“I’m a sexist pig,” chortles Terry, the charming young man embarking on BBC3’s latest attempt to turn around selfish, out-of-touch young people into functional human beings. This time it’s in the guise of transforming lazy young men with sexist and chauvinistic views on women by the way of making them spend some time working with ‘inspirational women’. So not so much a how-to guide as another point the finger and judge today’s youth, which we can’t seem to get enough of.
If you’ve given BBC3’s Working Girls a watch recently, you’ll be all too familiar with the concept as this is basically the same, but with the opposite sex. If you’re unfortunate enough to have watched the latest episode you’re sure to have been equally repulsed by the behaviour of Kaycie, and her and Terry are two are peas in a pod; sulky, arrogant, defiant and downright rude to everyone (or that’s what the programme depicts at least).
Oh and he wears makeup. Say no more.
The long-suffering fiancé, Tanya, who’s barely more than a child herself AND is missing her right hand (which is never actually mentioned but it’s noticeable), has, at 18 years old, the life of a downtrodden housewife. She’s literally taking care of 2 young children, cooking and cleaning, all one handed. How can you not despair?
As this young man is put through his paces mucking out pigs, flying a plane and, err, being asked personal questions about why his looks are so important, the reasons for his backward attitude become apparent. He’s a vain, self-involved moron. Honestly, nothing more. The dimwit found it “shocking” to see a man cooking a meal. There’s nothing to crack here, just a quick personality readjustment which seems to take a few days and fills an hour-long slot on prime time telly.
During his time with a lifestyle journalist, they start to explore his need for makeup and excess grooming and he plays the ‘I was bullied in school’ card. Pardon my cynicism but childhood experiences are merely factors in adult personality traits, not direct influences. Again to reference another similar programme format, Channel 4’s Beauty and the Beast also features such nonsense excuses for vanity. Its not, I’m afraid, get a grip and go out and experience what the real world is like.
Which is exactly what the premise of said programmes is but it consistently fails to work. What concerns me is the GENERAL attitude from many young people that they can think, do, say whatever they like without consequence. Even when production teams scourer the country searching for ‘opposite’ lifestyles for them to live alongside to demonstrate why the individual’s thinking is wrong, all too often their ‘views’ are too fixed and they can quickly lapse back into the lifestyle they had before.
Terry, on the other hand, did have his little revelation, so at least he DID learn something. Which is more than can be said for Kaycie on Working Girls, (honestly, it wasn’t even worth me writing a post about it, it infuriated me that much, but if you want to check it out, watch it here)
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