“Vulgar materialism” are the words that come to mind after watching one episode of MTV’s “My Super Sweet Sixteen.”
The reality-TV show reveals the lives of the young, the shallow and pretentiously spoiled as they plan for their ultimate birthday party bash.
During the three episodes I’ve sat through, I often found myself muttering in between commercials “Madame Bovary and Paris Hilton eat your heart out.”
The several young self-indulgent socialites on the show went beyond being rich and bored.
They seemed to make a point to make their parents miserable with their constant demands.
The likes of them couldn’t even treat their friends/party guests with common decency, which I found surprising for I had always believed friends were treasured commodities to a spoiled princess.
The first episode I tuned into followed the whims and the petty vanity of Ava, whose parents lavish her with everything from French designer clothing to an expensive Range Rover in her favorite color.
However, Ava is never satisfied and makes no attempt to hide her contempt from her foolish parents.
I often thought Ava’s parents had what was coming to them when they let their daughter arrive at the idea that the world revolves around her. But I think it’s more than bad parenting that turned Ava into a repulsive conceited leech.
In a country where a superficial pop culture runs rampant, I think the case of the shallow self-indulgent youth will at one point become more archetypal, especially if mainstream media such as MTV continues to glorify America’s most spoiled delinquents. However, the parents should still be held accountable for ruining their children, especially Sophie’s mother. Sophie was the most disgraceful among the pampered and thoughtless brats. And Sophie’s mothers was at the center of it.
To begin with, Sophie’s mother was forking out $180,000 on her Moulin Rogue-themed birthday party.
Sophie is obviously not the Duchess of York, but if her mother is willing to spend that kind of money on her daughter, Sophie is being bred to be one despicable human being.
Inevitably, Sophie’s lack of social grace and respectabilty shine through, and her fangs come out when her mother and her disagree on the insignificant matter of a teal dress.
Sophie goes as far as to dismiss her mother and send her to a nearby couch after her mother attempts to guide her daughter in her decision.
It’s only a small serving of her insolence, but it still would more than likely strike the nerve of any sensible person with a proper upbringing.
Much like the other repulsively spoiled teens and young adults that cloud MTV’s airwaves, Sophie rages on and is simply allowed to have her way no matter how atrocious her behavior.
I was tempted to turn it off once she created a party list that excluded people that she recently made friends with; she even excluded a friend she had a fight with earlier in the day. Her mother, yet again, failed to take the approperiate action and scold her daughter. It’s a wonder that these teen’s parents have come by such an afflunent life-style when they lack common parenting skills. I don’t have any children of my own, but as far as my own childhood I was not adorned with priceless clothes and extravagant luxury cars in my teens, but I can attest that I had far greater upbringing than any of one of these loathsome teen socialites.
My father, a single parent, never lavished me with what I wanted, but what I truly needed.