|
Author
|
Topic: The latest sexism in television shows thread
|
Michelle
Moderator
Babbler # 560
|
posted 02 July 2006 06:26 AM
I found a couple of threads on sexist ads, but I also get annoyed when I see blatant sexist crap in television shows.While I was doing the breakfast dishes this morning, my son started watching some cartoons. Duck Dodgers came on just as I was finished and coming into the living room to sit with him and watch, because I love that show. They seem to have made a bunch of new ones, which is pretty neat. Anyhow, so at one point, Marvin the Martian asks Porky Pig what they're going to do, because they're in a situation that seems hopeless, and the Earth AND Mars are going to be blown up. And Porky Pig says, "Cry like a little girl?" My jaw dropped - this is a new cartoon, and while I realize there is all sorts of systemic sexism in programming and television ads aimed at children (e.g. in Duck Dodgers, all the characters are male), I was amazed that they would make such an outrageously blatant sexist remark. I probably shouldn't be amazed, I guess, but I am. They couldn't have said "cry like a baby"? Or, since they're all male characters, "cry like a little boy"? Geez.
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelle
Moderator
Babbler # 560
|
posted 02 July 2006 02:50 PM
So it wasn't just me, then? I thought maybe I might have been oversensitive, but it just really hit me.It's true that I wouldn't want to have to explain that one to a little girl. But I think it is just as bad trying to explain it to a little boy - if not perhaps worse, because I think it would be easier to convince a little girl that girls aren't wimpy, whereas a little boy who is right at the "eww, that's GIRL stuff!" age is not so easy to convince. (Especially when most of the advertisements for "girlie" products and toys really ARE wimpy, ditzy and stupid.) But I did tell him, "What a stupid thing to say. Little boys cry just as much as little girls." He said, "Yeah." So, hopefully it got through.
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Left Turn
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8662
|
posted 02 July 2006 10:01 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Vanessa S:
Maybe you should write to the CRTC.The most sexist show I've seen on TV is called Seventh Heaven. I don't know what age group watches that show.
It embarasses me to admit that I used to watch that show.  Then they started writing some of the characters off the show. The show also became very pro-Iraq war/occupation after the US invasion. Now I can't stand the show.
From: Burnaby, BC | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
maidenhead
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 12721
|
posted 06 July 2006 12:37 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Michelle:
So it wasn't just me, then? I thought maybe I might have been oversensitive, but it just really hit me.
If that's one of the most sexist things we can find on tv, then we've come along way... Watch the alleged 'Women's' channel for one hour, and that will give you something to get angry about. Sorry, but I just can't get outraged by the 'crying like a little girl' observation. I also think that a lot of the 'gender neutral' language suggestions (like 'rough and tumble child' in place of 'tomboy') are just ridiculous.
From: Toronto | Registered: Jun 2006
| IP: Logged
|
|
bittersweet
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2474
|
posted 06 July 2006 12:59 PM
The dialogue is almost the equivalent of having overtly misogynist dialogue in an all-male, adult, non-satirical live-action show go without challenge, as if it were not a character's specific mentality, but a general assumption. As if a male character were to say "You're acting like a woman, weak and stupid" and the other males reacted as if that were true with both outrage and actions to prove that they are not as weak and stupid as women. Again, the intent of this hypothetical adult show, like the real kids' one, would not be to satirize misogyny. The reason I wrote "almost" the equivalent is because the real situation involves dialogue written for children, who of course include girls, and they haven't necessarily developed enough critical skills to protect themselves from the slur. That dialogue is actually worse than the hypothetical adult example, since it not only insults its own audience, but that audience is especially vulnerable. That's where the internalizing of these values starts, and once they're there, they're hard to lose. Not incidentally, this is how W Network, with all of its nauseating values (and Spike, on the other hand), nevertheless enjoys a large and dedicated following. Where does that demographic learn its values in the first place? Not in adulthood: W, etc., merely reinforces them. Hence, to my mind that seemingly innocuous children's dialogue really is egregious. [ 06 July 2006: Message edited by: bittersweet ]
From: land of the midnight lotus | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Email this thread to someone!
Just the title alone doesn't sound overly promising to me.
