(no subject)

[graculus]

On Saturdays before Dr Who, BBC1 airs a ghastly show called Strictly Dance Fever with gaudily-clad couples flinging themselves about way too energetically, and I always seem to get caught with the last couple of minutes of this whether I want to or not (except for last weekend when it was football, which was much better to my mind, but I digress...).

The show this week finished with candid video footage of the various over-energetic types being interviewed and one thing stood out for me - none of them ever said 'if I lose' or anything of that sort. It was all 'if this gets taken away from me', as if losing something because a vote went against you was some kind of personal affront and so they were determined to play on how upset they'd be to reduce the chances of people being mean to them (or that it would be some kind of personal conspiracy against them and this would be Bad and Mean as well). Of course, the way this show is pitched seems to be all about 'your favourite couple' rather than 'the best dancers' and I guess I struggle with that whole way of doing things.

I don't watch Pop Idol or any of the thousand rip-offs it's seemed to spawn so I was wondering whether this outlook is common? Is it that unacceptable now to have the level of insight that allows you to say 'well, I was good but they were better, so they deserved to win more than I did?' or is it just that the voting is so arbitrary it makes a nonsense of how good you are because if enough people like you then you'll win anyway?

E.T.A. sg1scribe reminds me that many of the self-same 'please don't take this away from me!' teenagers (and some non-teenagers) were struggling to find a reason to go on living if they didn't win. Jeez.

Comments

[sg1scribe.livejournal.com]

I caught a few minutes of this show too, and was equally bemused by the comments of the wanna-be dancers.

There's something fundmentally wrong with an 18 year old essentially declaring that his life will be over if he doesn't win a dance show.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

So, is that going to be the next Daily Mail headline? 'BBC drives teenagers to suicide!!11!!!' ;)

[stop_thinking]

In a nutshell "the voting is so arbitrary it makes a nonsense of how good you are because if enough people like you then you'll win anyway?"

These shows are popularity contests.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Well, it just reinforced my dislike of them and wanting proper telly programmes. ;)

[khek.livejournal.com]

There was a study recently in the US about people in their early 20s and younger. I don't recall it exactly, but the idea behind it was that most of them have never been taught how to lose. They've been encouraged all through school to succeed, and taught that "everyone's a winner" and rewarded for participating...and very few of them have been taught how to deal with not succeeding. How to be a good sport or what to do if they don't succeed in achieving what they want.

As far as I remember, this was applied to educational situations, but I think it's true in other types of competitions too. I don't know if it can be carried over into dance competitions, but I know I see it with kids I know who are totally crushed when they hit the real world.

Anyway, this article stated that the lack of knowing/dealing with how to lose is becoming quite a problem in colleges and universities, and in the working world as well, now that this group is starting to get old enough to be full-time employees.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

While that could be done with the best of intentions, it hardly prepares them for the real world, does it? I can understand wanting to encourage everyone to participate (and I've always been a firm believer in trying your best being the most important thing), the fact of the matter is that there's almost always going to be someone out there who's better at whatever-it-is than you are and part of being a grown up is how you deal with not getting everything you want.

*gets off soapbox* ;)

[betacandy.livejournal.com]

I don't watch that show, or any others like it, but I've observed in the past few years that no one ever loses anymore. They get "robbed" somehow. One person wins, and everyone else is a victim. Riiiiight.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Fair enough, nobody likes to feel that they've lost out unfairly, but if the others are better than you and you lose? Suck it up!

Then again, saying that my older brother always used to be a poor loser (of the 'throwing the boardgame across the room' variety), so perhaps my tolerance level for that kind of thing isn't too high... ;)