The main headline/link on the front page of Salon spelled 'manners' wrong. It's currently 'maners'

I sure hope you get paid well to watch this garbage....

Exchanging one stereotype for another is cheap and easy. From someone who kills his assumed enemy in a drive-by, to an executive in a suit who kills older workers by firing them, is not that big a change.

A real change wouldn't be visible to cameras or to snarky show hosts who rag on their contestants. A real change might be someone trying to help their community, looking within themselves to see what they want their lives to be, that sort of thing. But hell, this is a cheap reality show. We don't want anyone thinking at all, especially not the audience.

Would be if the Gs grouped together and did a hit on MTV.

I hate my MTV!

I did not know this.

While I suppose suggesting that "From G's To Gents" derives its concept directly from "Ladettes to Ladies" allows for a more interesting examination of the shows and their attitudes toward gentility, it would seem to me that a crucial step has been missed. Isn't the closer evolutionary cousin to "Gents" not the British show but an American one (conspicuously absent from the article)? "Flavor of Love: Charm School" pitted women who had behvaed badly and then been dumped by Flavor Flav (or vice versa) against one another in a virtually identical show, except that Mo'Nique is a rather more emotional, self-righteous and hilarious host than Bentley.

This genre of alleged self-help interests me at least in part because I believe some of its practitioners truly believe it. Certainly Mo'Nique seemed certain she was MAKING A DIFFERENCE in these girls' lives. And perhaps she was. But it's nevertheless true that we don't watch these shows to see the transformation of bad girls into good girls, we watch to see how petty, conniving and vicious the girls (or boys) are behind the backs of their mentors.

The whole genre exists to give shabby moral cover to what is often a deeply inhumane process. Just as "The Real World" gathers together seven drunk assholes and then sends one of them to rehab to prove that they "care" -- enough to kick them off a show but not enough, apparently, never to bring them in the first place -- so do all of these shows allow us to do what people have loved to do for generations: watch others fight, swear, get drunk, behave like brats, get away with it for a while and then be exposed forever.

Perhaps if the show focused on young men paying their back child support, engaging in the lives of their children, furthering their education and treating women with respect I might be tempted. However, the show seems to be about how to wear a pose instead of changing who you are in meaningful ways. The show should be on How to Be a Real Man, not how to pretend to be a "gentleman."

Is MTV still around? Still promoting sexism and thugs and lowlifes as entertainment? No thanks.

You hit the nail right on the head, this is MTV at its "realest," another TV pose instead.

The producers could start by teaching these young men the difference between a plural and a possessive. That might also serve them well in life.

Honestly, I’m disappointed that Salon perpetuated the error within the commentary, rather than following each reference to the show’s title with “[sic]”.

"And what self-respecting G would aspire to his elusive standards? Instead, the show attempts to instill a cartoon version of refinement in the guys, picking and choosing from a variety of sources -- betting that neither the contestants nor the MTV audience will know the difference."

MTV IS a cartoon for cryin' out loud! And yes, the viewing audience of MTV wouldn't know :refinement if it jumped up and bit them on their asses. However, My Sweet Sixteen series did attempt to show what useless kinds of bullshit money can buy. Is that the same thing? Hmmm. I wonder.

Will Def Lame-ster choke on the wine selection task? Or will Doggy-Poop-Do break down in tears when he can't get that tux tie just right? Oh the suspense is killing me.

I thought this show was fairly hilarious. In the episode I caught, the men were caught up in a debate about who would win were there to be a bear vs. a gorilla. Pretty funny stuff.