Wife Swap

I cannot watch it.
Upon arriving at home, I sat in the living room with my brother to cool off before jumping in the shower. He was watching TV, Wife Swap was on. I left the room after ten minutes. That show is complete culture clash, and they do it on purpose. I hear about in the end some of the people will walk away with a lesson learned, but that is pure bullshit. They may appreciate what they have more, they may make adjustments in the home for others' happiness, and may respect others just a little bit more, but in the long run, they don't change and they sure as hell don't take the time to learn, acknowledge, and accept other cultures. In my anthropological studies I've learned about quite a handful of cultures, from commonly heard of ones to the unheard of. I've grown to learn to respect, acknowledge, and be patient with other cultures. The key is to be aware, I don't know how many different ways or how many more times I can use that word. Awareness does not mean you have to agree with the practices and customs of another, but to know of them and not judge them or claim superiority. Ethnocentrism, the belief in the inherent superiority of one's own ethnic group or culture. The main idea is differences.

Anyways the episode was that of one family that is affiliated with rodeo and the cowboy/cowgirl lifestyle, the other family was of a CEO wife, who's husband works at night and cleans the house during the day [this was taken from the TV Guide description of the episode]. The glimpse of what I got to see was the CEO wife fighting with the cowboy husband about him needing to take off his stupid cowboy hat and some other crap. The next couple minutes brought up the word 'stupid' several more times. They both judged each other and did not take the time to recognize and acknowledge and even learn about one another's culture and traditions. Being ignorant as they were, they just declared the other was stupid, but they were merely different. So this clash makes me extremely uneasy and quickly agitated. What pisses me off even more was this argument going on between the cowboy father and the CEO wife was right in front of the man's son. Not only are they being ignorant and immature, but they are setting up a perfect example on how to do so in front of this young boy. Forget about teaching your kids to respect and not judge others. This is a reminder to myself of how people come about to have such ideas and opinions and oppositions to others. It's enraging and I need to end here.