Sacred Institution

         Last night I turned the TV to NBC to watch whatever programs they have on for a Sunday night. It was after the Simpsons, where I get my weekly dose of wackiness, and then usually keep the TV on while I check my email, and do other mindless chores. But alas, there was nothing to watch on NBC but a basketball game. Not being a fan of sports and testosterone filled announcers I changed back to Fox. Mind you, I had no other choice, my TV only gets two channels.
         They were premiering a wonderful new reality TV show optimistically entitled Bachelorettes in Alaska. I’m not one for reality TV. (I’m not really one for TV) When Survivor was making its big waves, I just sat outside the people frantically talking about it and thinking to myself "They have a TV show called Survivor?" I thought they put people in deadly situations and then watched to see if they survived. All of this reality TV is boggling to me, because really, it is not reality. It’s people emoting in front of a camera. And as long as those emotions are anger, jealousy, or somewhat risqué the camera is happy. However, I must say that I was impressed that a gay man had won the first round of Survivor, even if I had no idea what it meant to win.
          So I left it on Bachelorettes in Alaska for noise, and the futile hope that the basketball game would be over soon so that I could go watch something else. The show had been promoted as a sort of empowering woman type thing. 6 women get to choose from a bunch of men who gets to be their husband. Its a nice turn of events, since even today its still considered out of place for a woman to ask a man out for a date or more blasphemous, their hand in marriage. I thought "Well at least its not Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire."
          However, as the show progressed I noticed some strange things about this "reality" TV show. The women all have a dowry of at least $5,000. And the more popular women’s dowries go up as the show progresses. Well, of course, that’s why the men want to marry these women. They’re getting at least $5,000 out of it! Hell, I’ll get married right now if I can get some cash out of it. There’s a new oboe I’ve been eyeing.
          I also noticed that they kept referring to this little match making fest as a game. A game that ends with some man getting $5,000 and a wife! The only choice the women have is to pick who that man will be.
          A game. Is this what we have been reduced to? Making love and marriage into a game? At the same time when the idea of legalizing gay marriages comes up some politician loudly says that marriage "is a sacred institution" that would be ruined if homosexuals were allowed to marry.
          If marriage is a sacred institution, where do we get off selling love and marriage to a television show? Here is a show, like many others before it, that treats marriage as lightly as the TV sitcoms treat having a baby. Its the newest fad. If you need some quick cash and want to get on TV you can sign up for a reality TV show and get married. Need ratings? Your TV character can go out and have casual sex, and then get a baby out of it. No big deal, if it doesn’t work, she can always miscarry. Now THAT will bring the ratings up.
         I have the privilege of knowing a wonderful couple that has been together for 20 years. They are both beautiful people, and in their eyes you can see how much they still care for each other, even after 20 years. They’ve never been married. They can’t get married, because they’re both women. I know a number of gay couples, many of whom have been together for five years or more, that have had commitment ceremonies. But that’s as far as it can go. In the eyes of the church, and in the eyes of our own government, their love is not considered valid. Its an abomination, a mishap. School boards, government leaders, religious figures, and the common layman stand up in front of millions of their peers and call lesbians and gays "unnatural" and "sinners."
          Then they go home. Turn the TV to fox, and watch Bachelorettes in Alaska. Where the men out number women and they get a prize for finding a bride. How many of these sacred marriages will end in divorce after the show is over? I hope for the sake of sacred institutions and the people who want to keep it holy, that none of them will.