Just Seen on FX
An episode of "30 Days" (the Morgan Spurlock-created show) in which an uber-healthy 43 year old mom binge drinks for a month to try to inspire a get-healthy revelation in her college-aged daughter. It was pretty ridiculous, in that Spurlockian way.
First of all, binge drinking for a month straight isn't what normal college students do; it's what alcoholics do. And there is a difference. College students break on Mondays.
Secondly, the mother was acting like an idiot. I mean, she was doing things that I did in college, and, well, still do on occasion, but she's 43. When you dance on a bar at 43, you look like a desperate divorcee. When you do it at 19, you look fun.
Third, she was doing TONS of shots. Yeah, you do lots of shots in college, but then you sort of scale back on that type of drinking. Everyone knows that, right?
And fourth, please spare me any more teary Lifetime-esque scenes that involve mothers pleading with their daughters to stop drinking to avoid being roofied and date raped. If you actually keep yourself from drinking so you won't get raped, haven't the rapists won? Anyway, I think my mother dealt with this issue appropriately: as my friends and I would leave the house to go out, she'd say, "Hands over the glasses, girls, keep your hands over the glasses." And we still do.
(Of course my mom also helped me get ready to go out by recommending outfits that made me look more like my fake ID. And she helped my sister get her fake ID. She's done a good job of helping us develop socially.)
The show also included the requisite interview with a mom of a girl who died from alcohol poisoning (a very cute girl from Colorado State University, who had a .43 when she died, which is both outrageous and sad at the same time). The story was, of course, sad, but it wouldn't teach college students anything they don't already know - they've heard it before at countless assemblies. You know what made me pay attention? The picture of the girl and her friends in Chi O t-shirts (my sister's sorority). You can't ask for worse press. I couldn't help but think about how not thrilled Nationals must be. (Not to belittle her death, of course, it is tragic.)
Anyway, Spurlock. Dramatic. To the point of irrelevance.
First of all, binge drinking for a month straight isn't what normal college students do; it's what alcoholics do. And there is a difference. College students break on Mondays.
Secondly, the mother was acting like an idiot. I mean, she was doing things that I did in college, and, well, still do on occasion, but she's 43. When you dance on a bar at 43, you look like a desperate divorcee. When you do it at 19, you look fun.
Third, she was doing TONS of shots. Yeah, you do lots of shots in college, but then you sort of scale back on that type of drinking. Everyone knows that, right?
And fourth, please spare me any more teary Lifetime-esque scenes that involve mothers pleading with their daughters to stop drinking to avoid being roofied and date raped. If you actually keep yourself from drinking so you won't get raped, haven't the rapists won? Anyway, I think my mother dealt with this issue appropriately: as my friends and I would leave the house to go out, she'd say, "Hands over the glasses, girls, keep your hands over the glasses." And we still do.
(Of course my mom also helped me get ready to go out by recommending outfits that made me look more like my fake ID. And she helped my sister get her fake ID. She's done a good job of helping us develop socially.)
The show also included the requisite interview with a mom of a girl who died from alcohol poisoning (a very cute girl from Colorado State University, who had a .43 when she died, which is both outrageous and sad at the same time). The story was, of course, sad, but it wouldn't teach college students anything they don't already know - they've heard it before at countless assemblies. You know what made me pay attention? The picture of the girl and her friends in Chi O t-shirts (my sister's sorority). You can't ask for worse press. I couldn't help but think about how not thrilled Nationals must be. (Not to belittle her death, of course, it is tragic.)
Anyway, Spurlock. Dramatic. To the point of irrelevance.
posted by Kit Pollard at
11:05 PM
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