Five Times Television Failed Women
A fall pastime of mine is watching the TV spots and laughing at the more ridiculous ones and predicting which ones will be on the cutting room floor.
But this time, one promotion caught my eye for, in my opinon, is a pretty sexist premise. NBC’s Blindspot is supposed to be about a woman who wakes up naked in NYC with no memory and tattoos (a male detective’s name being one on her back) that solve crime. So reading between the lines, Jaimie Alexander plays a woman that is literally claimed by the man and needs him to help her discover who she actually is, tell her who she is and “fix” her. Lovely.
Now, this is way before Blindspot has even hit the small screen, so I could be completely off base. The show could completely move off the whole Steven Moffett-eque idea that women are puzzles instead of people and go in awesome places.
But here are some moments where television, be it the writers or showrunners, let women everywhere down.
- Criminal Minds and the failed Spin-Off
Criminal Minds is a typical crime show that focuses on catching serial killers by thinking like them — and amps up the horror and tearing through female victims like a 80s slasher film. By the time Season 3 rolled around, we got rid of Elle the Straw Feminist and developed others out of the archtypes. They even added Prentiss, whose plotlines vary from mortality, family issues and taking on an arms dealer. Everything was good.
Then they had the brilliant idea of having a spin-off named Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior.There’s no concrete proof, but getting rid of two actresses when the spin-off was kicking into high gear gave many fans the idea that they just needed their salaries to fund the show. Paget Brewster even fulled these rumors on Twitter.
Needless to say, fans were not pleased and the Suspect Behavior’s ratings tanked. With a new spin-off planned for 2015, time will tell how the show’s latest foray into crime show juggernaut will fare.
2. How I Met Your Mother and the Pretty Female Illness
The show’s earnestness in the journey of love was one of the main selling points, but as the years went on it overstayed its welcome with sexist jokes. When the show ended, one of its saving graces was The Mother.
She had her own friends, love life, goals, and reasonings behind her “quirks” before she meets Ted — and conversely, it’s that she was always looking for herself in her narrative. However, when they finally get together in flashforwards, her development ends and she becomes someone’s wife. In the end, it’s revealed that Tracy’s died from Pretty Pale disease — so she still looks beautiful in her weak state — but not before giving Ted the children he’s always wanted.
In the end he gets the first girl and the two kids he’s always wanted — over dead Mother’s body. Why not just be more upfront with the show title and change it to: How I Wasted Everyone’s Time?
3. Slut Shaming on the Bachelor/ette
Early 2014, fan favorite Juan Pablo Galavis snagged the title role, but his very homophobic remarks quickly alienated him from fans. After a romantic interlude with a contestant — before the coveted fantasy suite no less! — he would later take the contestant aside at the Rose Ceremony. And then tell her it wasn’t fair to other girls and wanted to set a good example for his daughter. He’s now labeled as the most hated Bachelor in history.
Now the most recent Bachelorette, Kaitlyn Bristowe, has done the same thing — and has faced down angry slut shaming attacks not only from fans, but from the men themselves. The show dedicated an entire segment on the criticism she faced on the “Men Tell All” episode, including Chris Harrison reading tweets about how she was a whore.
It’s not that sex is bad, says these shows. It’s that women are expected to be chaste until men tell them so — and only when marriage is clearly on the table.
4. Meg Griffin’s Treatment
Way back in early seasons, Meg was the whiny, spoiled daughter of the family. Today, I would argue she’s a domestic abuse sufferer from her family.
She’s repeatedly told she doesn’t matter by her parents, they show no interest in her life. Hell, her own mother Lois actively kicks her when she’s down — from seducing her daughter’s boyfriend to packing Meg a lunch of an orange peel, bread crusts and a photo of her eating a turkey leg with a smug smile. Lois even encourages her to commit suicide.
There’s one shining moment in “Seahorse Seashell Party” when Meg articulately enunciates every flaw in her parents and how they treat her — including a brutal truth that will resonate people that encounter domestic violence: “ If someone in the outside world could see the way you treat me, you would be in jail.”
Sadly, Meg’s convinced that she needs to play the victim for the rest of her life to keep the family together — and apologizes to her abusers.
From a showrunner that performed a ode to women’s breasts at the Oscars, I expected nothing less.
5. SVU’s Surrender Benson Arc
Since Meloni left the show, “SVU” has focused on Olivia Benson not as a police officer, but as a human. We see more of her personal struggles and professional growths when she’s promoted to Sergeant.
But Benson quickly turned from protector of the voiceless to a victim herself in the Season 15 premiere, where she was kidnapped, violently tortured, and almost raped. The show kept pushing the arc by having Liv struggle to face her attacker in court. No points for guessing that he escapes and kidnaps her yet again.
On some level, putting the show’s long-running character in a victim’s shoes is a smart move. Mariska Hagitary has received thousands of letters from rape survivors since 2004, and has used her fame to solve and prevent sex crimes. So why not have Liv go through the same process so many victims go through?
But Liv has been almost raped (“Undercover”). And kidnapped (“Authority”). So we ask ourselves: ask why is this character, who hunts rapists and defends victims, forced to go through this trauma again?
I’m sure there are more places where television failed women, but the thing about lists is that they’re always subjective. In my own little crime-show loving and sitcom-adoring niche, I realize that there’s more offensive stuff that others can point out to me. So just leave a comment and tell me what you’ve seen!
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