From the production company's website:

quote:

---

Paperny Films is developing an exciting new television series that explores what happens when all the women in an ordinary Canadian town disappear for a week and leave the men and children to cope on their own.

What happens to a workplace without women? What happens in a community? What happens on the home front without girlfriends, wives, sisters or mothers?

---

For a town of 1000 people, there will likely be some total morons who will make good TV fodder. I suspect the 400 decent guys who just miss their partners but aren't, actually, totally useless will be largely ignored.

This format was tried in the USA but they couldn’t find a community stupid enough to take it on! Beware, the whole thing is a con!

Rgds.,

Could you expand more on how it's split your town and how some of the participants have left? How did it do that? Were people fighting over some of the stuff that was said on the show or something?

quote:

---

Once the doctrine of well-educated middle-class women, often young and single, it (equal rights for women - N.Beltov) has taken hold among working-class women, farm wives, blacks, Puerto Ricans, white "ethnics."

---

... when the opposite is just as true. The celebration of IWW on March 8, for example, comes from commemorating a strike of working class women in the textile/garment industry in New York City in 1908. [See NOTE below] The essay might be an interesting read as long as one is aware of the prejudices and bias of TIME magazine.

Anyway, I didn't dig up that quote just to slag TIME. The essay notes that in October of 1975 the women of Iceland went on a one day strike. I wonder if the organizers of the "week without women" checked into that at all? After all, a strike is a much better way to make a point.

quote:

---

TIME: To demonstrate that the country cannot function without them, Icelandic women staged a one-day strike in October: schools, theaters and telephone service were all shut down.

---

American Women - TIME "Person of the Year" for 1975

*****************************

NOTE:

quote:

---

On March 8, 1857, garment workers in New York City marched and picketed, demanding improved working conditions, a ten hour day, and equal rights for women. Their ranks were broken up by the police. Fifty-one years later, March 8, 1908, their sisters in the needle trades in New York marched again, honoring the 1857 march, demanding the vote, and an end to sweatshops and child labor. The police were present on this occasion too.

In 1910 at the Second International, a world wide socialist party congress, German socialist Clara Zetkin proposed that March 8th be proclaimed International Women's Day, to commemorate the US demonstrations and honor working women the world over.

---

The quote is taken from an A History of International Women's Day.

[ 07 January 2007: Message edited by: N.Beltov ]

Before the 'show', some of us with experience of the media knew what was coming, others thought it was their time for '15 minutes of fame'. The majority probably couldn't have cared less, either way.

In the end only about 38 women out of 120 actually left the village for their expenses paid week away. Less than 20 men participated. Compare this with the figures that the BBC declared of 70, 80 or even ALL the women.

The BBC had to go outside the village, actually into the next county to find 'suitable' and willing people. The village shop, school and church refused to take part. The pub did, but soon found out what it was about as things were 'set up'.

On the plus side some of the aerial shots of the village taken from an 80 foot crane were quite good. Some of the participants dropped out part way through 'the week' after finding out how it was being done. Some lapped it up, even if others saw their 'performance' in a different light. The BBC stitched the men up with 'activities' over and above their duties at home and work. These involved concrete gateways and fence making etc. Some men participated in this for the community good, didn't do anything controversial and were never seen on screen after a whole week of hard work. Fortunately the men had been forewarned by others about what was likely to happen and this riled the BBC because nobody really messed up, despite the BBC trying as hard as possible to upset the cart.

We 'lost' 38 women and gained 80 BBC crew who seemed to delight in trying to set things up (without people realising). They even pulled a stunt with a hired motorbike whereby the rider 'fell off' with a boy on the back. A witness who saw it says it was completely staged. An ambulance was called to deal with it (wasting emergency services time) to heighten the 'drama'.

I could go on, but I suspect that you've got the drift by now. Paperny might be more honourable but it IS reality TV that we're talking about. Reality is boring, it has to be spiced up, so I doubt whether it would be any different in Canada.

There's not many people left in the village who actively took part and it has pretty much passed into 'don't talk about it' territory.

The finished programme was boring in the extreme (hence the poor viewing figures and it being 'buried' in the August holiday schedules. At 1.4 million UK pounds it was hardly cheap TV and certainly not value for money for the licence fee payer.

We can't be sure why some people left, they were mainly recent residents but there was certainly friction. Some of the women didn't come out of it very well and my real concen (with hindsight) is the damage that it might have done to some of the children, especially the adolescents whose lives were shown in sometimes cruel detail.

Is that enough?

Best wishes from the UK!

[ 07 January 2007: Message edited by: Helical ]

[ 07 January 2007: Message edited by: Helical ]