Recently in Television Category

An advertisement of Mother's Choice some years ago in Hong Kong.

I just heard that FOX is developing a series about female werewolves called "Bitches."

I would like to think that the show will be about the lives of women who happen to be werewolves, but I'm reasonably sure that it will just be an excuse for the women to run around naked. The line quoted on www.comingsoon.net says "How can you date and fall in love with someone when you're a werewolf and you start to turn when you're aroused?"

When was the last time you saw a feminist television show that features a female lead character who is intelligent, independent, strong and accomplished, yet at the same time is also compassionate and caring, able to cry and wants social justice? If you're like me, you probably haven't seen any in recent times, and so it was surprising for me to, as an accident, pick up a DVD of the television series "Bones," a few weeks ago at Blockbuster, and now, I am hooked. I wanted to share with you how awesome this show is.

The lead character is a cultural anthropologist who works alongside the FBI to solve crimes by examining bones of the remains of victims. Like other shows, this show involves a series of investigations in which, at the end, the murderer is caught.

Yet, that's where the similarities end. Just as this show features a powerful woman as a lead character, the boss is also a woman - an African-American woman at that. While the show does not attempt to be politically correct, it does bring a diversity of people in leading/powerful positions. Below are also a series of other reasons the show is feminist.

Did anyone watch John Stewart last night?  He held his own to a certain degree while disagreeing with Huckabee about gay marriage.  He could have come back at the "marriage is for procreation" line of B.S. Huckabee was shoveling with something like, "Really, what about couples who are infertile or don't want children?  Can they get married?"  He did point out that gay couples could be good parents, and better at parenting than two Celebes that he named. On that issue, he did a great job.

Good for John- let me find a cookie to share.

Oh, but wait, hold the cookie!  He not only failed to defend a woman's choice, but, went as far as saying, "I get it" implying that he understands the social conservatives anti-choice stance.  He said abortion is something we should work to reduce the numbers of.  OK, that's something we can all agree with.  He didn't go after the "head in the sand" anti-choice position that ignores the historical fact of abortion before it was legal.  He didn't mention that abortion not only occurred long before Roe V Wade, before the United States for that matter, but, that it often left women (some mothers) mangled or dead.  He didn't defend our choice AT ALL.

As John Stewart sat across a man who wrote a book that claims we can all do without govt. interference if we just learn to "Do unto others."  I'm glad he represented for gay marriage activism (I was hooting and hollering). I just wish he had pointed out how insane pro-lifers can be in their oppressive beliefs.  That some anti-choicer's are terrorists & many are bully's.   He could have pointed out that the "do unto others and the world will be just peachy" attitude should not include forcing women to give birth.  Or even how absurd it is to believe that is all it takes and suddenly alcoholism, drug addiction, abuse of others and self, greed, etc. will just magically go away as soon as liberals join social conservatives in "Doing unto others".  I'm glad for a lot of what he said to the sexist homophobe on his show last night, now if only he could stand up for women's rights as well.

Don't even read the comments; your head will truly explode.

Get ready for a rant friends cause I am in rare form over this.

It seemed, truly, for the first like 98% of the time, that maybe there would be an ending to that that didn't make me feel like a materialistic idiot awed by shiny things into forgetting the really offensive, perverse, gross, or flat out mean things someone did to me. OOHH DIAMONDS! GO AHEAD CALL ME FAT SHINY SHINY SHINY. The assumption that my stupid ass lady brain is distracted enough by glitter, or that material goods are an equal trade-off for truly offensive and cruel behavior is just horrendously offensive.

And yet, I wanted to laugh. And I felt so so guilty about it. It seems that there is a huge gray area concerning things which are offensive and humor. carlos mencia (blech) springs to mind and that guy with the puppets, whatever his name, pisses me the hell off. Every time i complain about these comedians (or ads, or songs, etc etc etc) that use racist and sexist images or concepts for humor i hear the 'but it brings us together by laughing about the absurdity of reality' argument. of course it isn't usually worded so nicely but i digress.

The movie Bamboozled certainly sums up my feelings on things like this. Quick background if you haven't seen it. which if you haven't I HIGHLY recommend it but watch it either with a friend or with serious tissues handy. few times have i seen movies which actually make me sob; wrack my body with those sharp sort of inhalations that happen when you've received a big shock or really horrible news. it's terrible but worth the thinking it makes you do.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit isn't often talked about on Feministing or other feminist blogs that I read from time to time. This surprises me, because I think it's the most feminist show on television. That might not be such a hard thing considering the anti-woman crap that's on the tube all hours of the day, but I still think SVU is the most pro-woman show. In fact, it's the only fictional show on TV that makes me tear up almost every week. Even though it's a fictional show, the problems it exposes are very real.

Have you ever read something on this site and thought, "That wouldn't have happened if Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler were around"? I know I have, and it's too bad that these two aren't real. Because they just plain rule. Elliot Stabler, the ultimate man's man, dedicates his life to helping kids and survivors of sexual assault and putting asshole rapists in prison. Elliot, get out of my TV and into my bed (to maybe eat popcorn and play Crazy 8s). We need more Elliot Stablers everywhere. We need more Olivia Bensons too. She really puts her life on the line for the victims. Did anyone see that episode last season where Olivia goes undercover in the women's prison to expose rampant sexual assault by the guards? Who else would do that? I totally cried after watching that episode.

The show is in its 10th season, so why am I just talking about it now? Well, this season is a little different. The pro-feminist messages are more overt than in previous seasons, in my opinion. For one, the new ADA, Kim Greylek, wants to make rape a hate crime. Rape -- a hate crime! *choir of angels sing* But the last two episodes have been particularly feminist.

Has anyone noticed a social conservative trend on ABC/ Disney ?

First, they put a Fox News, parrot next to Barbara Walters on the View.

She made what can be taken, at least,  as a dismissive comment about Deepak Chopra recently.  I don't watch the show, I read about that in an interview on the Huff post.  Deepak saw it as a racist comment.  So did I.

3 weeks ago, they killed a storyline that included a lesbian love affair between two Doctors.  They killed it abruptly, firing an actres who was contributing a great character to the show, lesbian or not.

Last night on Private Practice, they portrayed anti- choice as  somehow more feeling.   They went as far as to end the episode with a sad grief filled moment.  A Doctor looking out the window experiencing sadness and disbeleif (maybe tears?) delivered the line, " a baby died here today". I immediately took the show off my DVR list.

Does anyone have ideas on contacting ABC/ Disney about this trend?

Did Rupert Murdoch buy ABC?

What is going on and what can we do about it?

I've been a fan of Family Guy since its first season came on. I've always found it funny, but at the same time, I've always found it sexist. And the rate at which it degrades women only seems to be increasing.

Generally, as with most things, I try to enjoy the good in the show, and when something that offends me occurs I try to think "yes, it's offensive, but the rest of the show's good. I can overlook this." Tonight's episode, however, was inexcusable.

Tonight, a character on the show said, "this is as useless as Aquaman," and then cut to a scene of a woman being raped, with Aquaman standing idly by.

Let me repeat that.

A woman was raped for comedic effect.

I was speechless.

How could this possibly have been justified? Who was it that thought, "tonight we're going to have a woman be raped on prime time television, and we're all going to laugh at it, because it's just a joke?"

I'm at a loss right now. Do I stop watching a show I previously liked because of this? Do I tell my friends I'm not a fan anymore, and risk being told I have no sense of humor? Or that it's just one episode, and I should lighten up?

But more importantly, why is this tolerated? The episode just premiered an hour ago. Tomorrow will I turn on the news and find out that the writers of Family Guy are apologizing for such disgusting content? Will anyone else be writing letters of outrage? The next time I get together with friends, will I hear outrage, or will that incident be completely overlooked?

In our society, I'm lost. I enjoy a lot of television shows and video games which put women in a negative light, because it seems almost unavoidable to find something which contains no sexism. But when rape begins edging onto prime time television as something to laugh at, what's next?

I realize this isn't the first rape joke, or the first act of sexism on television, but considering its time slot and wide appeal, I can't understand how it made its way into the episode. And I can't figure out how I should react, either.

I must admit I do like South Park most of the time. Last night's episode, however was really out of control, featuring several graphic rape scenes. This episode made my male roommates uncomfortable too. I was expecting someone to have posted on this already, but I'm really interested in reactions to this episode. I tried to find it online, but viacom is really strict with its videos on youtube.

While politicians are planning to bribe poor women into getting their tubes tied, a family with 17 children and one on the way gets their own television series on The Learning Channel. Part of the description reads:

With values rooted in their strong personal faith, Jim Bob and Michelle firmly believe that every child is a gift to be cherished.

What the hell kind of name is Jim Bob? Anyway, Michelle has been pregnant for 12 years of her life, they spend $2,000 a month on groceries, and their house is like 6 houses put together (yet, all the boys sleep in one room, and all the girls sleep in another -- weird).

I wouldn't give 90,000 diapers in crap about this family if members of the government and society at large weren't racist and classist when it comes to family planning. When it's Black women working minimum wage, it's called a drain on the economy and the height of irresponsibility. But when it's a White Southern Baptist family, it's porno for fundies.