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Live Chat Feature
56 Views
04/02/10
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I like having discussions with people so I use the blog feature to see what people are thinking. I'm not looking for anybody, so I don't use the chat feature. But I get curious every once in a while to see how active that feature is. It doesn't seem to be very active lately. Now maybe I'm not on the site when most people are, but many people used to chat back in the day even at odd hours. Aren't people talking to each other anymore? What's up?
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The Bachelor/Bachelorette Color Palette
155 Views
01/04/10
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What are your thoughts on this article?
Why Is 'The Bachelor' So White?
* January 4, 2010
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* By: Scott Harris
* Comments (413)
The 14th season of ABC's popular reality dating show 'The Bachelor' airs tonight, and fans will be seeing some familiar faces -- white faces, that is.
Jake Pavelka, who previously appeared as a rejected suitor on the show's sister series 'The Bachelorette,' will be starring as the man in command this year, vying for the affection of 25 attractive women. But while the network's strategy of bringing back popular contestants form one series to star in the next has proven successful in the past -- the first season finale of 'The Bachelorette' snagged over 30 million viewers -- it has also helped contribute to the impression that the series is uninterested in courting minority viewers.
That's because, just as the 19 lead bachelors and bachelorettes have all been white, the candidate pool as a whole has also been startlingly homogeneous. This year's group of women, for instance, is devoid of African-American contestants, as was last season's, which has led some in the media, including The LA Times, to question ABC's casting policy.
While there have been some notable exceptions -- Cuban-American Mary Delgado was chosen by season 6 bachelor Byron Velvick, for instance -- the lack of diversity on 'The Bachelor' is especially noticeable compared to other high profile reality shows, which generally feature greater representation for minorities than scripted television. 'Survivor' and 'The Amazing Race,' for instance, regularly feature some of the most integrated casts on network television, while cable shows such as 'Rock of Love' have highlighted minority contestants with great ratings success.
By those standards, then, it's clear that 'The Bachelor' is coming up short. The question is, why? The simple answer would be to lay the blame at the foot of network television in general, which continues to underserve America's ever-growing minority population, as highlighted in this 2008 report from the NAACP.
Yet considering the success other reality shows have had featuring minorities, it's possible other factors may be at play here. Does the network feel that some viewers are still not ready to support a high profile interracial romance? Are sponsors less interested in buying advertisements for a season that they may feel will appeal to fewer viewers? Or are the bachelors themselves to blame? After all, the few minority contestants who have appeared on the show have frequently been among the first rejected, which may suggest that the men and women who star on 'The Bachelor' and 'The Bachelorette' are forcing the producers to cast hopefuls who are potentially more suitable to their tastes.
"There may be two things at play here," said Angela Bronner Helm, Senior Editor. "One, the country is still in its heart conservative and feels most comfortable dating intraracially. White Americans, statistically, when dating online, do prefer dating one another. Another issue may be that ABC/Disney, like many movie studios, fears a backlash from 'middle America' and frankly thinks that people will not watch a Black guy dating either black women or white women or vice versa."
Whatever the reason, it seems clear that as long as ratings remain high, the network will be under no real pressure to make changes. Because no matter how loud voices may grow in protest, one thing speaks louder than all: the advertising dollar.
"I'm not sure if revolution is what corporations are looking for these days," Bronner Helm added. "It's more like advertising and ratings. The path of least resistance. Thank God for cable."
Should 'The Bachelor' include more minorities?
Yes, they need to be more inclusive.
It should be up to the bachelor.
No, it's fine the way it is.
BTW that last section was a poll that could be voted on. What do you think?
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Holiday Libations Please!
25 Views
11/23/09
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I can just about make a holiday dinner in my sleep. I started out helping my mother when I was very young. What I don't have a good grasp on is holiday drinks. What are your favorite drinks to make and serve? If you don't make them yourselves, what do you like to drink? I'm kind of in the mood for a few cocktails this holiday season...
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Best Thing I Ever Ate - Ethnic Food
109 Views
10/16/09
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Time to have a little fun! This is a little embarasing, but since we're all friends here :) I'll tell it anyway.
It only happens once every few years, but I unconsciously hum while I eat a dish that is just so good I can't stand it. I only know that I'm doing it when friends point it out. So in honor of the Food Network series The Best Thing I Ever Ate, share what your favorite food is in each category. I think this is going to be a series of different categories.
I'll start because I had a hummable moment yesterday at lunch with a good friend. We were at a great Thai restaurant. I had a chicken and eggplant dish that made my mouth absolutely sing.
What ethnic dish has made you want to do a happy dance?
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Male/Female "Roles" in Today's Relationships
160 Views
09/29/09
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Male/Female "Roles" in Today's Relationships
I've been listening to my nieces and nephew discuss the issues they have with their relationships. They've also talked about their friend's relationships. I've listened to them in amazement. It seems to me that both genders are completely confused by their potential mates. Maybe confused isn't the right word. From what I've heard, men and women have very different expectations of the opposite sex than what I've grown up to understand and have experienced.
Now I get that there is a generation gap between me and them, but that really doesn't account for the major differences between what I understand male/female roles to be in a personal relationship and what they think the roles should be. Yes society has changed, and most households can't survive without two wage earners. But I have a hard time believing that this fact alone accounts for the new views on who does what in a relationship. Something else is going on, and I just need a little more understanding on what that something else is.
I'd like honesty, but I respectfully request that sex be left out of the discussion. We tend to reduce everything to sex. What I'm after is information on what men and women believe on a societal level what each other's roles are. In other words, who provides, nurtures, teaches, cleans, pays for a date, etc.
If things aren't the way you'd like them, how would you like them to be?
I'm not going to say what I think male/female roles should be just yet. I'd like to get an honest response from all sexes in all age groups.
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What Does Commitment Look Like To You?
106 Views
10/20/06
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The fact that this site exists is evidence that society has changed dramatically. There were laws on the books forbidding interracial mixing. For the most part, that is a thing of the past. I'm wondering if we've changed so much that commitment looks and feels different nowadays.
Is marriage the only form of commitment available, or do you see other forms of committment as being viable. If you believe in an alternative to marriage, what does that look like to you?
If you believe in marriage as the ultimate commitment, does that mean two people necessarily have to live in the same home? Have the parameters of what marriage is expanded with the changing times? There was a discussion on a previous blog about what male/female "roles" are in a relationship. Does that factor into a revised concept of marriage? Your thoughts....
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What's On Your Mind Lately?
308 Views
09/21/06
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I've really been thinking about the whole spinach thing. Here in California, farmers are plowing spinach crops under, rather than spend any more time and money on harvesting the crop. Almost all farmers are testing ALL fields for contamination, no matter what the crop is. They can't afford to lose money like this again.
But my concern is for food safety. I used to work for USDA on the animal side. So I'm aware that there are never enough inspectors to inspect meat packing plants frequently. I don't know what happens on the plant side of things. It would probably be a safe bet to guess that there aren't enough inspectors looking at crops frequently either. I only buy organic produce, but even that isn't safe from e coli. I was happy to know that the brand I buy wasn't the source of the bacteria. I really miss spinach in salads, but don't mind that it's nowhere to be found on the shelves, or in restaurants.
But there is spinach in my future. Spinach needs cooler weather to grow, and its still too warm here. So within a couple of months we'll be getting ours, and I'll be confident enough in the testing that's been done to buy it again.
So what's going on in your local area that has you concerned? It'll be enlightening to hear about what's happened in your neck of the woods. Let's call this the Intra-American News Network. The most interesting stuff isn't reported on the national evening news. No issue is too big or too small to report here.
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What Does Mixed Race REALLY Mean
397 Views
07/23/06
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I guess I'm one of those people who's curious to death. Since I'm new here, I decided to check out profiles and see what's going on. Somehow I stumbled upon this site, and figured why not? But in looking around, I became curious as to what other people's definition of mixed race is. When someone says that they're looking for someone who's mixed race, do you mean that the potential partner has a mother of one race, and a father of another? How far back does the mixing go before you're NOT mixed race?
I ask that because I consider myself African American. But the profiles made me think that other people (if they saw me - have to get up to speed with the picture thing) might think that I'm something else. I've had people walk up to me and ask me what race I was. My automatic response was "black". They would look at me kind of funny with an expression of "Have you looked in the mirror lately?". One person actually said "No you're not." I got pretty ticked off, but took a deep breath and thought about it. I realized that she was noticing the Indian (ok - pc term Native American) in me. It shows up in my eyes and cheekbones, and skin tone. But it's so much a part of me that I never think about it. At the time, I also had long straight hair. Until a year ago, I've always had "the hair". I guess that comes from the Indian and White DNA. I have both on both sides of my family. On both sides, it starts with my great grandparents. On each side, only one great grandparent was "all black".
I'm curious as to what other people think. To be honest with you, some of the profile titles is what got this whole thought going. A lot of them say something about wanting to meet a mixed race person, or finding an Ebony Princess, or something to that effect. When I see the word Ebony, I'm thinking that man is looking for a dark skinned woman who said that she's of African descent. They would be surprised by me because that wouldn't be what they were getting.
I don't foresee myself ever really thinking of myself as mixed race, but I'm really curious as to what other people think about this. I'm particularly interested in the white guys clarifying if they're really looking for a dark skinned woman or not. Or are they using the term Ebony to include all black women, regardless of skin tone? Maybe I'm totally off the mark, but I'm really curious, so I hope you'll respond.
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