My Response To Shaina

Shaina's Post:

Last night I was watching Jon & Kate + 8 season 5 premiere along with Millions of other men, women, children, entire families, however, I was attempting to watch it from a different perspective, something that most people wouldn't want to look at. All of the scandals involving Jon cheating, Kate cheating, a pending divorce, etc., have left Jon looking like a complete villian. I thought that the show would even the score, making sure to point out that he is home with the kids while Kate is out on her book tours, however, they showed Kate struggling to care for the children alone while Jon "took the weekend off." What I felt the producers only showed Talk of, and no visual examples, is how much Kate is on the road. Whenever they showed Jon, he was distant, tired, slumped over, and often not watching the kids. However, I feel as though it is easy for them to leave huge chunks of time out where he could have looked better, more awake, and maybe they were playing a trick on us? Is it possible that Kate is more at fault for being star struck than they want us to think. There is no doubt that when I start a family I hope I could be somewhat near as organized as her, because a lifestyle like that with so many children seems really hard. However, I feel like Jon taking care of the kids wasnt shown at all and that he does more for the family than they showed. Probably because people like Kate more, but it also makes the stereotypes about men and their lack of parenting skills even more apparent. It is also negative towards women because it shows that Kate's power within their household is too strong and imposing that Jon can not handle it, he feels as though he has lost his "manhood."

Posted by ShainaG

My Response:
I do not watch this show, but since all of the speculation about the cheating and the divorce I am forced to see this everywhere. And it's intresting that you say that she is portrayed as the spouse that is not doing anything wrong because on all the magazine covers it is her side of the story and how her husband is an ass. And I also read something that while the show was premiering that he was in a bar with two young girls living it up while she was at home with all of the children. I'm sure that the show will keep feeding into this idea because its going to help their ratings because I'm sure now people are watching the show that have never watched it before. But it is very sad that executives are portarying women like the weaker sex in this show now and that men don't care about their children. I agree with you there.