Part II

In this installment, the last I swear, I was supposed to get mad at the shows' themselves for completely lacking in the morals department. What they do to contestants is insidiously shitty, but getting heated at the shows is, I think, missing the point by letting us off the hook instead.
The Swan is not the networks' fault. It's not the producers' fault. It's not the contestants' fault. It's our, the viewers, fault.
It's not that any of those other people/organizations are blameless. We are all responsible for our actions, and certainly, their actions are more hideous than flicking on the TV some Wednesday night and not being able to turn away from the hypnotizing mess playing out.
The Swan depends on everyone involved for success. If producers hadn't thought it up and executed it, it wouldn't exist. If there weren't women this malleable, and more generally, willing to do anything for some kind of fame, this show and others wouldn't exist. If networks cared less about ratings they wouldn't exist. If we didn't watch these shows they wouldn't exist.
The difference between us and everyone else is that none of those people are conflicted about the programs they contribute to. Sure, they should be. But they aren't. Whether this is because they're unthinking or soulless is unclear. Either way they aren't contributing to the success of something they find repugnant. They either don't know any better, or they don't believe any better.
All of the people kicking up a storm about The Swan and all the people who are just quietly disgusted or disturbed by it do know and believe better, but, some at least, continue to watch. (I'm not engaging the real possibility, likelihood maybe, that most people don't have a problem with The Swan). If no one watched really fucked up women get fucked up in the name of beauty and mental health by conscienceless professionals then there wouldn't be shows like this. And the burden of its existence falls to us, not because we are solely responsible for that, but because we are solely bothered by it.
We can either accept it and all of its twisted offspring, without bellyaching, or turn it off.