Breaking Amish

[Tilden]

I've seen only parts of the first two shows, and the whole thing felt like Real World: Amish to me. No attempt at all to explain Amish/Mennonite beliefs and culture except to portray them as bad and old-fashioned.

And yes, even Amish, who tend to be more conservative than Mennonites, get permission to have electrical generators to run computers, refrigeration units etc. for business purposes (e.g. the Amish in the Arthur, Illinois area have a very successful cheese factory, which has to have refrigeration or they wouldn't be able to sell their cheese legally). By contrast, the quilting shop I was in in Arthur did still use treadle sewing machines, because electricity wasn't necessary to sew or sell quilts (and you should have seen those women pumping those treadle machines as they worked on quilts and other items--they must have unbelievably muscular legs). So, when they can, they may avoid using electricity, but when it's necessary, they use generators in order to avoid dependence on an electrical company. At least that's how it was explained to me.

[ness]

Having grown up around Amish and Mennonite my whole life, I can tell you this show is BS!!! I was suspicious during the first show, but after watching PART of the second show, I know for certain now that this is completely fake, fake, fake.

First of all, not one of them have the Pennsylvania/Dutch accent. Not even a hint of a German accent. If they've been isolated on a farm their whole lives, their accent would be quite strong and obvious.

One of my best friends is Mennonite (not the Old Order, but one of the newer sects) and she came over to watch this with me. She just kept saying "We would never say that." "Oh my, we would never say that."

Key phoney words: "Dude" "Chicks" "Skank" "Hot" "Heck" "Totally cool" "Awesome" "I wonder if that's a famous person?" (How would she know anything about who's famous?), "Weird" "You gotta be kidding me" "Check it out" "They'll do anything to get a piece o' ya." "Whoa, not happening." "Frickin" "Pissed me off"

There wouldn't be a need to bleep them. They wouldn't pick up swear words that quickly off the farm.

Other red lights: the dancing, the pretend ignorance on how to use an elevator by the girl who got the DUI. She said in the first show that she'd been to court several times. And she's never been in an elevator before? I call 'bull'.

Newsflash -- Mennonites and Amish do have modern appliances like fridges. They don't have iceboxes any more. Many of them do have light switches. They may not be hooked up to a power grid, but many of them have their own generators, creating electricity, so they have seen light switches before.

Most of them also have indoor tubs and showers. I haven't seen ANY Mennonite home where they have a tub with a hole in the bottom.

This show completely feeds into the stereotype of what Amish and Mennonites are. Shame on them. This is so fake and the actors aren't even good at pretending to be Amish or Mennonite.

WELCOME TO THE FoRT, MORNINGGLORI!

Thanks SO much for presenting the truth of this situation from your perspective of having grown up around Amish and Mennonite people. And "Thanks!" to your friend, too, for HER insight.

As a general group overall, while we DO love our reality TV, we're also interested in learning about other ways of life and different cultures here, I think. We're NOT interested in seeing a fairytale, sensationalized, stereotyped version of those differing lives and cultures.

TLC has done a great disservice to the Amish and Mennonite communities, and to us, as viewers of its network, as well.

The only question is: Will the feet of TPTB at TLC ever be held to the fire of general public/Amish/Mennonite negative opinions on this show because of the deception so that the network will have to answer for its actions? If only in the form of a public statement/apology?

Sadly, I don't think so.

[Morningglori]

After watching the last show, I wondered if there were forums like this and I'm glad I found you.

I agree that you can't trust any reality show to be unscripted any more these days, but Breaking Amish strays so far from anything even resembling the truth, I felt I had to spout somewhere.

When I first saw the commercials for this, I thought that it would be fun to watch a show on a topic that I had some familiarity with. And what an opportunity for people who have never met anyone from these cultures to learn a bit about them. Boy was I disappointed!

lol...to be honest, I'm so used to hearing the Amish or Mennonite accents that hearing these actors speak without any accent at all was rather irritating to my ears. In fact, I'm so used to hearing the little inflections in their speech that I find when I'm with any of my Mennonite friends, I will automatically take on the accent. Which they laugh at and find very funny.

I'm hoping this show is yanked soon. It serves no purpose and really, is pretty boring. I mean, how many times can you be 'surprised' at something you've never supposedly seen before. It gets old real fast.

[causingchaos]

After watching the last show, I wondered if there were forums like this and I'm glad I found you.

I agree that you can't trust any reality show to be unscripted any more these days, but Breaking Amish strays so far from anything even resembling the truth, I felt I had to spout somewhere.

When I first saw the commercials for this, I thought that it would be fun to watch a show on a topic that I had some familiarity with. And what an opportunity for people who have never met anyone from these cultures to learn a bit about them. Boy was I disappointed!

lol...to be honest, I'm so used to hearing the Amish or Mennonite accents that hearing these actors speak without any accent at all was rather irritating to my ears. In fact, I'm so used to hearing the little inflections in their speech that I find when I'm with any of my Mennonite friends, I will automatically take on the accent. Which they laugh at and find very funny.

I'm hoping this show is yanked soon. It serves no purpose and really, is pretty boring. I mean, how many times can you be 'surprised' at something you've never supposedly seen before. It gets old real fast.

I watched about 15 minutes of one show and stopped because of the lack of accents. I couldn't get past that at all. While I don't have any close friends in those communities I have spent much time on/off over the years around people from those communities and even if they don't have thick accents they still have some accents and their phraseology tends to be markedly different than what I saw on the show.

I've watched these reality shows rip down a bunch of marginalized groups now and I'm kind of over it. They never present them in away that tries to actually educate and expose people to culture. They take radical things from these cultures and splatter them all over TV with absolutely no look at history and context. They do it in a way where people with western values get up in arms about it and can't see past their own value system to understand another one. So instead of enlightening people you're just inciting people. That was evident at the start of this thread and it really really bothers me. Not the thread but that this is how the show is built.

[candor]

In that show with Mose -- Amish in the City? -- they all had very pronounced accents.

[libgirl2]

In that show with Mose -- Amish in the City? -- they all had very pronounced accents.

On Amish: Out of Order, featuring Mose and several ex-Amish, I heard plenty of accents. Is that the show you were thinking about?

[Critical]

On Amish: Out of Order, featuring Mose and several ex-Amish, I heard plenty of accents. Is that the show you were thinking about?

Amish in the City was on the old UPN network back in 2004. I think that's how many of us "met" Mose.

[mimi]

During the very first episode, I kept wondering how those kids knew the vernacular that they were using. I know very little about the Amish, but I knew something wasn't right about how they were using the same lingo that my own teenagers often use. Where did they pick that up? One thing I can't figure out is WHY they removed Rebecca's teeth at age 19. She mentions that the Amish feel that spiritualism is more important than physical beauty, but that really doesn't explain WHY her teeth were removed. Why does Kate still have her teeth? She's the Bishop's daughter -- surely if this was a regular Amish custom, her teeth would have also been removed. Were Rebecca's teeth so full of cavities and decay that they couldn't be saved? Were they removed as a punishment? Is TLC footing the entire bill for all of their hotel rooms, meals, cab fare, clothing, tattoos, dentures, driving instructions, drinks, etc.? Is it my imagination, or does it look as though Rebecca's hair has been dyed in the past? If so, wouldn't that be frowned upon by the Amish? Is Sabrina ever going to actually wait on tables in the restaurant where she was hired? Are all of the proprietors of these restaurants, hotels, clothing stores, nightclubs and tattoo parlors apprised ahead of time that they will be on camera? Do they agree to do it because they'll get a lot of free advertising? Did that dentist REALLY give Rebecca free dentures, or was she compensated by TLC? And if these kids aren't really visiting NYC for the first time, TLC really should put up disclaimers of some sort. If TLC is allowing the Amish to be portrayed incorrectly, then they REALLY need to set the record straight and/or put up disclaimers or corrections of some sort.

[Morningglori]

One thing I can't figure out is WHY they removed Rebecca's teeth at age 19. She mentions that the Amish feel that spiritualism is more important than physical beauty, but that really doesn't explain WHY her teeth were removed. Were Rebecca's teeth so full of cavities and decay that they couldn't be saved? Were they removed as a punishment?

I can tell you this much mimi....the Amish would never pull her teeth as a punishment. Nor would they EVER have been pulled as part of some religious ceremony. I have no idea why her teeth were pulled and that should be fully explained, because if it leaves people wondering whether it was a punishment of some sort, that is just so wrong of TLC to allow the imaginations of the viewers run wild like that. Since I know for certain Rebecca never grew up on an Amish or Mennonite farm, there could be any number of reasons why she lost her teeth, such as the result of a car accident.

This is what really angers me about this show. It's as fake as the day is long. It's totally scripted. It's completely inaccurate and feeds into stereotypes. Nothing ANY of these young people are doing is indicative of either the Mennonite or Amish faiths. Not one of these actors was ever born into either faith, of that I'm certain.

I would imagine like any other show, if it's filmed in a restaurant or some other public place, the owners would be compensated for the use of their facility. None of this is 'spur of the moment' or unscripted, I can guarantee you.

The Amish/Mennonite do go to see dentists, just like they go to doctors.

I would love nothing more than to see this show permanently yanked off the air.

[Shoepie]

My guess is gum disease. That is usually the reason young people lose their teeth.