Tuesday, July 22, 2014

#LHHATL & The Addiction To Watching Damaged Women Become..

More Damaged... Reality television is an addiction. Its like that cheesecake that you just have to order for desert every time you go to a restaurant, that new outfit that always seems to call your name in a store full of expensive clothes you don't need, and that man you know is no good for you but you do him anyway just because...well because you don't really know why but it seems cool in the moment.

We've always been obsessed with celebrities. It's just extra special knowing your favorite business owner, favorite actress, favorite singer, or even favorite athlete has $100 million in the bank. When talking about how you want to be that person one day, you can materially back your reasons up. Why else do we worship Bey & Jay? Its even special to look up to a star that fakes the Hollywood lifestyle; for instance almost every rapper and singer we currently here on the radio. As long as that star is working continually it makes them just as human as you are. However, sometime in the last decade we started looking at reality stars the same way we'd look at CEO's.

The Kardashians first appeared on our television screens in 2007. We didn't know what Kim K. did except for making a sex tape with Ray J. We knew nothing about any of her sisters and upon watching we still couldn't decipher if any of them had a real career making real money. We just knew they had money, so we tuned in. It's been seven years and we're still tuned into Kim K. and oddly enough there are reasons to respect her.

On the other hand we have the cast of Love and Hip Hop Atlanta. Some of the women on the show are just baby mamas while others were on previous reality shows. Shay Johnson first appeared on Flavor of Love while Karlie Redd was on a show called Scream Queens. Both first appeared on camera as hot messes and they remain hot messes to date. Yet with their reputations and no career paths mapped out, we're still watching them. People pay to get into clubs to see them and get the same rush they'd get from seeing Halle Berry when they are around these ladies.

We see this same pattern with MiMi Faust. MiMi started off as the main chick to Stevie J., an initially broke and played out 90's producer. MiMi went from a main chick to a side chick to the ex-girlfriend. However, she was still the baby mama so she wasn't going anywhere. As Stevie J. and Joseline started to gain more fame off of LHHATL, we watched MiMi self destruct even more. You might wonder where the addiction part is for us. We were addicted to talking about how stupid MiMi was.

Actually we still are. This whole season of LHHATL has been full of black women showing their pain, but MiMi is having it the worst. Her pressed-for-fame boyfriend Niko sold their sex tape to the biggest porn distributors out and she's been having a major melt down ever since. Well, on television she's been melting down so once the cameras stop I'm sure a part of her dies even more. We've seen her try to convince us that the sex tape was leaked. We've seen her cry her heart out upon watching it while Niko sat beside her smiling. On top of it all nothing about her image has gotten better. It's all horrible now and clearly this doesn't just last on television. Yet, we watch.

I absolutely hate watching another woman's spirit become weaker over and over again. I want to help her, or turn my back, or turn the television off but it becomes hard to do. I can't just help, so I continue to watch. I'm just as addicted to everyone else and it all hurts at the same time.

Are you an addict too? Do you get a high and a low at the same time from watching this destruction? Is there an anonymous group for us black women trying to quit being entertained by women of the same skin tones self destruct?

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