By Alex Korhley-Day
The little blonde bundle of joy that the world has come to know as “Honey Boo Boo” is no longer your average 8-year-old living the small-town life in McIntyre, Ga.
Rather, Alana Thompson has become a face that a majority of the nation has either heard about or watched on television.
What started as a small reality show on TLC following the lives of a family in a rural town turned into an overnight sensation of laughter, hysterics of their family dynamics , but also some concern.
While the show is a huge hit in living rooms across the nation, it is also becoming known outside of the average American household and slowly transitioning into a depiction of how “Americans” live.
When the show first aired in October 2012, Alana was out to prove she was more than just a pageant princess to the world. Unfortunately, now the basis of the show is anything but that.
Since the show features the story of a family, highlighting Alana, we are able to see the way the Thompsons live out their lives everyday.
June Thompson, also known as “Mama June,” is a severely overweight 32-year-old who is a mother to five girls and does not work. Mike Thompson, father to Alana and husband of June, known as “Sugar Bear,” supports the family financially.
While Mike is out at work seven days a week, June is home with her daughters, including her first grandchild to her eldest 15-year-old daughter, Jessica.
The hysterics that surround their daily life keep audiences coming back for new episodes, but it also is leaving many questioning the way the Thompsons live.
The Thompsons live what most would deem an unconventional lifestyle, where most of life is simply a joke to them. This gives a false impression of what the American life is really like.
Throughout the show, it alludes to many different situations that one may face in life, although highlighting them when perhaps that should not be the case.
From June and Mike making sexual references toward one another to the eldest daughter who had yet to make it to her sweet sixteen without being pregnant, the Thompson’s do not leave the audience with anything to imagine.
All the children are considerably overweight, the family has a lack of respect for boundaries and they have no issue with the idea of just settling rather than striving for their dreams.
Since this is not your average family and it is on TV, it can be quite entertaining, although we do not often think about the consequences.
Instead of seeing a working family fighting for that American dream, we are showcasing a family that we love to laugh about when they make jokes about teenage pregnancies or bodily functions.
As Americans, we depict the American dream as something attainable yet something that we have to work for in this day in age.
From the reality of the show, we are showing that they we can achieve it with little to no work which is not the case for most people.
With this show, we are saying that this is the depiction of American life when others are struggling to make their dreams happen working day in and day out to achieve it.
