Being a Jersey girl is something I’ve never been ashamed of. I love the Jersey shore and have been going to Long beach Island, Wildwood and Ocean City my entire life. The community I grew up in is very small and everyone knows each other and I’ve haven’t had any negative feelings towards New Jersey as a whole. My freshman year at Cabrini a show came out called “Jersey Shore.” I didn’t watch any episodes or think anything of it but my friend thought it was the funniest show ever and she insisted that I watch an episode. After she was raving about this hilarious show I figured I would give it a shot. Terrible decision. I was in awe of these people making money off of partying at the Jersey shore and the overall depiction of someone from New Jersey.
From that point on I didn’t watch the show again but I noticed as time went on it became more popular. I didn’t understand the hype but I wasn’t worried about it. My sophomore year I started working as a waitress at a local restaurant. When customers would ask where I’m from and I told them they would instantly roll their eyes, laugh and make snarky comments about tanning and fist pumping. Throughout my entire life I have never, and I mean never, “fist pumped” let alone know what that term means. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been in a tanning booth before but not to the point of making my skin look like I painted it orange.
I saw what fist pumping was and was confused why the Jersey Shore cast was acting like this was the cool thing to do. I had no idea that people actually danced like that and it was a serious learning experience for me. I started to watch the show again and although I was anti-jersey shore at-first, I will admit it’s pretty entertaining. The whole show is so ridiculous that I get why it became so popular.
Nonetheless, it still bothered me that people from other states thought the this is what people from New Jersey act like. Where I am from there is no fisting pumping, blow -outs, bad spray tans (besides prom season) or “guidos and guidettes.” Watching the Jersey shore was a serious slap in the face because where I live in Jersey people definitely do not act like that at all. Since the Jersey Shore came out, a lot of other television networks joined the bandwagon of degrading the state with other shows such as “Jerseylicious” and “the real housewives of New Jersey”. Like I said before, these shows may be annoying to someone who is from Jersey but still entertaining nonetheless.
In conclusion to this article of ranting and blow outs, my final thought is this: Not everyone from the state of New Jersey has long fake nails, big poofy hair and talks like they are from Staten Island! I am living proof along with others many others. Just because there are a few shows that make it seem as if New Jersey has no integrity or morals, please don’t judge a state by its reality shows.
