Review of "The Girls Next Door"

I just watched an episode of the Girls Next Door quite fittingly titled “Girl Crazy” in which the Playboy Corporation began its 55th annual playmate search. The show opens with a huge group of 300 girls lined up outside of the Playboy Mansion waiting to audition for their shot at becoming the year’s centerfold. Once they were admitted into the tryout room, they had to pose for photographs wearing only lingerie, or even less than that. They were photographed by complete strangers, in hopes of winning the big prize of doing this over and over again, even more exposed, for a huge audience of even more strangers. It is also worthy to note that this was only the beginning of the tryout period, as audition dates were set up in several other major cities throughout the country, which several hundred, if not thousand more girls would attend. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? The answer is definitely the latter.

The type of scandalous behavior portrayed by the females in this VH1 television show only helps to lower the status of women in today’s society. Millions of young girls watch this show everyday, as repeats of it seem to be aired continuously. Television is one of the main agents of socialization among people of all ages, especially young children in their formative years. If young girls are continually watching older females, who are probably role models to them, act in such outrageous manners, they too are going to think that this is how all women should be viewed and will follow in their footsteps.

This episode quite vividly makes it clear that shows such as these, which VH1 seems to be airing a lot of lately, are only hurting society in the long run by negatively contributing to the overall impact on the socialization of girls. Aside from the scandalous behavior displayed by the females trying out for the centerfold part, this episode also poorly depicts women in other ways. One part of the episode shows two of Hugh Hefner’s girlfriends (there’s a negative portrayal in itself) going shopping in the most distasteful of clothing stores and acting completely ditzy in their conversations with each other. This, too, only negatively contributes to the mental development of girls, as they see their role models buying the most revealing of clothing and sounding ever so unintelligent.

Taking a break from their shopping spree, the two women grabbed lunch at a nearby Hooters. While there, they noticed a girl eating lunch who looked like she would be a great contestant for the centerfold, so they went up to her and tried to recruit her to try out. It turns out she actually had just tried out the day before…and her mom was actually a centerfold for Playboy some decades earlier. This just shows how stereotypical the appearance of women in today’s society is—the playmates didn’t even know this girl had tried out for the centerfold position and were trying to recruit her based solely on her looks while eating in a restaurant. This doesn’t say much for the intellect of the playmates, while saying everything at the same time. Based on the accounts of this episode, I think it is safe to say that this show, and all others that are like it, are only helping to further lower the status of and appearance of women in today’s society. Overall rating: fail.