Broadcasting Staten IslandFrom The Peopling of New York City
Mommy, What's a "Guido?"A "Guido" is a person, typically though not always of Italian descent, who acts and dresses in a certain way. He is often brash, overly confident and offensive in his behavior. He cares little for the opinions of others and attempts to act tough and thuggish, though he often comes from a rich family. He is narcissistic and spends hours in the gym building the perfect body, only to go tanning after. Often seen wearing muscle shirts, sweatsuits, and oversized jewelry, he can most often be found in the clubs and bars of New York and the Jersey shore. He spends his nights getting drunk and hitting on women. It should be noted a female version of the "Guido" exists, the "Guidette." Much like the "Guido" she is overly tan, almost to the point of being orange, and obsessed with working out. Her body sculpting weapon of choice is the treadmill, which she will run on for hours each day, often in skimpy workout shorts. When she goes out to clubs her face is covered in makeup.
At least that is how the stereotype goes. Clearly offensive to all Italians (and Staten Island is 34.8% Italian American), I find this stereotype quite insulting, not to mention untrue. Real Staten Islanders do not act like this, but I decided to find out why people think they do. What follows is the findings of my research.   Photo courtesy of www.mtv.com What Do People Really Think About Staten Island Youth?Staten Island: "the fake Borough of New York City," "a place where the makeup is thick and the accents thicker," "where Italian people go to die," "the South shore is the Sopranos meets Clueless(the movie)," "the North shore is the ghetto." These are just a few of the definitions given on the popular user content generated urbandictionary.com, and the "nicer" ones at that. In a poll many residents of both Staten Island and New Jersey associated negative terms with Staten Island youth. Among those frequently repeated were "lazy," "selfish'" and the word "Guido" itself. Even the young people of Staten Island reluctantly accepted this stereotype. Those interviewed may have denied fitting the stereotype themselves, but claimed to know many that did. Bad PressClearly many people have negative perceptions of Staten Island. The media is largely to blame. It has portrayed the younger generations as a bunch of idiotic partiers, more concerned about their tans then their future. Programs like MTV's "True Life: I'm a Staten Island Girl" and "Jersey Shore" (Angelina "Jolie" Pivarnick and Vinny Gaudagnino are both S.I. natives) show the guys as heartless players, and the girls as superficial gold diggers. Countless videos have also sprung up on youtube showing off S.I.'s "Guido" culture. True Life: I'm a Staten Island GirlOne of MTV's most popular series, True Life, struck in October of 2006. "True Life: I'm a Staten Island Girl" follows the lives of three "typical" female Island residents and tells their stories. Everybody currently lives at home, with their often wealthy parents, but want to move off the Island to pursue their dreams. Danielle (21) wants to be an actress, but is scarred her heavy Staten Island accent will prevent her from landing serious roles. Lauren (22) considers Staten Island her home, but is desperate to move off the island to seek the diversity she first encountered in college. Thousands of dollars in debt she fears her dream may never become a reality. Angela (25) fears she is getting old and has to find a nice guy to settle down with. Sadly, all the men she attracted to are "typical Staten Island guys," tan, muscle-bound, and unwilling to commit to one girl. The girls seem like nice enough people, but their behavior is often shameful and embarrassing. Each one feels entitled to what they want when they want it, and demand unreasonable goals. Lauren wants to rent an expensive apartment in Manhattan even though she is thousands of dollars in debt, in only one month no less. The other girls are hardly more reasonable. They are so excessively tan that they have an orange glow about them and they often hit the gym to stay in shape. Superficial, each goes shopping often, and sports the newest outfits. As a real Staten Island girl I find this offensive because we are all not so superficial and concerned with outside appearance. Neither do we all "tawk" with an exaggerated New "Yawker" accent. MTV's True Life Jersey ShoreMTV strikes again. In 2009 "Jersey Shore' aired amid much controversy. The reality show follows the social and personal lives of 8 housemates who live and work in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. The members of the cast get to live and party in the shore house in exchange for working shifts in the landlord's t-shirt shop. Controversy arose over the cast's often outlandish behavior. In the opening episode each housemate arrived in all their tan glory. In later episodes they were shown spending their days "picking up" men and women at the beach and partying late into the night. The boys often invited several girls back to the house to go in the hot tub, and one of the girls, "Snooki," would often spend the night with random men. Once she even woke up on the beach with a man she just met the night before. Each is narcissistic to the max. Famous for "GTL" (gym, tan, laundry), each morning they would do just that: hit the gym, go to the local tanning salon, and then prepare their outfit for the night. The men often went to the barber shop, and the girls to get their nails done. Each would spend hours trying to look perfect before they went clubbing. The show became associated with Staten Island because 3 of the 8 housemates were born on or currently live on Staten Island. They includes the famously arrogant Michael 'The Situation" Sorrentino (who is assistant manager of a gym on Staten Island), Angelina "Jolie" Pivarnick (who was kicked out of the shore house on episode 3 for refusing to work), and oddly normal Vinny Guadagnino (who graduated college and intends to study law if acting does not work out).This portrayal may in fact be worse then the first. The girl from Staten Island (Angelina) was kicked off the episode after only 3 episodes for being lazy and melodramatic. "The Situation" was well known for being the most repulsively arrogant and conceited of all the cast members. Even Vinny "stole" the boss' (owner of the shore house) girlfriend. These are most certainly not the kinds of people I feel represent Staten Island well. MTV's Jersey Shore YoutubeThe Guido stereotype is all over the internet. Combined "My New Haircut,""Guido Fan Club," and "True life: I'm a Guido" have over 1,434,642 hits alone. In each video the men are shown sporting gelled or blown out hair, gold chains, and either muscle shirts or pooped collar dress shirts. They curse and use rather vulgar language, often referring to females as b******. A heavy emphasize is placed on being "tan and jacked." Almost all the scenes either show them working out, fist pumping (a form of dance) to a thumping beat, or styling their hair in an attempt to look good for girls. The connections to Italian Americans could not be clearer. Italian flags and logos are all over their clothing. Again because of its large Italian American population Staten Island has become associated with these videos. as both a Staten Islander and Italian American I find these portrayals offensive.
What Can We Do To Change People's Opinions?One Person CAN Make a DifferenceThe first thing those of us who live on Staten Island can do to change people's opinions is to refuse to accept the stereotypes. We must take pride in our home. If we don't take pride in Staten Island, how can we expect others to? The next way way is to talk to people about it. Really get them to question what they believe and why. The next is to get the message out. If negative youtube videos can hurt Staten Island's image, it is logical to believe positive ones can help change people's opinions. Lastly S.I. youth need to get active in their community. If people see them out helping the community they will think more highly of them, and stop associating negative terms with them. I think its also important to make it clear when stereotypes don't tell the whole truth. Just because someone dresses in a way that would be considered stereotypically guido doesn't mean we can assume bad things about them. Many people do dress like the characters on Jersey shore but that doesn't mean they aren't hard working and intelligent. Two SiblingsShortly after MTV's "True Life: I'm a Staten Island Girl" aired Mary Ellen Rozak and her brother Nick Rozak took matters into their own hands. They went around the island and took photographs and videos of important places. They interviewed people and got their opinions, both of the island and how they felt about the negative associations that had become attached to it. Their goal was to answer two question: should Staten Island be saved, and can it be saved? They then posted this content on their website, SaveStatenIsland. The site is now under reconstruction and editing. Another project, PositivelyStatenIsland, will be launched soon. Sources
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