Skins
Since I have no desire to become a politician of any sort, I will come out and say it, “Skins is real.”
Perhaps people perceive MTV’s intentions as purely profit driven, but the show is honest. Sometimes I forget how prudish Americans can be, and then moments like this happen. Why are we so afraid of the truth without a happy ending?
Before commenting on this show I committed to watching the first two episodes. The truth is, I could see bits of me in some of the characters. I could see old classmates. It’s like someone is blasting our dirty laundry and everyone is embarrassed to see the skid marks. I think what’s worse is that there’s such a focus on the sexual aspects of the show when there are so many more areas of concern including family, education, self-awareness. All of these are real issues that teens face daily. We spend ample time creating programs to help teens through all of these situations. Is it not a hypocritical slap in the face to say this program is wrong, as if these problems do not exist.
I didn’t go to a “bad” high school or live in a “bad” neighbourhood growing up, but I could not escape any of these experiences. I knew people who did drugs, sold drugs, and ran from drug dealers. I had friends who had very personal struggles with their sexuality and others who used sex to substantiate their existence. I remember the suicides from people who could not handle the truth behind their family lives and chose to run from it all. While MTV may not have pursued this program for these reasons, we would be naïve to shudder it from the world and teens as if embarrassed by its truth.
