by Cheryl Barnette

Created on: January 21, 2010

The MTV/Jersey Shore Violence Incident and their Stereotypical Characters

On August 19, 2009, an incident at the Beachcomber Bar & Grill in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, between a character on the show “Jersey Shore”, Snooki and an non-cast member, Brad Ferro. Mr. Ferro punched this diminutive woman right in the face.  Kudos to MTV for announcing that it will run a public service announcement about violence during next week’s episode, but the damage has been done.

The MTV television series is also getting flack from the Italian-American community, because they believe the personalities on the show are showing Italians in a bad light, the stereotypical images unaffectionately known as “Guidos” and “Guidettes”, a derogatory term.  This latest incident of violence upon a cast member, who is a woman, is irreprehensible. Even though MTV has deleted that scene, it has been aired over and over again on news programs. So, it is and will be forever etched in the collective memory, especially unfortunately, for the Italian-Americans who would have preferred never to have seen such an episode or incident.

 Brad Ferro, the attacker, has been found guilty of assault with a six months suspended jail sentence. This is unfortunate, for he should serve time immediately, if not sooner, and get the help he should be getting. Hopefully he has to attend counseling for anger management, or something similar. Alcohol is always a precursor to these events, and all of this allegedly over a cocktail drink? There’s not a drink in all the world worth this disgusting form of entertainment.

 Ferro is not a cast member, but clearly the world has now seen how the uncomplimentary light may be cast on the Italia-American community. Has that been definitely been validated? The character of the “Night Fever”, Danny “Italian Bad Boy” perpetuated the myth of the belligerent, loud-mouthed Italian from the inner city who loves nothing but dancing, drinking, carousing, fighting and more dancing, drinking, carousing and fighting.

 Domestic violence is all too common on our movie screens, and it was very popular in the past, when men made all the directorial decisions, especially in heyday of the “gangster movies”. It was considered sexy even to have the thug blacken a woman’s eye, or even smash a grapefruit in her face, which is what James Cagney did in one of his movies with Jean Harlow. The battering was a physical claim supposedly a loving gesture to prove to his woman that he loved her. “I hit, therefore I love you”, was the message that battered women were supposed to have had beaten into their heads during abuse.

 Times they are a-changing. We have more support systems out there for the battered women than ever before. Even the men in blue help the victims now more than ever. Once upon a time, the police would escort the abuser out of the home, only to tell him to go for a walk, and to cool off. Yeah, right. The cooling off period most likely would never happen, but the reverse would take place. Once he re-entered the home, the woman was more than likely abused even more for placing the call for help, because she was putting him at risk for arrest. Yeah, something was definitely wrong with that picture.

Physical violence such as we witnessed on that episode of MTV should never be called entertainment, lest we bring up another generation that believes it to be just that.

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