ReadMeLattice

True, I have to admit I have a bit of a soft spot for somebody that's not just going to be like "oh noooo please love meeeeee" like Amber or Mindy or princess-bratty like Katie (this season's Katie). I think both Mindy and Meka should get do-overs. Zach was dishonest in promising to do the experiment, as he never fulfilled his end of the bargain. And Michael lied from day 1.

That was a weird thing to focus on, yeah. The thing I was thinking is that maybe she was trying to say she felt taken advantage of? like not only did he lie, but he let her mess up her evening for a lie as well. I don't know the hours she works, but some people barely have an evening free to begin with, so maybe she felt like "oh, so I not only had to be lied to yet again, but I also screwed up my rare full night off," or something. It also sounded to me like it was a long drive, so maybe that's part of it. Like, maybe she was sitting in the car for an hour and he fully knew that whole hour that she was not going to be able to take that damn class.

This is a really good point. I think it's Dr. Phil who calls this "outrageous overshadowing..." Some people have dramatic/more aggressive personalities or tend to get overly emotional, yell, scream, cry, etc. Since Meka is like that (she might not be like that all or even most of the time, but it's clear she's at least somewhat of a person whose buttons can be pushed, as you said), it's easier to find fault with her than with the person sitting across from her who appears to be acting 'calm' and 'rational' in response. But her emotional reactions overshadow the much, much creepier and more sinister thing going on here. It makes no sense to lie to people you don't even know this much. To sign up for a show and tell bald-faced lies to the production crew, directors, etc. To lie about a class but STILL HAVE SOMEONE DRIVE TO THE CLASS KNOWING THEY CAN'T ACTUALLY TAKE IT (that part blows my mind; it's not just sly, it's bold and narcissistic- you expect to somehow not get caught so much that you don't even tell them not to come or make up an excuse?). To LEGALLY marry someone, move in with them, expect sex and share a household, but still not have them actually know where you work or what you do. Not to mention, that in arguments that are about your bald-faced lies, you feel completely guiltless turning it around on the other person and making it about them telling their friend. Or their tone. Or the snarky way they called you out on your lying. The absolute unrepentant *nerve* it would take to have someone drive out to a place you don't work and said you did to take a class that you never paid for, but then tell them THEY messed up the marriage by saying "It was a waste of my time?" Like...wow. That's a lot of ego. Yes, Meka comes across as annoying on the show- although I'll add that she hasn't come across that way with her family and friends, castmates, or the experts in counseling sessions at all, at least not to me. She was kind, practical, and measured with Taylor even when Taylor was acting a fool, and seemed warm and friendly with her loved ones at the wedding. But like, even if she WAS the most annoying person on the planet and the shrillest harpy since Kiss Me Kate, he lied to her about his job! and his car! and his fucking HOBBY. Like, dude, what is he trying to pull? That's some scary stuff imo. Worse than Meka's anger, Brandon's ranting, and Taylor's immature videos combined. That kind of consistent commitment to lying just scares me at a deep level. And I gotta say, if someone was trying to scam me like this I don't know that I'd come across much better, especially knowing how different he was when the cameras weren't on. I think I'd say a lot worse than "It was a waste of my time."

The thing is, he lied to the experts about his job, didn't he? So he didn't just lie to her. I do find her off-putting, but that's what makes me take pause. That, and the fact that no matter how annoying or aggressive somebody is, telling someone to drive out for plans you never actually made at a place you don't actually work is creepy and bizarre as hell by any standard.

I am very surprised they don't have her in therapy. It's really weird that they don't. I would think that would be #1 on their list. She clearly has serious, ongoing mental health issues. I can't imagine if mine had 1) been filmed for a national audience, and 2) I, meanwhile, wasn't getting ANY treatment for them whatsoever. If you're not going to push her to treatment, then at least don't film her; if you're going to film her, at least push her to go to treatment. The binge eating disorder in particular needs serious clinical attention. Eating disorders are some of the most deadly mental illnesses, and having one puts you at a huge risk of developing another alongside it or in place of it, like bulimia.

I mean, Meka is a bit much the way we see her, but holy SHIT I would be pissed too. He is scary, to be able to still pretend to be the good guy while lying about everything both big and small. That's the kind of guy who could have two secret families and somehow still think he was the victim when both wives found out. As much as she comes across as aggressive, I'm willing to give her a pass...she is stuck with a very, very creepy liar, so I really don't know how she acts otherwise. For example, she seemed fine in that conversation with Taylor. Like...what do we expect, really? That she acts sweet and kind with a stranger who lies to her on the daily but still expects sex from her? Lying about something as random as being a yoga teacher on the side is almost WORSE than if you lied about something big in your past. It means he just enjoys/gets off on lying.

They are called "divas" and they are actually quite common in drag. I had two close friends in the LGBT community in California who both traveled around doing performances as "divas." Both were cisgender women. It's basically a very exaggerated form of drag in which the woman takes on a hyperfeminine persona, sometimes an impersonation of Barbra Streisand or another icon and sometimes their own invented persona. It's similar to burlesque/vaudeville. Edit to add: Sometimes they're called 'faux queens.' They have a long history. Here's more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faux_queen

Maybe she's 'reenacting' real ones for the camera some of the time, I don't know- and not defending the way her family deals with it, because I don't think it's very responsible all the time. But I have to say, as someone with OCD and an anxiety disorder, my panic attacks manifest in the way Jazz's seem to. The sudden onset, the overwhelming need to 'escape.' It's actually hard for me to watch the show because I feel like I can see her skin pulsing and crawling through the screen. Yes, I've hidden in bathrooms and stolen away to closets because of something as minuscule as a mild disagreement or a 2-minute speech I had to give to 8 other people in a class. That's mostly subsided now, but it was REALLY bad when I was 15-23. I don't think the life Jeanette seems to have at least partly pushed on her matches up well with that. But I do very much understand it. I've been so scared of an exam three weeks in advance that I considered dropping out of school, or so nervous about singing at church a month beforehand that I was miserable for the full month. That's partly why I think it's so messed up that at least her mom is somewhat of a fame whore.

I agree that I don't think Mariah is as justice-oriented or as sincere as she claims, but she certainly seems to have slimmed down to me. Janelle doesn't look any smaller at all to me, she looks bigger than before. Mariah was quite large at one time, now she looks a much more normal level of plus-size. She should still lose some weight IMO since she's so young and needs to get healthy early on, and she might exaggerate how "into wellness" she is, but she looks like she's lost at least 20-25 pounds to me and toned up a bit. Is she a fitness guru, no, but I've never really understood criticizing people with large followings from making money off of Instagram- if someone was willing to throw money at me to promote products just because my parents were TV polygamists and I sometimes did yoga and went to school, hell YEAH I'd post photos of my brunch and coffee and butt or whatever eight times a day. Maybe it's because I'm a millennial, but I don't think that's narcissistic as much as it'd just be financially foolish not to leverage that possibility when you have student debt and a wedding coming up and an apartment in Chicago to pay for. Someone with a following that big makes $400-500 per promotion post. And she just posted recently that she teaches yoga every Sunday morning at a local studio (and named it). The whole "run to Bali and learn to do yoga" thing is pretty cliche, but she does appear to actually do it.

I do have to say it's good that Mariah is paying attention to her health somewhat. Almost everyone in her family struggles with their weight, and it's good that she appears to at least be thinking about what she eats and taking the initiative to get into something like yoga. She might not have a perfect body and she might not be incredibly brilliant or something, but she's trying to be healthier and get an education, as is Logan.

Yeah, even as a 24-year-old TA (just like 5 years ago), I wanted to grade the students more harshly in my academic writing courses. The professors, across the board, did as well. The administration literally didn't allow it. It's incredibly frustrating. Things I thought deserved Cs got Bs. Bs got As. A fail turned into a C-, a D, or a request to repeat the course. You get it. Part of it is just the tuition; when you're paying $50-70,000 a year for something, yeah, it's really hard to justify failing somebody and putting them into debt. They basically become customers rather than students, and it's hard to argue that they shouldn't be when they're coughing up that much money. Of course, that also meant that, as instructors, we felt more like waiters or customer service associates than actual teachers. The whole thing has gotten very ridiculous. I have to say that, because PhD programs don't generally cost anything (the students are still funded by most universities), and you actually get paid to do them, they choose the students more carefully. I didn't experience any of that in my PhD (plus, grades don't really matter there, just your actual work), but I noticed it in my first master's program. Far less rigorous, and it all really felt like just a means of getting our money. Social work master's programs like Mariah's are notorious for this. Not bashing social work students at all- just saying that people who really shouldn't get in sometimes do because they want that cash, and the teachers and other students suffer for it.

I would feel so offended if I was Brandon or Teresa...this is inappropriate beyond belief. I also blame MTV somewhat though. Without the show, they would likely have gotten over it a little more by now.

I don't know how I feel about this, honestly. She absolutely did it and he has a right to be enraged, horrified, and angry. But part of me thinks he wants more of a payout than he's getting? Idk. Maybe that's not a bad thing, maybe I'd want something out of all that hell for my kid and my comfort too. But like others said, he didn't speak up against the abuse of other kids... https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/tv/teen-mom-og-amber-portwoods-ex-andrew-glennon-speaks-out-against-mtv.html/

Antivaxxers have always struck me as arrogant and Kailyn is a perfect match.

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/teen-mom-2-jenelle-evans-baby-daddy-nathan-griffith-arrested-again.html/ He was apparently found unconscious in the car AT 6 PM. Jesus.

I think this is ridiculous too. Farrah's a bitch and has her own issues, but porn is completely legal and plenty of people do stripping/nude modeling/porn of some kind, especially in California. It actually might have been a slightly more realistic thing on the show because lots of single moms actually DO strip because it's a flexible job, not a 9 to 5. All of these podcasts and makeup lines and diet teas are not how the average single teen mom makes their money. Jenelle was worse IMO, but it's iffy as to whether or not killing your own dog is even illegal, especially if they did nip/bite (not justifying it by any means, mind you, just saying what the law would likely say). It's disgusting and David is 100% an abuser, but she is right in that all that was cleared by the courts. And David wasn't even fired for the dog issue, he was fired for tweets. The tweets were disgusting and bigoted, but they were still TWEETS. Amber, meanwhile, is a violent felon who has now committed MORE VIOLENT FELONIES against not only her partner (the third one she's had on the show and the third one we've literally witnessed her abusing) but also an infant. My take- Jenelle and Farrah made it difficult for MTV to film. Farrah's snotty attitude and David's interference with filming were why they were fired. Amber is so drugged up, lazy and manipulative that she's complacent and passive with the producers when they show up. She doesn't make it hard to film. MTV never cared about the violence, the bigotry or the porn. They only cared that Jenelle and Farrah made their jobs harder. Amber could probably kill somebody (and I honestly wouldn't put it past her- I think her problems go way beyond BPD and bipolar disorder and veer right into psychopath territory, if you ask me) and as long as she was willing to film from jel they'd still be up her butt. In no way am I defending Jenelle or Farrah by any means. But what Amber has done to multiple people and children ON CAMERA is far worse than what Farrah did (no matter how bitchy and awful she is to work with or be around) and at least somewhat worse than what Jenelle has done, especially since Jenelle has stayed out of trouble for a hot minute. If the two of them needed to be fired, and they probably did, there is absolutely no standard of behavior that suggests Amber shouldn't be as well. It just shows that MTV doesn't actually care about any kind of abuse. They only care about their convenience.

Javi has always seemed kind of off to me. He's a ho and super emotionally immature. Not surprised his bad side is coming out offscreen.

Nathan was all over social media defending the party to random strangers. Like...you are literally trying to defend your kid from a monster who beat a dog to death in front of him. Why are you worried about social media clout?! I like social media myself, but you can bet that if I was having freaking LEGAL TROUBLE regarding my KIDS and worried they were being horrifically abused, I wouldn't say a f*cking word about it to strangers or post public pics!

Also, Nathan is an idiot for having them come to the party. Maybe he was trying to do what was best for Kaiser by having his mom there at least, but if he truly believed David was so abusive and switched him regularly, didn't feed him properly, etc. (all of which I believe is true), I'm not sure why he would have him over at all or allow his son to be in his presence. Nathan is either woefully immature and naive or wanted social media attention himself. That, or he doesn't take abuse as seriously as he claims (which seems plausible given his own history of abuse). If I believed someone was beating my kids with a switch, I wouldn't smile and laugh with them at any goddamn birthday party, even if I thought it would be "nice" to do. He doesn't have any custody of his other child for a reason. Every adult in these children's lives has failed them, except maybe Barb.

I feel most terrified for Maryssa at this point. Imagine being brave enough as an abused 11-year-old girl, whose own mother doesn't have any custody of her because of her own problems, whose stepmother is abusive and cruel, and whose father likely abuses her and subjects her to constant domestic violence against her stepmother and half-/step-siblings. Imagine being isolated and "homeschooled" by that same father, who has a huge arsenal of weaponry and who is even feared by law enforcement. Then imagine you find the courage to speak out against the abuse you've suffered at their hands. Then imagine that all your abusers and a judge call you a liar in court and order you to return to your abusers in an isolated, remote location, surrounded by ample supplies of weapons, alcohol and likely drugs, immediately. You don't get to escape at school because your father traps you at home. You don't get to escape to your other parent, because she's abusive and neglectful herself. You don't even get to escape into the arms of a beloved pet, because your father beat it bloody and killed it while you watched.

This! It was clearly a thing they WANTED her to bring up. Dr. Drew sat there completely nonplussed, and it was obviously very planned. All the questions are scripted; so was Nessa's statement. They wanted to distance themselves as much from the David-esque crowd as possible, and she was their vehicle for doing so. She was not going off script by any means. Why Jenelle's followers think she could just randomly pick a time to go rogue and MTV would air it is beyond me. Jenelle represents herself, Nessa represents MTV. She's doing what they want. The producers knew Jenelle was about to be fired and wanted to use the last time she was on stage to make a statement about their lack of support for David's racist/bigoted views.

Maybe- I was waiting for him to list himself in that list of "violent and addicted exes," but he never did, just everybody else. I think he's still got that ego on him. Doris is a good influence, though (even though he treated her horribly in that special). I don't think Nessa is a good host, but she doesn't seem stupid to me--she has a B.A. from Berkeley, she can't be that dim. Just very awkward. She was more articulate talking about systemic violence and police brutality than she ever is talking to the cast members. Then, when she was expected to get back into her host role, she seemed like an airhead again. Maybe it's a role she plays and isn't very good at it?

I can't be the only one who found that Nathan speech about how Jenelle's boyfriends are all violent addicts a bit hypocritical...he has a rap sheet just as long as any of them, including at least two choking incidents from different girlfriends, and a long list of DUIs because he clearly was an alcoholic at one time at least with major anger issues (and probably used steroids and/or coke as well). He is probably a better fit for Kaiser because he at least has Doris, but let's not forget the only reason Nathan didn't have him full-time before was because he moved to pursue his bodybuilding dreams and also because HIS recent rap sheet made anything but supervised visits unadvisable. He also has a daughter he doesn't have custody of and was ordered not to be around for a time because of drinking issues. Nathan isn't wrong, but you know the scenario is bleak when he's the only one making sense.

He's never been convicted. He just doesn't feel like working.

Yep, one of the biggest markers of someone lacking empathy is a penchant for animal abuse. I think he is a sadist who specifically enjoys abusing animals.