Charm This

Up until a few weeks ago, I had basically avoided anything to do with this Flavor of Love franchise because I thought it promoted the absolute worst behavior in women. Based on commercials I saw on MTV during Engaged and Underaged and Road Rules/Real World Challenge episodes, the women fighting for Flav's affection would scheme and backstab and fight without moral retribution and lord knows a generation of girls are growing up thinking this is how to get a man. The idea that any girls out there look up to New York absolutely makes my stomach turn. And it seemed I wasn't alone in my abhorrence. Mo'Nique was rather vocal about her dislike in guest appearances on The View. What was Flavor of Love teaching young women?

So we got Charm School, and I was excited to watch. Mo'Nique seemed to be interested in promoting self-respect and class to these women. For those of you who haven't seen the episode, this week's challenge centered around Andrew "that wine guy from The Bachelor" Firestone, who was searching among these Charm School girls for one he could use in a presentation to clients.

After the previous week's hot-rollers-and-candy-carrying incident on the camping trip, we knew Shatar was a crazy narcissist, but this week really took the cake. While Heather showered before the big dinner, Shatar STOLE HER DRESSES and hid them in a drawer of the kitchen. Now, being a fan of reality trash, I remember that time on The Gauntlet (or whatever) when Tonya stole Beth's clothes and dumped them in the pool. That was awesome because Tonya is the crazy to end all crazies and dumped Beth's clothes purely out of rage and a lack of self-control. Shatar, on the other hand, was not operating in a rage blackout. She hid the dresses purely as a manipulative move to fuck with Heather's head. And it totally worked. Heather broke down, sobbing and screaming about her $2000 dresses that her family bought her, and how she can't afford things like that, etc. Pumkin's dresses were also stolen, and took the initiative to actually go looking for the missing clothing. She succeeded in finding the gowns before their meeting with Andrew. While no one (except Shatar) knew at this point who'd hidden the dresses, most were relieved they were found and Heather stopped crying. But that wasn't the end.

During the interview with Andrew Firestone, Shatar, with no provocation, turns to Heather and says something along the lines of "That dress looks good on you. I should have hidden it better." Heather is rattled and can't get over it, but I think her confronting Shatar calmly and verbally in front of Andrew Firestone is a VAAAAAST improvement to outright slapping her in the face, as I expected. For some UNKNOWN REASON (aka, the producers told him to) Andrew picks Shatar to help him in his presentation and thus, Shatar is immune from elimination this week. Fine. Whatever, that's kind of along the rules of the show. (And here's a reality show first, Shatar humiliates herself so badly during this presentation, first falling in front of Andrew, and then knocking a drawing off it's easel during the actual presentation, that her prize ended up seeming more like a humiliating punishment).

However, the biggest outrage of this entire episode is that Mo'Nique then chooses to eliminate HEATHER from Charm School. So Heather is basically punished for having her dresses stolen. Keep in mind, Heather did freak out before the meeting, but once in front of Andrew and blindsided by Shatar's manipulative, passive-aggressive confession, Heather responds with anger and emotion, but never crosses into an out-of-control Flavor of Love Season 1 Pumkin-level freakout. In the end, Shatar's behavior is basically sanctioned by the show, as she receives no punishment, and Heather is eliminated because she couldn't ignore Shatar's provoking, DESPITE THE FACT that her reaction was 10 times classier than Pumkin, who sought revenge by hanging a pair of Shatar's dirty panties across Shatar's picture on her bed. Needless to say, when Shatar found out, the phrase "pussy-juice" was bandied about several times. Classy with a capital "C." Now every girl in that house knows that they can be as manipulative as they want, and fucking with each other's heads is fair game. Instead of teaching the girls they can succeed by their own doing, they are learning how they should lie, cheat and steal their way to the top. Awesome, Mo'Nique. Thanks for the lesson.