I don't know what it is about a nice person that I find so attractive. Nice women, men who are nice, kids who are nice, they all intrigue me.I don't mean nice on the surface when a particular person or group of people are around.

I mean authentically, nice.

You know it when you see it: It's the kind of nice that comes from the person's eyes and soul. You can see it and feel it and something makes you believe it's real. Over the past year, and now in the brand new year, I've seen a trend on television that makes me a little sad. 2011 seemed to be the year of the mean woman.

From housewives, to women in relationships with athletes, reality shows were full of them. I, like most people who admit to watching that kind of entertainment, agree that we're a little ashamed of that fact. And guess what? We can't look away.

Sometimes I wonder what it's done to the perception of women overall. What do men think when they watch? What do young girls think? What do our grandmothers who helpd us become "nice ladies" think?

Looking back on my Catholic school days, I remember the nuns always telling us girls, how important it was for us, to get along, behave and most important, be nice. For the most part we were.

Today as an adult, I find myself bombarded with images on tv that leave me speechless: Women screaming and cursing at one another, pulling one another's hair and "stealing" one another's men without remorse.

I know this is not the best women have to offer, but why is it that the catfights and the name-calling tend to be the kind of showdowns that hold our interest? I guess I want to believe that at the core, we're better than that.

Sure, it's not a complete departure from reality. Women do disagree, we may have some drama in relationships when it comes to handling one another, but this new spotlight on outright cruelty seems to be an exagerrated for the small screen.

Let us not forget that women are extraordinary. We are the ones that bear the children, nurture our families and friendships , and occasionally help our men straighten their ties.

To box us into the categories of messy, vindictive, nasty and unaplogetic seems unfair. I hope 2012 finds a resurgenece of nice women on tv. The great poet Maya Angelou, in tribute to great women she's known has often said, "you make me proud to spell my name W-O-M-A-N." In front of the camera or not, we as women should try to remember that everyday and in every way, we all represent one another. For better and for worse, in good tv shows and in bad.