Feminism Is For Everyone

Sep 5, 2008,3:05 PM

MTV's "Exiled"

At last week's meeting, we were talking about third world vs. first world feminism and how the first wave of feminism (women's lib) often involved middle-upper class white women and not lower class or minority women. Well, there's new show on MTV called "Exiled," which is a spin off of "My Super Sweet Sixteen." They send the same spoiled girls from "My Super Sweet Sixteen" to third-world countries to "teach them a lesson." On feministing.com there is a post about the show:

"In the first episode of 'Exiled,' which aired last week, our girl Amanda, who is now 19 and seems to spend her days sleeping and sunbathing, is surprised by her family and friends (and, presumably, MTV's film crews), with the news that they are sending her to Africa. Amanda is whisked away to Kenya, where she spends a week with the Masai. She sleeps in a dung hut, is asked to touch cow dung (which she refuses to do), carries water for hours and watches the slaughter of a goat.

(posted on Feministing.com September 4, 2008)

Several posters noted that the host families on the show seem like props. 'The show falls into the theme of using other countries and cultures as teaching tools for people in the U.S.' says feministing.com blogger Miriam Perez. 'These people are being used as a teaching tool for mostly white, privileged girls. Why was this girl honored? Because she stopped crying after a few days? She was offensive. She wasn't appreciative.'

Latoya Peterson, blogger for Racialicious.com, has a similar objection. 'They're taking these extremely spoiled kids and going, OK, what's the worst thing we can do to them? Send them to Africa!' she says. 'That's a terrible mind-set to have. It's the First World balking at the Third World.' "