WeTV: Congratulations, You Played Yourself
With the excitement WeTV created as we anxiously awaited for reality personality, Mama June, to unveil her new body — one would imagine how incredibly disappointing, yet completely predictable it was to make an audience wait an entire season to see how different she looks now. A few lucky folks got a sneak peek at her new look in a production van commercial hosted by Honey Boo Boo and while I sat through the entire first show, I noticed one glaring problem staring me right back in the face:
A fucking fat suit.
And fucking prosthetics.
Let’s stop for a moment and examine this here. A network, who’s original goal way back in 2000, was to create a television channel that celebrated women and empowered them in a positive light. Now, of course, over the years, that goal has been shat on with running shows like “Bad Girls Club”, “Bridezillas”, and “Party Mamas” but all wasn’t lost.
Enter “Mama June: From Not to Hot”.
Not only is the title a total slap in the face to the body positive movement, but a real embarrassment for Mama June, herself to even agree to! Obviously, Mama June didn’t feel she was hot before — which is fine — but what kind of example is she setting for her two daughters? I’ll touch on that in a bit.
During the course of the show, it became increasingly obvious that something was terribly wrong with Mama June’s body. No, not because of the fact that she was ‘not hot’ but because she wasn’t moving her neck, she was stiff in most shots, and her face actually looked like it was melting! There were even continuity issues with parts of the fat suit that she wore under her 3/4-sleeved shirts and jeggings. Now, we all know that most reality shows are shot out of sequence, leaving their editors to piece together the most interesting parts of most of these reality personalities’ mundane lives into a somewhat believable story line but something clearly was amiss here.
It seems the show was filmed so far out of sequence that Mama June may have undergone all of her 15,000 surgeries prior to notifying producers. Leaving them to come up with a ploy to make a believable storyline for homegirl and her drastic weight loss and body makeover. And now we’re here. Fat suit and all.
I watched with my sister and initially, we both questioned whether or not a network would really think its viewers are that stupid to not notice these oddities, until they just started getting sloppy. Some scenes might has well been taken right out of “Shallow Hal”, the only problem is that makeup job was a helluva lot more believable. While Mama June went to her consultation for weight loss surgery, she was au natural. She moved more fluidly, her neck was completely natural, and she was a lot more animated than what other confessionals demonstrated. There was a brief attempt at an explanation in the opening scene where Mama June had just recently underwent surgery and felt “sore”. Which would’ve been believable had her face not looked like a bunch of whipped-together fake flesh been plastered all over it haphazardly.
To top it all off, Mama June’s reasoning to lose weight — not build a healthier lifestyle — was to upstage her toothless ex-husband’s fiance at his wedding that he…maybe invited her to or that she invited herself to…whatever it is, can we just talk about the fact that he’s her ex? So, the whole storyline is a far stretch from being inspirational but more just another network ploy at gaining viewership for a family that shouldn’t even have a television show to begin with. Whatever happened to 15 minutes of fame? Did I miss the memo that 15 minutes turned to like 8 years?
Then there’s Honey Boo Boo or her more respectable name: Alana Thompson. Not only is she only 11 years old, but she’s an overweight child who’s caught a few times on camera speaking in a sexual nature. Yet, it’s being glorified because this is supposed to be entertainment? Nah. Count me out. Not only could Mama June have been setting a better example for her two daughters to try and inspire them to live healthier and stop packing enormous bags of Cheetos in their backpacks (this really happened) but for WeTV to glorify the seemingly over-sexualization and inappropriate sense of humor that 11-year-old Honey Boo Boo has is complete trash.
WeTV: Stop being lazy. How about producing content that inspires your viewers, rather than embarrasses them or belittles their intelligence. In a time where women seek positivity, support, and intelligent content — this is a punch to the uterus (and the brain).
You played yourself and I won’t be tuning in for the rest of the season. ✌