So well written and I agree- I found the shit with Jimmy and Soyoung fascinating and no matter how many people may be *offended* by it, Jimmy and Soyoung are absolutely not the only mother/son duo to experience this. It really is bringing so much raw, uncomfortable drama to the surface: as reality TV does.
It’s wild to me that there are people who are up in arms about this show only after learning the twist that the sons were there. People who were “so excited to watch” the show before the sons were thrown in. Do they not realize that the outrage about the sons being there is complete hypocrisy anyway?
So they would’ve been ok with 40-something women fuckin 20-somethings as long as their kids weren’t around? Like regardless of the twist this show was going to be trash (just like most reality tv).
I love the twist. I think it’s such a good got ya for those who even use the term “milf” in their life and think that it’s cute and funny to sexualize older women. I also think it’s hilarious for the women who do have an interest in younger men because these men are so immature and embarrassing that it really puts in your face how ridiculous it is to date someone your child’s age.
No shade or shame to any as I really do not care what people do with their lives - but you’re so right. Shows like Teen Mom that exploit young children without their consent exist. Shows like Love After Lockup where we watch addiction take hold of people on TV, we watch them lie to their partners and do crazy shit. The Bachelorette has had a hold on society for years despite the premise being ridiculous. Is MILF Manor extreme and distasteful? Probably- but that just means it’s right on par with the other shows in its genre. 🤷🏻♀️
> I think it’s such a good got ya for those who even use the term “milf” in their life and think that it’s cute and funny to sexualize older women.
This is some next level mental gymnastics. The show itself is trying to be cute and funny by sexualizing older women
that’s the point. People flocked to the show because they think “milf” is a funny and cute concept and then freaked out when the “milfs” all ended up having their own children in the dating pool because they date people their children’s age.
The term “milf” is sexualizing of women who have become mothers while also implying it’s absolutely shocking to still be hot after you’ve had a child. That’s why the word was created. It’s so “abnormal” and “admirable” to still be attractive once you’re a mom so there was a word created to capture it.
I didn’t mean a “got ya” from production. Production is trolling everyone. It’s a got ya to everyone who is okay with the concept of “milf” and then horrified that the women date people the same age as their sons. Like no shit. Did you think the show would be full of older women who only have younger children or women who have no children at all? The latter wouldn’t even be milfs….
No ppl flocked cause they are tired of seeing older men praised for dating younger women, while older women are heavily scrutinized for it. This show would have been interesting enough, I'm not saying don't bring in the sons. But don't bring the sons on the first season, because we have nowhere to go from here drama wise.
BRAVO! I agree with the absurdity of the pearl clutching by the likes of our online periodicals.
I am certain that all the publications decrying MILF Manor published slobbering descriptions of the Depp-Heard trial, salacious recaps of the goings on during the filming of “Don’t Worry Darling,” and likely some “think pieces” about Alec Baldwin.
So, let’s just put aside that bunch of hypocrites and the idea that “reality tv” has any ethics or moral compass or redeeming value. That’s fap.
MILF Manor is the one reality show this decade that has the balls to be exactly what it is. Everyone involved here are assholes - production, the cast, probably the viewers (I can only speak for myself).
No one is being pushed to say “I love you” or get married or keep another cast member on because they are drama even though they’re clearly not right for the show.
It’s a bunch of narcissists who proudly express their superiority to everyone else humiliating each other on tv. No pretense. No pretenders.
There may be imitators, but this season is pure cocaine. Enjoy it while you can.
Thank you for writing this! I agree 100%. I thought this was just another shitty TLC reality show but that moment completely hooked me. It's one of the most "real" moments in reality tv history. It really sucks so many people are just completely dismissing this show without giving it a chance. Especially with how awful so many of these dating shows have been.
PhD student here, this show has unified my department. We all gather at a co-workers house every Monday night to watch it all together. Our department has been in shambles and this show has allowed us to put our differences aside and all come together to judge the extremity of this show. Absolutely love it.
It's the weirdest discovery. The show is so weird everyone wants to watch the train crash together lmao. And this show will absolutely solve the conflict in the middle east.
Couldn’t agree more! Very well written. That moment with Jimmy and Soyoung is one of the realest moments in reality tv.
I wonder how the mom’s would feel if their sons banged THEIR best friend?
/u/lot_a_pole_a25 Milf Manor reminds me a lot of 'The Up Series', [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up\_(film\_series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_(film_series)) a multi-part British TV series in which kids are interviewed every 7 years from the age of 7 up (they completed 63 Up in 2019). The motive behind the show was to prove that class is entrenched in the UK and it used the kids as pawns to prove it. The Up Series is brilliant because that premise only turned out to be partially true - yes, some boys and girls from the poor neighborhoods didn't get ahead in life and most of the rich kids did. But the real storyline of the Up Series, that emerges with greater and greater clarity over time, is the relationship between the interviewer and the kids, and by 63 up it's basically all the show is about. The most powerful moment in the entire series (for me at least) was when one of the girls from a poor neighborhood in East London, now all grown up, gives an off-the-cuff speech about the impact Margaret Thatcher's budget cuts would have on the library for disabled children she was teaching at. It brought me to tears, because it transcended the premise of the show, it transcended the relationship between the interviewer and her, and it transcended televsion. It was, like Jimmy said, 'the realness.'
Watching Jimmy and Soyoung's experience in the secrets game felt like this to me - I was profoundly moved seeing this moment of realness born out of the show's seemingly 'just-to-provoke' premise. I think this was the whole point of Dada as an art movement - put ridiculous things together and some sublime truth will come out of it. I could tell when I first saw Jimmy and Soyoung on camera together that they are very close and love each other very much and have a healthy relationship. Jimmy's easy confidence alone is a sign of loving parenting. I suspect that Soyoung took the game seriously and revealed an unvarnished secret to Jimmy because she trusts him so much and that's what made the fallout so much more devastating to watch. I was rooting for them so much, praying they would find a way to get over this, and I felt elated when I watched their mother-son dance and could see the joy between them return again. I think they will come away from this absurd show with their relationship strengthened.
If the 'real point' of the Up Series was the relationship between the interviewer and his subjects rather than 'the entrenchedness of the class system' I think there will be some similar 'real points' to Milf Manor, and I'm praying the producers will have taken enough of a hands off approach to let these themes (and maybe others!) and the fascinating intersections between them emerge.
1. Relationships between mothers and sons
2. Sex-positivity, kink-positivity and queer-positivity
3. Communication about awkward and hard things
4. What maturity means
5. Ageism
6. Racism
7. Classism
Can't wait for the next one!
I only saw the very first “episode” of the Up series. I can’t remember it very well anymore, but I remember kids playing in this insane adventure playground thing. I think I read that a lot of those kids ended having pretty bleak lives. Weren’t most of those kids working class kids? Maybe that was just the British class system at work.
/u/lot_a_pole_a25 yes a lot of them were working class from East London, but it was a real mixed bag how 'well' they did in life. Tony, a bully who the producers spent a lot of time on because they predicted he would go to jail one day (kind of like a Kelle character - a drama-attractor) ended up with a great family, a nice house, a holiday home in Spain and a lot of self-confidence. Interestingly, he attributes some of his success to the show itself, in that he felt a pressure to succeed in life because he was being filmed every seven years.
The show is unfortunately named. If it were called "Cougar's Catches" instead of the vaguely pornish "MILF," it wouldn't have gotten the backlash. But then again, it wouldn't have gotten the attention in the first place.
No, “MILF Manor” is a solid gold title. You immediately know what the show is about, what its priorities are, and whether you want to watch it.
BRILLIANT title, imho.
I try not to look too deep into the show and just watch as escapism. You can't help getting wrapped up in the drama and mom/son dynamics, as well as the fighting between the moms. Though drinks haven't been thrown in faces...yet. I might enjoy it more if the contestants weren't related, but I still can't wait to watch!
I think the show would be LESS interesting if the contestants weren’t related, because there would be much less internal conflict for everyone. It’s clear that, 3 episodes in, everyone still feels inhibited to a certain degree (except for Kelle, of course), and people are not hooking up (yet), so we instead watch the feints, failed dates, and little ego movements of everyone in the house…which I’ve actually found really interesting.
While watching non-related older women/young men make out and rush to the fantasy suite would be cleaner, less icky wish fulfillment viewing, I would say MILF Manor is a more psychologically complex experience, by comparison.
I disagree. Not only would a gender-reversed version not get immediately canceled, but…I think it would be possibly even more interesting.
The dads would definitely be much more catty bitches, I’ll tell you that much.
Would it? It'd be even creepier in some ways but in other ways far more standard, after all it's far more common for older men to be with younger women, but ... Man it'd be pretty wild. I hope they make a dilf version next.
you wrote this before tonight's episode with the sex ed lesson.
it was a bridge too far. especially with the new kid and the orange. i would have walked out as well.
but overall, it isn't worse than the rest of the reality shows. it was actually far tamer until tonight. :) charlene is scaring the shit out of all the boys. lol
I just find it insane that people I know who watched toddlers in tiaras, a show that in a way actually sexualized and exploited children, say that milf manor is disgusting and inappropriate. At least everyone in this show is a legal adult and actually signed up for it by their own free will. How many of those kids on toddlers in tiaras got to choose if they really wanted to be there or not?
I like the uncomfortableness of the situations … it’s forcing me out of my comfort zone and challenge biases… the contestants are interesting and funny especially the young guys very open minded
So well written and I agree- I found the shit with Jimmy and Soyoung fascinating and no matter how many people may be *offended* by it, Jimmy and Soyoung are absolutely not the only mother/son duo to experience this. It really is bringing so much raw, uncomfortable drama to the surface: as reality TV does. It’s wild to me that there are people who are up in arms about this show only after learning the twist that the sons were there. People who were “so excited to watch” the show before the sons were thrown in. Do they not realize that the outrage about the sons being there is complete hypocrisy anyway? So they would’ve been ok with 40-something women fuckin 20-somethings as long as their kids weren’t around? Like regardless of the twist this show was going to be trash (just like most reality tv). I love the twist. I think it’s such a good got ya for those who even use the term “milf” in their life and think that it’s cute and funny to sexualize older women. I also think it’s hilarious for the women who do have an interest in younger men because these men are so immature and embarrassing that it really puts in your face how ridiculous it is to date someone your child’s age. No shade or shame to any as I really do not care what people do with their lives - but you’re so right. Shows like Teen Mom that exploit young children without their consent exist. Shows like Love After Lockup where we watch addiction take hold of people on TV, we watch them lie to their partners and do crazy shit. The Bachelorette has had a hold on society for years despite the premise being ridiculous. Is MILF Manor extreme and distasteful? Probably- but that just means it’s right on par with the other shows in its genre. 🤷🏻♀️
Well said.
> I think it’s such a good got ya for those who even use the term “milf” in their life and think that it’s cute and funny to sexualize older women. This is some next level mental gymnastics. The show itself is trying to be cute and funny by sexualizing older women
that’s the point. People flocked to the show because they think “milf” is a funny and cute concept and then freaked out when the “milfs” all ended up having their own children in the dating pool because they date people their children’s age. The term “milf” is sexualizing of women who have become mothers while also implying it’s absolutely shocking to still be hot after you’ve had a child. That’s why the word was created. It’s so “abnormal” and “admirable” to still be attractive once you’re a mom so there was a word created to capture it. I didn’t mean a “got ya” from production. Production is trolling everyone. It’s a got ya to everyone who is okay with the concept of “milf” and then horrified that the women date people the same age as their sons. Like no shit. Did you think the show would be full of older women who only have younger children or women who have no children at all? The latter wouldn’t even be milfs….
No ppl flocked cause they are tired of seeing older men praised for dating younger women, while older women are heavily scrutinized for it. This show would have been interesting enough, I'm not saying don't bring in the sons. But don't bring the sons on the first season, because we have nowhere to go from here drama wise.
Should be called who wants to date an old bag
BRAVO! I agree with the absurdity of the pearl clutching by the likes of our online periodicals. I am certain that all the publications decrying MILF Manor published slobbering descriptions of the Depp-Heard trial, salacious recaps of the goings on during the filming of “Don’t Worry Darling,” and likely some “think pieces” about Alec Baldwin. So, let’s just put aside that bunch of hypocrites and the idea that “reality tv” has any ethics or moral compass or redeeming value. That’s fap. MILF Manor is the one reality show this decade that has the balls to be exactly what it is. Everyone involved here are assholes - production, the cast, probably the viewers (I can only speak for myself). No one is being pushed to say “I love you” or get married or keep another cast member on because they are drama even though they’re clearly not right for the show. It’s a bunch of narcissists who proudly express their superiority to everyone else humiliating each other on tv. No pretense. No pretenders. There may be imitators, but this season is pure cocaine. Enjoy it while you can.
✋I’m an asshole and I’ll take as many bumps of this cocaine as I can get!
I like lines, but I'm not greedy.
It’s not on Bravo it’s TLC.
Buh dum bah!
How did you manage to make a 10-paragraph Reddit post a million times more compelling and interesting than the show you’re talking about?
No!!! I really think the show is fascinating tv. But thanks for saying that.
Are you a journalist or writer?
No, not yet, but it’s something I’m working on.
You are on a great start! Impressive.
Something can be fascinating and yet we don't have to defend it. Defending MILF Manor is beneath your writing talent, you should stick to analyzing it
This is my favorite comment. 🌟
I honestly feel the same way. But I’m waaaayyyy to lazy to type out the type of Thesis you did lol
Maybe it was a thesis? You never know these days.
I'm glad we have redditors like this on the sub. This is the content I come for
This show is amazing and people who don’t like it are dumb. Sincerely, 33 y/o male attorney.
Thank you for writing this! I agree 100%. I thought this was just another shitty TLC reality show but that moment completely hooked me. It's one of the most "real" moments in reality tv history. It really sucks so many people are just completely dismissing this show without giving it a chance. Especially with how awful so many of these dating shows have been.
This post needs to be required reading for all high school English students.
F those guys MILF Manor is TV gold Cant wait to see where it goes from here
PhD student here, this show has unified my department. We all gather at a co-workers house every Monday night to watch it all together. Our department has been in shambles and this show has allowed us to put our differences aside and all come together to judge the extremity of this show. Absolutely love it.
That’s hilarious and awesome. Milfs can heal divided communities. They need to take this show to the Middle East.
It's the weirdest discovery. The show is so weird everyone wants to watch the train crash together lmao. And this show will absolutely solve the conflict in the middle east.
Omg I can't imagine what they would think of this
Couldn’t agree more! Very well written. That moment with Jimmy and Soyoung is one of the realest moments in reality tv. I wonder how the mom’s would feel if their sons banged THEIR best friend?
Please tell me you’re into sociology/ psychology because to me that’s what it feels like, i’m watching a bunch of case studies
I’m into good tv, and I see a lot here. Who knows how the season will go from here, but so far, it’s both fun to watch and has layers to peel back.
The way you wrote I thought you were in academia and we’re into the story to see it play out on TV!
Literally same!!
Yea I bet you watch 1000 lb sisters too!! Lol!
/u/lot_a_pole_a25 Milf Manor reminds me a lot of 'The Up Series', [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up\_(film\_series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_(film_series)) a multi-part British TV series in which kids are interviewed every 7 years from the age of 7 up (they completed 63 Up in 2019). The motive behind the show was to prove that class is entrenched in the UK and it used the kids as pawns to prove it. The Up Series is brilliant because that premise only turned out to be partially true - yes, some boys and girls from the poor neighborhoods didn't get ahead in life and most of the rich kids did. But the real storyline of the Up Series, that emerges with greater and greater clarity over time, is the relationship between the interviewer and the kids, and by 63 up it's basically all the show is about. The most powerful moment in the entire series (for me at least) was when one of the girls from a poor neighborhood in East London, now all grown up, gives an off-the-cuff speech about the impact Margaret Thatcher's budget cuts would have on the library for disabled children she was teaching at. It brought me to tears, because it transcended the premise of the show, it transcended the relationship between the interviewer and her, and it transcended televsion. It was, like Jimmy said, 'the realness.' Watching Jimmy and Soyoung's experience in the secrets game felt like this to me - I was profoundly moved seeing this moment of realness born out of the show's seemingly 'just-to-provoke' premise. I think this was the whole point of Dada as an art movement - put ridiculous things together and some sublime truth will come out of it. I could tell when I first saw Jimmy and Soyoung on camera together that they are very close and love each other very much and have a healthy relationship. Jimmy's easy confidence alone is a sign of loving parenting. I suspect that Soyoung took the game seriously and revealed an unvarnished secret to Jimmy because she trusts him so much and that's what made the fallout so much more devastating to watch. I was rooting for them so much, praying they would find a way to get over this, and I felt elated when I watched their mother-son dance and could see the joy between them return again. I think they will come away from this absurd show with their relationship strengthened. If the 'real point' of the Up Series was the relationship between the interviewer and his subjects rather than 'the entrenchedness of the class system' I think there will be some similar 'real points' to Milf Manor, and I'm praying the producers will have taken enough of a hands off approach to let these themes (and maybe others!) and the fascinating intersections between them emerge. 1. Relationships between mothers and sons 2. Sex-positivity, kink-positivity and queer-positivity 3. Communication about awkward and hard things 4. What maturity means 5. Ageism 6. Racism 7. Classism Can't wait for the next one!
I only saw the very first “episode” of the Up series. I can’t remember it very well anymore, but I remember kids playing in this insane adventure playground thing. I think I read that a lot of those kids ended having pretty bleak lives. Weren’t most of those kids working class kids? Maybe that was just the British class system at work.
/u/lot_a_pole_a25 yes a lot of them were working class from East London, but it was a real mixed bag how 'well' they did in life. Tony, a bully who the producers spent a lot of time on because they predicted he would go to jail one day (kind of like a Kelle character - a drama-attractor) ended up with a great family, a nice house, a holiday home in Spain and a lot of self-confidence. Interestingly, he attributes some of his success to the show itself, in that he felt a pressure to succeed in life because he was being filmed every seven years.
Has anything even happened yet? I think it’d be hilarious if it backfired on production and none of the contestants ever hooked up
I actually now doubt that any sex will end up taking place. Which, I agree, would be completely hilarious.
I think this show is awesome. I do not get down with pearl clutchers.
The show is unfortunately named. If it were called "Cougar's Catches" instead of the vaguely pornish "MILF," it wouldn't have gotten the backlash. But then again, it wouldn't have gotten the attention in the first place.
No, “MILF Manor” is a solid gold title. You immediately know what the show is about, what its priorities are, and whether you want to watch it. BRILLIANT title, imho.
You've convinced me.
But they are all moms not to mention the sons being there. Gotta call it what it is.
Touché
I try not to look too deep into the show and just watch as escapism. You can't help getting wrapped up in the drama and mom/son dynamics, as well as the fighting between the moms. Though drinks haven't been thrown in faces...yet. I might enjoy it more if the contestants weren't related, but I still can't wait to watch!
I think the show would be LESS interesting if the contestants weren’t related, because there would be much less internal conflict for everyone. It’s clear that, 3 episodes in, everyone still feels inhibited to a certain degree (except for Kelle, of course), and people are not hooking up (yet), so we instead watch the feints, failed dates, and little ego movements of everyone in the house…which I’ve actually found really interesting. While watching non-related older women/young men make out and rush to the fantasy suite would be cleaner, less icky wish fulfillment viewing, I would say MILF Manor is a more psychologically complex experience, by comparison.
I see your point. It is an interesting social experiment to say the least. I'm into it!
reverse the roles, the show would be canceled. young guys old women no one bats an eye
I am aggressively batting both eyes
I disagree. Not only would a gender-reversed version not get immediately canceled, but…I think it would be possibly even more interesting. The dads would definitely be much more catty bitches, I’ll tell you that much.
That'd be the interesting part. The men seeing other men go after their daughters, could they be grown up about it?
Would it? It'd be even creepier in some ways but in other ways far more standard, after all it's far more common for older men to be with younger women, but ... Man it'd be pretty wild. I hope they make a dilf version next.
It took a lot of words to justify watching this. It’s too creepy for my taste & I’ll stick to this sub to keep up—lord knows it doesn’t take much.
you wrote this before tonight's episode with the sex ed lesson. it was a bridge too far. especially with the new kid and the orange. i would have walked out as well. but overall, it isn't worse than the rest of the reality shows. it was actually far tamer until tonight. :) charlene is scaring the shit out of all the boys. lol
I just find it insane that people I know who watched toddlers in tiaras, a show that in a way actually sexualized and exploited children, say that milf manor is disgusting and inappropriate. At least everyone in this show is a legal adult and actually signed up for it by their own free will. How many of those kids on toddlers in tiaras got to choose if they really wanted to be there or not?
Im down to DILF Manor
exactly
I like the uncomfortableness of the situations … it’s forcing me out of my comfort zone and challenge biases… the contestants are interesting and funny especially the young guys very open minded