkin 290). Participants in reality television shows are often looking to gain wealth and fame, and they are willing to do anything necessary to achieve that.
Brene Brown’s TED Talk brought the audience through her realization that vulnerability is a necessity. Her talk was a perfect reminder of why vulnerability even exists and how it is incorporated differently in everyone’s life. The ability to access vulnerability is difficult as it a test of one’s eagerness to put themselves out their in the world. While it may seem impossible at the moment to expose themselves to the truth, it is even more rewarding than one expects. During a Skype session with Jeanine Minge she expressed that people’s lack of vulnerability, specifically during ethnography, there might be an attempt to hide from the world. Vulnerability, as Brene Brown says, is the key to joy, creativity, and love. If so, what are people so
I have confronted and challenged myself in other realms of my life. Last spring, in Harvard's Agassiz Theater, the lights were dim and the audience hushed as a cool cube of ice melted over my tongue. Through the crack in the curtain, I noticed my friends huddled in the rear of the theater. A moment later the music roared and I leaped on stage with my troupe. Dressed in our radiant costumes, we feverishly danced, skipped, and clicked our sticks in near perfect harmony.
As I continue to watch the show, I find myself identifying myself with some of the characters. Sometimes I even find myself thinking
The crowd moans again, as if they did not hear her side of the story two minutes before you arrived. You suddenly feel the anxiousness that you experienced earlier quickly diminished and replaced by intense rage. You turn to Jerry while he instigates with a devilish grin, "Wow, she has been cheating with your sister, how does this make you feel?" Your anger only builds; you scream at your girlfriend and ask how she could be such a damn *%&#…! Jerry interrupts the somber moment and yells into the microphone, "Alright, lets meet your sister!" As you see your sister walk through the door and slob your soon-to-be ex-girlfriend, you hear that irritating chant echoing through the crowd again. You jump to your feet and lunge towards your sister, but are instantly pulled away by security guards and forced to return to this degrading dilemma asking yourself the same question you asked yourself on the plane to Chicago, "Why did I accept an invitation to this show...
The way that reality TV portrays reality is completely misleading. It is giving the public what they want in a very unethical way, by completely lying about how they reach a “truth”. The people behind the scenes of reality have found a way to perfectly edit everything that the public sees so it keeps only the “juicy stuff” (Crouch pg 1). Often times, producers of competition shows will step in if the plan was to eliminate someone that is good for ratings (Crouch pg 4). Building shows often lie about needed skills, prices and the amount of time it takes for projects (Crouch pg 5). Anytime that shows have “big surprises” it is almost entirely staged because there’s such a complicated process needed for dramatic shots and lighting ...
The viewers know that if they watch the last scenes of one episode, then, the next day, the story may change or something unexpected might happen. This is how the viewer gets attached to the show. For example, a couple of weeks ago, one of the last scenes was with Jen with a pregnancy test in her hand. If people watched the show the next day, the pregnancy test was not hers. It was her mother’s. Her mother had also taken a pregnancy test the same day and had switched the tests on her. Then, the scene was cut with a commercial. The story was that her mother was pregnant, not Jen. This catches viewers to watch the show the next day because then, they want to know why her mother would do such a thing. The next day, the show is done the same way with the last scenes. There would be a scene that is cut off so that the viewers have to watch it again just to find out what happens the next day.
In conclusion I think that reality TV is all a bit fake because of how
and act them all out but as we got into the rehearsing we saw that