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Okay, yes, I
watch Dance Moms and have started
watching Bring It. The shows are both
about competitive dance troupes, their coaches, and the parents of the young
dancers. Given the similarities, it seems fitting to discuss the two shows.
The adults
Bring
It has several scenes of the moms/ parents standing outside of the studio
peering in through the blinds. The Dance Moms have their own room with a sofa
that overlooks the rehearsal room. Miss D explains that the studio is not a
place where parents socialize and “eat your wings,” but capturing the parents’
conversations serve as the catalyst for much of the conflict found in both shows.
Both sets of
moms are competitive and advocates for their daughters. And, they both get to
ride the buses on the way to the competitions and stay in the prep room in order
to help their daughters get ready for the competition.
Who the coaches are
They are loud,
authoritative, and skilled. Miss D and Abby may not love their parents (there’s
a lot of yelling and arguing with them), but they certainly love their dancers.
And they want to win. Also, the Dancing Dolls has a prayer circle before competition;
I haven’t seen ALDC pray yet.
The girls
It’s hard to get
to know the girls, but for the most part, they are the best part of the show. I
rarely see them complain, I often see them cry, and they are clearly talented.
I never see them
talk back, yell, or quit. And, in the first episode of Bring It, after Diana chastises Brittany for showing up to the
competition late, Brittany’s daughter actually says “Don’t bring me in this.”
Smart girl.
The show’s structure
Both have the
same components and follow roughly the same structure-rehearsal, introduction
of week’s conflict, travel, competition, awards, and aftermath.
I can’t imagine
what it’s like to be in the competitive dance world. They learn new routines
each week, travel each week, and compete each week.
One of the
concepts we are studying in my graduate course is the theory that the public
gets taught in spaces outside of the classroom and those lessons are caught up
in issues of power, agency, discourse, democracy, and social transformation. Some
call this public pedagogy.
Henry Giroux’s
work forms the basis of public pedagogy: the intersection between cultural
studies and pedagogy. First, culture “deploys” power through “representation,
consumption, and distribution.” However, when scholars, especially those in
cultural studies, focus on pedagogy, they tend to focus on what happens in
schools. Giroux argues that we need to focus on how learning also takes place
outside of schools and what that learning looks like given “the broader
educational force of culture in the new age of media technology, multimedia,
and computer-based information and communication networks” (p. 60). He, then
points out those scholars who show how cultural studies can enable educators
opportunities to teach students how to read and engage with media and popular
culture.
Culture, and its
products, “exercises a powerful pedagogical force over how people think of
themselves and their relationship to others” (p. 62).
I wonder then
what the public is being taught about mothers in shows like these, including
the Housewives series, Pretty Wicked Moms
and Teen Mom?
The main problem I have with these shows is that the construct is superficial, set up by the producers. I've spent 20 years working with kids (and their parents) in competitive athletics and I've yet to meet a coach who would welcome the kind of distractions these shows pose in working with kids. The parents are inordinately involved because it makes great TV, but in real life, they are kept at a distance so as not to muddle a coach's attempt to teach. Yes, you have parents who can be problematic (I've had parents of all ages and both genders cuss me out and tell me how terrible I am) but by and large, parents are removed from whatever program their child is involved in. They support and participate, but not to the degree that we see on TV. Everyone on these shows is so hyper-aware that they are being filmed that I'm not sure much of it is real and the editors take care to shape the shows carefully in order to present the characters in a way that viewers will find them "interesting." I think the moms on these shows end up being portrayed as overbearing, over-emotional whack jobs, which is completely unfair. Are they out there? Sure. But most parents that I've encountered are simply parents who care about their kids and don't freak out at the smallest things. They support their kids and their coaches. Those women, however, don't make interesting TV so they end up on the cutting room floor.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Jeff in my problems with the artificial structure of these shows. I love Dance Moms, but I started watching it in a marathon and after just a few episodes in a row you can see how orchestrated the whole thing is. For entertainment purposes I don't think that's all bad. Where it relates to your question though is even more problematic for me.
ReplyDeleteJeff and I and others surely see these shows as staged entertainment, but I suspect the majority of people who view these shows really think this is real or, if they think it's choreographed, they just think the producers are tweaking real scenes rather than creating drama out of whole cloth. And that worries me. Partially it worries me because of the general lack of intelligence in mass consumer society these days, but also because these are the shows that ARE shaping the ideas of modern mothers. Much as Donna Reed and Father Knows Best created a ridiculous stereotype of suburban mothers in the 50s, this is the type of mother we will be parodying and deconstructing 50 years from now.
Thanks to the two of you for your comments. Bryon's comments on the moms of a generation is interesting one--one I hadn't considered.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I agree with Jeff about the adults--which makes me wonder about how the producers feel about their representations of the kids on these shows. Will there come a time where they are manipulated for consumers?
Isn't this the same criticism we give most of the "Reality" TV shows now? Swamp People portrays a certain stereotype about people in south Louisiana, yet it is highly dramatized (anyone who knows those guys know there is absolutely no way that they would ever get their boat stuck in a small slough, or would constantly drop their ammunition, or any of a number of small moments that are 'documented' by the film crew).
ReplyDeleteI had two daughters go through the dance phase, and I would posit, from a parent standpoint, that there is certainly some truth to the Dance Moms/Bring It scenarios. Much like Swamp People, I think the producers take anecdotal stories or small observed moments, and aggrandize them almost to a point of absurdity. However, if they did not do this, like Jeff and Byron pointed out, it would not make for very interesting television.