February 8, 2000 -- 7:15 PM EST

From my guestbook:

Just wondering what you think about this whole "Who wants to marry a millionaire?" special coming up on TV.

What do I think? I must be out of the loop TV wise!

I have no idea what this special is about, what channel, or when it happened if it already happened. It sounds... bizarre! Apparently the gist of it is that some millionaire is going to select (already selected?) his bride-to-be from a panel of women on TV and they are making some show on it. Okaaaaay.

Here's what I watch on TV:

• X-Files on Sunday night
• Nick at Nite when I am sick or up late doing housework for the noise
• Rugrats when I am home for lunch and after that I leave it on Nick Jr. to keep my iguanas entertained and out of trouble if they are feeling randy. Lucy and Galahad really like to watch Nick Jr. because of all the bright colors. I like it that it keeps them from jumping on the furniture all hyper or trying to climb the blinds. This must make me a bad iguana parent, letting them con me into letting them watch TV!

So yeah, I pay $30 in cable a month to watch one series, reruns I've seen a thousand times and in the end the members of this household who watch the most TV are the two iguanas that live in the living room!

I debated just not getting cable when we moved in to this house since we were cable free and happy for the last two years in our townhouse. Then Paul decided we needed to watch X-Files because we were missing episodes on tape and we were at a point in our lives where we could fritter $30 away a month on that sort of frivolity. (We'd been collecting the tapes but they don't do the entire season, just 12 episodes per season.)

I guess that makes us kind of sick X-Philes. To get cable just to tape the show!

Back to Mr. Millionaire Man and his hopeful brides.

On the one hand -- I think it is gross on many counts.

• It perpetuates the idea that a woman's worth is only in her ability to fit into the the the current mainstream beauty ideal. (You only count if we think you are pretty!).
• It also feeds this idea that a woman needs a man to take care of her. (She can't make her own million dollars or take care of her own needs?)
• Or this idea that money is everything. (What happened to love and partnership?!)

Other hand? If a woman wants to marry a man simply for his money and he for her looks and they can both be satisfied with that's their business.

Whether doing it on TV is tacky (yes!) is another thing entirely.

This prolly sounds weird from someone keeping a public access journal. Revealing details of my life and thoughts in a media that is public accessible. But you know what? I might share a lot, but I sure as hell don't write everything in here!

The whole idea behind this show seems shallow to me and not what I want in marriage, but whatever! Different strokes for different folks.

It also reminds me of the "joke" where this man asks this woman if she'd sleep with him for a million dollars and after hedging she says ok. Then he asks what she would do for $50 and she slaps him for being fresh. Then he goes, "What did you do that for!? We already established that you are a hooker, we're just just haggling over price now!"

Cheap joke. But marrying for money to me is also cheap. I can't do it. I want more than that. I don' t want just a contract where this man takes care of my monetary needs for me. I want a life partner, a companion, a friend. Not a walking wallet! Got my own , thanks!

TV stuff is definitely not reality, and some TV game show/ date show things are just.... weird. That's about the only definite thing I can say here. It's better just not to watch it!

I guess I am stunned that somewhere out there there is actually a TV special on this. Then again, they brought back Double Dare 2000, so it's not like we don't start them young here in the USA, is it?!

Here's a scary one.

The newest "power of cheese" commercial where this politician declines to eat cheese offered by this little girl at a political rally and then everyone starts to hate him and his publicity people try to put a good spin on it but he loses the election because of his saying he didn't like cheese anyway. The other candidate is there with the little girl going "Unlike my opponent, I loooooove cheese." Then the narrator "Behold! The power of cheese!"

(Which is where my infantile elementary school mind kicks in and thinks of farts. "Behold! The power of cheeeeeesssseee! Bbbbrrrrrrrrrrpppphhhhtttt! )

On the one hand, biting humor regarding the current campaigns for president. I expect to see a lot of "political-y" commercials. Just like the Y2K-y ones not to far back. Not badly put together either, super slick. Nice follow-up commercial to that long ongoing campaign. Bet that's a nice portfolio piece for a lot of folks.

On the other hand, perpetuating the dairy myth, that milk is soooo wholesome and so vital to health and how it is just un-American not to like it.

The frightening part to me?

People really do get fixated on something THAT inane and stupid and lose sight of the larger issues in political campaigns and we get people shooshed into office that way -- because they do or don't like cheese, do or do not have bad hair, do or do not wear shoulder pads in their suits, do or do not inhale.

Like the cheese commercial is a joke, ha ha. But it's also for real -- double entendre social commentary. How many people get that?

Yaaaaaah!

~Astrophe

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