The Learning Channel?

I started my highly productive evening by watching The Learning Channel. What did I learn you ask? Well, quite a bit actually.

I learned that TLC is effectively the modern equivalent of the circus side show, or freak shows, from the early 1900's. All the shows and the advertisements for TLC that were on this evening were about women who discovered they were pregnant when the baby's head crowned, little people, a New Yorker who speaks to dead people, and obese people obsessed with food. That last one I made up. Mostly. Cake Boss does sort of fit that description.

I watched I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant. The show re-enacts the pregnancy two women experience without realizing that they are growing a new human. For the most part, the show comes off as non-judgmental. However, periodically throughout the show the narrator or one of the people interviewed make comments that taken in or out of context amount to, "She couldn't even tell she was pregnant? What a dumbass!" At present, I have never heard anyone on the show say exactly this.

The programs about little people (or midgets) bother me more than any of the others. They are by far the most demeaning because NOTHING out of the ordinary happens. The commercial for the episode coming on in the next week or so is about the little couple buying their first house. This is a monumental achievement for any couple.

Therein lies the insult.

The Learning Channel is interested in the every day struggles, aspirations, and achievements of these people because they are physically different than normal people. Every episode of shows of this ilk assumes that the average and completely normal activities of their subjects are of interest because the people they chronicle are freaks. How could midgets falls in love, buy a house, and have children? They're so short!

I imagine that their height is an impediment to some activities. I am a modest five foot one inch tall. I will always have to use step-stools and I will never be a TV star for being short. However, if I were about three inches shorter. I could be.

Is that good television?