Guilty of Poor Judgment
My wife and daughter normally enjoy watching the show “Dancing With the Stars.” That was until my wife and I saw the first episode this season. Dancing With the Stars has been taken off the air in our home.
The reason for this decision is because of the poor role model the show chose to have as a celebrity half of a dancing duo. Kimberly Jones, aka Lil’ Kim, in her first dance chose to dedicate her dance to all of her “girls” at the Federal Detention Center. She made another positive sounding comment after the dance.
For background for those who don’t know her (and I didn’t until I looked into it) Jones served a sentence of 366 days in a Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia after being convicted of perjury. Jones had falsely testified in a case before a grand jury about a 2001 shootout outside a New York City radio station.
Okay, so she served her sentence and paid her debt to society. Fine. But where the rub comes in is in her glamorizing her ex-felon status on the nationally televised show with her ’shout out’ to all her former prison mates. This is certainly not an aspect of a good role model.
Parents want positive role models for their children to look up to and take pride in. While it is true that many role models have skeletons in their closets they aren’t giving those skeletons flesh by glamorizing them. No one is perfect, but then one shouldn’t want to have their children look up to someone’s imperfections either.
Kimberly “Lil’ Kim” Jones exhibited poor taste and a lack of common sense about all the other “girls” who would be watching the television show. The impression she should have been giving to those girls was much more important than bringing other criminals into the limelight with her dedication. Makes you wonder what Lil’ Kim really stands for?
So this season of Dancing With the Stars ended up under the ‘lack of good judgment’ spotlight. In this household – show cancelled.
2 Responses to “Guilty of Poor Judgment”
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This is very well-written. She did serve her time and I do agree that after serving their sentence people have a right to move on, but this was not helpful. If she cares about the women, then help them, and speak out about the cause. That wasn’t an attempt to bring awareness to an issue, that was a way of showing her solidarity with them. This is not exactly the same thing, is it? We don’t need any more poor role models for the kids. I am tiring of the glamorization of thug culture, and this is a good example of it.
NG Lynd - March 26, 2009 at 7:52 am
Well said NG! Thank you.
chiefopiner - March 26, 2009 at 8:16 am