on educational moments

There are some days when the things I find myself doing by the end of the day are no where NEAR what I anticipated doing at the beginning of the day.  Today has CERTAINLY been one of those days.

It is no secret that as Professional Youth Worker I find myself seeing inspiration and educational opportunities in the most obscure as well as the most obvious places.  I cannot lie, there have been times when MTV has provided great educational resources.  They have intentionally educated their viewing population about issues like voting and AIDS, same sex relationships and the reality of the war and how it impacts members of the current generation.  Today it was brought to my attention that MTV has aired an episode of their popular “Challenge” that offers more educational opportunities than I am sure they anticipated.

Midday I opened an email from one of my oldest friends from summer camp.  She had received a forward, a letter from a co-worker that had been sent to MTV to express her disgust with the first episode of The Challenge:Cutthroat.

This season MTV has presented “The Challenge:Cutthroat,” where members of past casts of The Challenge, Real World and Road Rules come together to battle for the “handsome reward,” win challenges for cash and other prizes all while drinking their nights away.  It has never been a secret that these battles are alcohol induced nights of making out, breaking up and making up before going face to face in physical challenges.

I can’t lie--upon reading this email--I had to see it for myself.  I wasn’t sure if others had expressed concern to MTV and if the episode would still be posted, to my disgust, surprise and intellectual/educational joy, the episode was still posted.  It didn’t take more than 5 minutes of this show to be disgusted beyond belief with the presentation.

I cannot believe this show made it so far, through production, through all of the little guys and the big-wigs and not a single person would question whether this was an inappropriate or insensitive topic to broach.

So here is my run-down of this first episode and the moments that have made me think, the moments I am still processing, the things I cannot believe MTV broadcast.

The Challenge:Cutthroat is set in Prague, in the Czech Republic.  For those of you that don’t know, this is an area that experienced incredible change as a result of WW2 and the Jewish presence in community is still impacted today. 

The episode begins with a running race to an unknown location.  There are air raid sirens blaring.  TJ Lavin, the host starts with “This is the Gulag.” and the editing quickly cuts to Dan, one of the contestants saying “Our gulag is like something out of some crazy like World War Two like Science Fiction Movie.  Everything about it spells pain and torture.”

Now, I did not know exactly what a “gulag” was, but a quick Google search confirmed my suspicions.  The Gulag or GULag was the government agency that administered over the Soviet penal labor camp system.  The Gulag was officially created in 1930 and dissolved in 1960 but in March of 1940 there were 53 camps and 423 labor colonies in the USSR.  The population in these camps varied greatly but their connection to World War Two and the prisoners, many of whom were imprisoned due to their acts against and intolerance of the government of the time.

So back to the episode...

The “Gulag” is where elimination rounds will take place.

<<man...we are not even 5 minutes into this 45 minutes online episode...>>

A few more minutes into the show, a night of celebration for the contestants and a number of drinks later, the contestants receive a text on their T-Mobile phones...

“You may shed some tears at tomorrow challenge”

Cut to reflections from the cast, some talk about cutting up onions and then there is a resounding “Tear Gas!”

As contestants walk up, we see symbols marking the area ‘toxic’ or ‘radioactive’

TJ announces again their location, Prague in the Czech Republic as the teams walk up to the challenge and then he says “Today’s challenge is called ‘Gas Problems.’”

The essence of the challenge is contestants pair up and run into a gas chamber and have to read a series of letters and numbers to decipher a code.  Now, initially...after just reading the email, I thought the players were locked in the chamber and had to decipher the code to get out...it is not QUITE that horrific...but for those of us (perhaps more) well versed on our World War Two history...the idea of people running into a chamber emitting a cloudy gas into the air and then hearing quotations from the contestants impacted me viscerally...I am disgusted MTV...

16 minutes into this only presentation you see gas filling the gas chamber (albeit tear gas) and then contestants start sharing their feelings via voiceover and cut to testimonial a la MTV Reality shows...

“[it was] pretty tough to control your breathing.” says a female contestant

“My brain is not functioning properly because my eyes are burning...I am breathing in what feels like fire,” says Johnny, a Challenge and MTV Veteran.

And then when a contestant has to return because he did not remember the right code Theresa is edited in to share her sentiment that “You better sprint your ass as fast as you can back into that gas chamber and don’t mess it up this time.”

Shavaun, a girly-girl and team captain is then quoted as saying “I am freaked out I have to go into a gas chamber.”

We continue watching and hear other contestants reflecting on their challenges, their ability to compete and their physical responses to the gas in the chamber.

“I am shaking--convulsing back and forth, the pain is so bad I am actually afraid I am going to go blind.” Tyler says and then his partner comments that if he cannot do it, she will have to do it for him.

Dan, who commented early in the show about the World War Two influences of the set then says “I had a flashback of having to do this in the military,” and then he proceeds to begin gagging.

The games continue, a team wins, and then TJ awards the prizes and the money and announces that each of the two losing teams will need to nominate 1 guy and 2 girl to send into the Gulag.  Let’s break this down...one guy...and one girl...from each team has to go into the arena that is named after the political prison...On top of that, once back at the home...each teammate will go down into the dungeon and vote in secret for the person that will go into the Gulag.

Once TJ announces who will battle in the arena, we then see another night of drinking and debauchery akin to MTV Reality challenges...and we proceed to the Gulag.

Teams arrive to air raid sirens and TJ’s announcement that “This is the Gulag.” and “Tonight you will be playing handcuffs.”

I don’t know why I felt the need to watch and assess this episode with such a sharp eye...but I also know that this is something that the general public will watch without knowledge and with a zombie-like acceptance just like many other things that are inappropriate on TV today.  I just don’t understand how this episode went through as many filters as a major network must have to clear a show for airing.

I just don’t get it.

I want this to raise awareness.  I feel like I need to do more to ‘raise hell.‘  I don’t want to boycott MTV...because I DO think they have done so much to make their viewing audience aware of a issues in the world around them that they may not have experienced the say way before.

I have to think about it more.  I don’t know just yet how I want to react...but I know...this is NOT okay...what do you think?

for now

LM