Sons of Italy, others decry MTV's 'Shore'

Oh, my. An offensive reality show has hit the airwaves. Can you imagine?

UNICO National, the Order of the Sons of Italy in America, and the National Italian American Foundation, some of America's largest Italian American organizations, stepped up their call yesterday for MTV to cancel its new Jersey Shore, which premiered Thursday at 10 p.m.

"Violence and poor behavior to marginalize and stereotype Italian Americans," the organizations said.

UNICO National president André DiMino calls the boozy, sex-crazed kids "an embarrassment to themselves, their heritage, and their families."

But here's some news: Kids were an embarrassment long before hippie girls burned their bras and stopped shaving their armpits. The discerning parent, in fact, might get nervous when his or her kid goes long periods without being an embarrassment.

These kids-run-wild reality shows all feature violence and poor behavior. Jersey Shore doesn't marginalize Italian Americans. It includes them in a genre that has been percolating along, ignored by most sensible folks, for years.

The organizations are most concerned with the glorification on the show of "Guidos" (a term they detest), a subset of young Americans who have a ridiculous (at least to aged eyes) style and a questionable attitude. Not much different from hip-hopsters who walk around holding their pants off the ground with one hand while their underpants cover their nether parts, or emo kids with weird dyed black hair, pierced noses, and ear expanders.

"I was born and raised a Guido," says Pauly D. on the show. "It's a lifestyle. It's being Italian. It's representing family, friends, tanning, gel, everything."

The kid has ethnic pride. What's to criticize about that?

If I were a parent of one of the "Guid-ettes" (that's what they call themselves on this show), I'd be more worried. Preoccupied with sex, overflowing their skimpy clothing with fake breasts (or boasting how "natural" they are), these gals are nothing like the young ladies I would have raised had I been blessed with daughters.

But it's the WASPy-looking chicks the Guidos picked up last summer, shouting down to the street from their MTV-provided Shore house, who take off all their clothes and jump into the hot tub with the boys. This, apparently, is considered slutty behavior, while lying in a bed with somebody you just met and looking down his pants to see his pierced penis is not.

"Everybody has their own style and their own attitude, and everybody was brought up different, and I'm happy to be who I am," Mike Sorrentino, one of the show's eight stars, said on the phone yesterday. "I'm very proud of my family, friends, and my heritage. . . .

"I guess nobody in the older generation of Americans . . . went out drinking or looking for girls."

I'd be more concerned if I had a business at the Shore. Seaside Heights, where the show is based, looks pretty sketchy. (It's north of Long Beach Island, and therefore removed from the civilizing influences of Philadelphia visitors.)

But wait. Daniel Cappello, executive director of the Jersey Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau, is concerned. He issued a news release yesterday calling the MTV show "one-dimensional," and extolling the spectacular vacation opportunities throughout Monmouth and Ocean Counties.