August 23, 2011
Italianness in Jersey Shore season 4: E3 (’Twinning’)
In lieu of anything relevant to the topic of Italianness in this episode to write about, here are some links on Guido-ism.
An overview of Time on the term (and the reaction of Italian-Americans), including mention of Donald Tricarico, a sociologist who studies Guidos. Two of his papers are available online, the first of which includes a quote on the topic of family that echoes what has been said about family in the previous episodes/seasons of Jersey Shore:
“A Guido’s family is very important to him, and the same goes for a Guidette. A Guido is always protective of his family members. They always respect and stick up for their mothers and grandmothers, who they call ma and nonna. They usually work for their father and plan to take over the family business if there is one. A Guido always watches over their sisters and never lets a guy go near them. Guidos usually live at home until they get married. [Silvio, 20, 2002]“
-Youth Culture, Ethnic Choice, and the Identity Politics of Guido
-Guido: Fashioning an Italian-American Youth Style
And: a short video made by Lou Rinaldi and Erick Kwiecien titled ‘Italian-American Identity Crisis’:
The makers interview relatives, NYC passers-by, and members of UNICO on the (not very clearly defined or demarcated) topics of Italian-Americanness, heritage, representation and stereotypes. Fear is expressed over stereotyping in the media (for instance, in Jersey Shore) possibly having an effect on the way Italian-Americans behave in real life, as well as heritage fading or somehow being lost. The idea that stereotypes could be said to be either ‘true’ or ‘untrue’ is put forth, and the distinction between Italian-Americans and American-Italians is made (while the term ‘we’ is still applied across both categories).
–Next episode: E4 - ‘Crime and Punishment’–
