Apparently, ABC premiered a new show a few weeks ago: Homeland Security, USA, a reality TV series following several Homeland Security officers as they go about doing Homeland-Security-type things and if this sounds like vapid nationalist-porn, well, you’re probably not wrong, but I’m certainly not tuning in to find out.
I was twigged to this when I heard this NPR story. I thought NPR’s journalists performed, y’know, actual journalism. And I suppose sometimes they might. And sometimes, we get this:
There aren’t any terrorist plots uncovered, though viewers do get to watch agents thwart drug smugglers. And then there’s the lighter side of the job. In one scene, for instance, an immigration officer deports a busty belly dancer from Switzerland. —Homeland Security Gets The Reality TV Treatment, NPR
I wonder what’s funny about that. Her occupation? She’s a sex worker—how quaint! Her country of origin? Just listen to that funny accent. My Swiss-German sounds just like a native speaker’s! Her tits, and the size thereof? Hurr. Hurr. Tits. Hurr. The fact that she’s being arrested, detained, and deported? That her life is, if not being ruined, then at least being massively changed without her will or consent? That she could, in fact, die during this process?
My sides are just splitting, let me tell you.
Belly dancing is sex work now?
Show sounds pretty shitty.
Thank you for refraining from the too-obvious-by-half “ho ho ho” pun.
Would it have been less funny if she would have been flat-chested? These people are morons.
My, I completely forgot the sentence about her breasts! No, see, flat-chested women are even funnier, because they’re barely even women, see? And if they’re belly dancers? Priceless!
Now I’m seriously conflicted about the job offer I got today…sigh.
Oy. Open mouth, insert foot.
More seriously:
Discounting economic and personal benefits, I’d obviously be skeptical of taking a job with DHS. I think there’s some room for change from within, but not, probably, a lot. That said, you can’t and shouldn’t discount economic and personal benefits, so.
The best thing about this entry is that you actually watched what you’re commenting on and evaluated it in context. Anything else would just be the shoddy work we’ve all come to expect from the internet.
Poor Polly, doesn’t like blogs.
Don’t read them.
Belly Dancers ARE NOT SEX WORKERS! I belly dance and the only person I have sex with is my husband.
Violet, are you seriously suggesting that belly dancers are sex workers? Belly dance is a legitimate form of dance that is found in cultures all over the world; in fact all the professional belly dancers I know won’t even dance in front of an all male audience.
Sorry, I was saying that belly dancers experience the same sorts of oppression as people in other lines of sex work, and that by presenting her occupation as part of its punchline, the show (and news report) is playing into that narrative. I definitely didn’t mean to stigmatize belly dancing through the comparison—I don’t think sex work should be stigmatized at all.
NewWavePoly: I think that’s the best part, yes. Although I’m unclear: how is it you think I “watched” an story on National Public Radio? Because that’s what this post is about. Not how the TV show handles this situation—though I suspect NPR’s comedic vibe is taken directly from the show—but rather, how sickeningly efficient the NPR story is at reducing state violence against women and immigrants to a thirty-second joke.
[...] Violet on punkassblog (http://punkassblog.com/2009/01/22/deporting-people-hi-larious/) points out, NPR’s coverage of “Homeland Security” only acts to fuel the [...]