Gender On Television: It's Like Feminism Never Happened

[memememe76]

Charlie's Angels, Mary Tyler Moore, Donna Summer, ABBA, too. Was Annie Hall such a role model because she liked hats?

[Jacqs]

I was born in 1980 and came of age in the 1990s so i don't really care for the 1970s and how many people still root for it politically as some sort of Golden Age. Advertisers for major accounts no longer aim at the Boomers as the demographics are too high.

[proserpina65]

1 hour ago, JacquelineAppleton said:

I was born in 1980 and came of age in the 1990s so i don't really care for the 1970s and how many people still root for it politically as some sort of Golden Age. Advertisers for major accounts no longer aim at the Boomers as the demographics are too high.

I don't think it was some sort of political Golden Age, but women did make a lot of advances in that decade, some of which are the basis for continuing improvement today.

And yes, some of the television was pretty damned progressive as far as feminism was concerned.  Not all of it, maybe not even most of it, but a good bit.  What advertisers have to do with it, I don't know.  (I'm not a baby boomer, btw, I'm Gen X.)

[Jacqs]

2 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

I don't think it was some sort of political Golden Age, but women did make a lot of advances in that decade, some of which are the basis for continuing improvement today.

And yes, some of the television was pretty damned progressive as far as feminism was concerned.  Not all of it, maybe not even most of it, but a good bit.  What advertisers have to do with it, I don't know.  (I'm not a baby boomer, btw, I'm Gen X.)

PP65: i was referring to advertisers because it's a common complaint from Boomers that things like tv stations would rather pitch at advertiser friendly demos that are nostalgic for Seinfeld rather than Andy Griffith. When i first became a fan of radio as a teenager in the nineties, i saw the same complaints from my grandparents generation about radio stations abandoning Adult Standards ("The Great American Songbook") for more youthful formats.

[proserpina65]

2 minutes ago, JacquelineAppleton said:

PP65: i was referring to advertisers because it's a common complaint from Boomers that things like tv stations would rather pitch at advertiser friendly demos that are nostalgic for Seinfeld rather than Andy Griffith.

That varies widely by channel, format, type of show and time of day/night, I've found.  If you're watching Matlock on a nostalgia-oriented channel, you're going to get commercials for products and services aimed at older viewers.  Not that I watch Matlock, mind you, but I've seen the comments in the Commercial threads here.

[GHScorpiosRule]

17 hours ago, selkie said:

The seventies also gave us Charlie's Angels, and from what I remember of that show the costuming went pretty much anywhere from casual to glam. I know it's easy to mock the show in a number of ways, but the Angels were damn awesome- they were out there having adventures and solving mysteries front and center with the guys limited to supporting roles. 

 

 

And what I found and still find interesting as I watch on MeTV and on my dvds, is that though they're now private detectives, they act more like undercover cops--telling the bad guys to "freeze!" or catch them. All they lack are handcuffs! That's not a complaint. Just an observation. It's quite different from other shows about private detectives.

1 hour ago, proserpina65 said:

I don't think it was some sort of political Golden Age, but women did make a lot of advances in that decade, some of which are the basis for continuing improvement today.

And yes, some of the television was pretty damned progressive as far as feminism was concerned.  Not all of it, maybe not even most of it, but a good bit.  What advertisers have to do with it, I don't know.  (I'm not a baby boomer, btw, I'm Gen X.)

 

Yep. And sometimes, I find the older shows from the '70s to be more progressive in some aspects, like Charlie's Angels. While it can be mocked for the B-movie type screaming some episodes had all the women do, they were strong, smart and didn't need any MEN to save them. They saved their fucking selves.

And I'm Gen X as well. 

Edited July 18, 2018 by GHScorpiosRule

[WarnerCL45]

Just saw Three’s Company, while flipping.  What a steaming pile of crap!  

[UYI]

6 hours ago, WarnerCL45 said:

Just saw Three’s Company, while flipping.  What a steaming pile of crap!  

I can't speak on the quality of the show--I've never really watched it--but as I've posted here before, the producers of this show were sexist AF and treated the women terribly. Joyce DeWitt's unyielding (yet quiet) anger during this E! True Hollywood Story on the show gives me LIFE.

Edited July 18, 2018 by UYI

[PepSinger]

"They lied...TO MY FACE."

[UYI]

Just now, PepSinger said:

"They lied...TO MY FACE."

"They built their house on SAND!"

[possibilities]

I watched a few old Maude reruns recently and wow! None of that stuff would make it to air nowadays. It would be considered way too feminist!

[Jacqs]

13 minutes ago, possibilities said:

I watched a few old Maude reruns recently and wow! None of that stuff would make it to air nowadays. It would be considered way too feminist!

No, Maude doesn't air today because it's aimed squarely at Baby Boomer radicals and that dates it severely. It's inaccessible to people who weren't children of the 60s and 70s. Similarly, on the other end of the spectrum, all those anti-communist shows and movies don't appeal today - someone who is forty in 2020 was nine when the Berlin Wall fell and does not meaningfully remember the Cold War. They simply do not have the Baby Boomers or even Generation X's fear and hatred of socialism and communism.

[UYI]

I could write a whole essay about how, at nine or ten years old 20 years ago (1998-1999, to be exact), seeing Maude reruns on TV Land, in many ways, changed my life. Here was this unapologetic feminist liberal woman who wasn't afraid to let people know who she was--I was blown away! Bea Arthur herself is the reason for a lot of this, of course, but I had never seen anyone like her before on TV--and even now, all these years later, I can't say I've seen anyone like her since. Oh sure, I can more easily recognize her flaws today, and the way Norman Lear tried to bring that across in the character, but I can never underestimate what seeing someone like that at my young age at the time meant to me, and I always will appreciate the show for that alone.

In short: No, me being a Millennial absolutely does NOT mean I won't still watch or appreciate Maude for what it was, or is. And I refuse to apologize for that. So don't ask me to. ;)

(And yes, I realize my liking classic TV at my young age makes me weird to some. Ask me if I care. ;) )

2 hours ago, JacquelineAppleton said:

No, Maude doesn't air today because it's aimed squarely at Baby Boomer radicals and that dates it severely. It's inaccessible to people who weren't children of the 60s and 70s. Similarly, on the other end of the spectrum, all those anti-communist shows and movies don't appeal today - someone who is forty in 2020 was nine when the Berlin Wall fell and does not meaningfully remember the Cold War. They simply do not have the Baby Boomers or even Generation X's fear and hatred of socialism and communism.

I'll just point to my above post, say I disagree, and leave it at that. But I know I'm weird. :)

(And dated TV shows don't bother me if I find something good about them, which I do in this case. I know that might make me seem weird.)

Edited July 25, 2018 by UYI

[biakbiak]

4 minutes ago, UYI said:

I'll just point to my above post, say I disagree, and leave it at that. But I know I'm weird. :)

I completely agree. I adore Maude and find it holds up a lot better than a lot of sitcoms from the 80s and the 90s and I am not a child of the 60s or the 70s.

[Wiendish Fitch]

Maude Findlay was awesome, awesome was Maude Findlay, that's all ye ever need to know on Earth. :)

[Jacqs]

Maude has fared badly in syndication, though. Murphy Brown is also idolized hereabouts but  has crashed badly in syndication and DVD. Don't let us think we are the average viewer. We aren't. To use a newspaper analogy from my home city, the average person reads the Herald Sun, not The Age.

[biakbiak]

1 minute ago, JacquelineAppleton said:

Murphy Brown is also idolized hereabouts but  has crashed badly in syndication and DVD. D

The numbers can’t be that bad or they wouldn’t have rebooted it.

[Irlandesa]

I think Maude is an interesting case in that they could reboot that show/character and she'd be as relevant today as she was back then.  She was socially aware but could also embarrass herself in how she chose to demonstrate her "wokeness."  Hell sometimes I think I am Maude, both for better and for worse.

But what Murphy and Maude have in common that makes them not a Cheers, Friends, Seinfeld, Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond....etc. when it comes to reruns is not so much that they were of their times but that they referenced their times.  Maude talked about politics, politicians and even some world events, I believe.  Murphy Brown did the same. Ken Levine (who wrote on Cheers and Frasier) always talks about how references to current events date a show and they don't usually rerun very well. 

Edited July 25, 2018 by Irlandesa

[Jacqs]

10 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

Ken Levine (who wrote on Cheers and Frasier) always talks about how references to current events date a show and they don't usually rerun very well. 

Exactly. Without context, much of Murphy and Maude's material falls flat to people who weren't alive and paying attention at the time they were made.

jokes that rely on now-obscure references that won't register with people beyond a certain age, such as the "Living on Limmits?" one from The Young Ones. Indeed, there will be many people who are old enough to remember Limmits who, er, won't remember Limmits, never mind anybody younger.

[UYI]

1 hour ago, JacquelineAppleton said:

Maude has fared badly in syndication, though. Murphy Brown is also idolized hereabouts but  has crashed badly in syndication and DVD. Don't let us think we are the average viewer. We aren't. To use a newspaper analogy from my home city, the average person reads the Herald Sun, not The Age.

Trust me, I've known that for years. I just have to try not to care that much. ;)

29 minutes ago, JacquelineAppleton said:

Exactly. Without context, much of Murphy and Maude's material falls flat to people who weren't alive and paying attention at the time they were made.

 

I guess this goes along with what I said above, but being a history nerd, this doesn't bother me, either. Oh well. :)

To stay on topic, I guess Mary Richards in many ways is a more timeless example of a single woman compared to Maude (even though MTM ironically didn't seem to like the word "feminist" all that much from what I've heard about her in real life), not to mention an example of a more "quietly subversive" feminist character, which in itself is important. But I do think that Maude provided a much needed contrast to that, someone more brash and upfront about her feminism, even if a lot of what the show dealt with is considered dated by some TV viewers today. 

[Jacqs]

Judith Barsi and her co-kid's outfits in this advert from 1985 (Mattel's "Bottle Time Baby doll) raises a couple of questions about gender. Mattel must have thought that two little girls in trousers wouldn't be able to sell baby dolls, but two little girls dressed in fluffy dresses could. Here's the advert. You people's thoughts?

[proserpina65]

On ‎07‎/‎24‎/‎2018 at 5:43 PM, JacquelineAppleton said:

No, Maude doesn't air today because it's aimed squarely at Baby Boomer radicals and that dates it severely. It's inaccessible to people who weren't children of the 60s and 70s. Similarly, on the other end of the spectrum, all those anti-communist shows and movies don't appeal today - someone who is forty in 2020 was nine when the Berlin Wall fell and does not meaningfully remember the Cold War. They simply do not have the Baby Boomers or even Generation X's fear and hatred of socialism and communism.

The original poster was talking about some of the topics, such as the episode where Maude gets an abortion - stuff that would not be on a sitcom today.

On ‎07‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 12:38 AM, JacquelineAppleton said:

Judith Barsi and her co-kid's outfits in this advert from 1985 (Mattel's "Bottle Time Baby doll) raises a couple of questions about gender. Mattel must have thought that two little girls in trousers wouldn't be able to sell baby dolls, but two little girls dressed in fluffy dresses could. Here's the advert. You people's thoughts?

 

Well, you'd have to look at the actual sales figures - they could very well be right.

[meep.meep]

On 7/24/2018 at 8:09 PM, UYI said:

 

To stay on topic, I guess Mary Richards in many ways is a more timeless example of a single woman compared to Maude (even though MTM ironically didn't seem to like the word "feminist" all that much from what I've heard about her in real life), not to mention an example of a more "quietly subversive" feminist character, which in itself is important. But I do think that Maude provided a much needed contrast to that, someone more brash and upfront about her feminism, even if a lot of what the show dealt with is considered dated by some TV viewers today. 

Maude was a married character, not a single woman.  

[UYI]

37 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

Maude was a married character, not a single woman.  

Oh no, I know that, I was talking more about having someone who was obviously an outspoken feminist. It was no secret Maude had been married four times, lol. 

CRAP! I DID say "single woman" in my original post. I only meant Mary, but I can see how that would be confusing when I mentioned Maude right afterwards. I meant a more timeless example of a strong, independent (married or not) woman on television. My bad. 

Edited July 26, 2018 by UYI

[Jacqs]

3 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

Well, you'd have to look at the actual sales figures - they could very well be right.

the sunset colored dress in "Bottle Time Baby" looks like something out of America's Most Beautiful Baby. while the older girl's blue dress looks a lot like Carol Anne from "Poltergeist"'s pajamas.

[selkie]

5 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

The original poster was talking about some of the topics, such as the episode where Maude gets an abortion - stuff that would not be on a sitcom today.

 

 

It's an Australian-made sitcom so it only partly counts, but the episode of Please Like Me (on Hulu in the USA, I think) where Claire gets an abortion is both recent and really well done. But then PLM never shied away from any topic. 

[Jacqs]

4 minutes ago, selkie said:

 

It's an Australian-made sitcom so it only partly counts, but the episode of Please Like Me (on Hulu in the USA, I think) where Claire gets an abortion is both recent and really well done. But then PLM never shied away from any topic. 

But pro vs anti choice re: abortion, and guns, are neither as polarising nor as political volatile in Australia as they are in the USA.

[UYI]

1 hour ago, JacquelineAppleton said:

the sunset colored dress in "Bottle Time Baby" looks like something out of America's Most Beautiful Baby. while the older girl's blue dress looks a lot like Carol Anne from "Poltergeist"'s pajamas.

Not to get too off-topic, but you actually posted that commercial on the 30th anniversary of Judith Barsi's murder yesterday--and of course, Heather O'Rourke died only a few months before her, too. :(

 

Now, back on topic:

I just wanted to continue my discussion the other day on Mary Tyler Moore/Mary Richards by mentioning their immediate predecessor: Marlo Thomas as Ann Marie on That Girl. Ann may have had a steady boyfriend from day one, an apartment paid for by her father, and an endless supply of cute dresses, but she was still the first notable example of an unmarried, childless woman on television living on her own--and while it was clear that concessions had to be made due to the time period, Marlo Thomas fought ABC HARD to make sure that Donald and Ann DID NOT get married in the final episode--I swear I remember her saying once that she felt it would be a betrayal to end a show specifically geared towards depicting a woman living on her own with a wedding. I certainly can't say I blame her for feeling that way! In any case, Mary Richards in 1970 continued were Ann Marie had started in 1966.

And unlike Mary Tyler Moore, Marlo Thomas has always been a PROUD vocal feminist! 

[possibilities]

Shows like Mad Men make references to stories of their time, but somehow they are considered interesting to current day viewers.

I think the issue isn't the references to current events, but more the topics being aired. It wasn't just the abortion, though that was a big one!

It will be interesting to see if we get more such shows ever, or the Normal Lear era of topical liberal comedy was one and done.

I loved Please Like Me! But that was never shown on network TV in the USA.

[Irlandesa]

10 hours ago, possibilities said:

Shows like Mad Men make references to stories of their time, but somehow they are considered interesting to current day viewers.

Mad Men is a drama and an intentional period piece.  It wasn't telling a story with references to its time; its time was 2007-2015. It was telling the story of its world, which was the 60s. But the POV was modern and it was told with all the historical context of being written 40-50 years after it took place.  Saying all that, it was a pretty niche show. 

As for abortion, there was quite a run on abortions in the past year or so.  Both Jane The Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend told stories about abortion, including a married woman having one.  They're dramedies but You're The Worst is a half hour sitcom and a character on that show, also married, had an abortion. So I don't know if I agree that it's a story that wouldn't be told today.  I think it would on a show that wanted to be topical--as opposed to a show like The Big Bang Theory.

Edited July 27, 2018 by Irlandesa

[Jacqs]

the old "oldies" radio format also shows the exclusionary nature of getting too caught up with dates and facts ("LBJ is in the White House, girls have bouffant hair and four boys from Liverpool have come to America. The year is 1964!")

[Raja]

8 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

Mad Men is a drama and an intentional period piece.  It wasn't telling a story with references to its time; its time was 2007-2015. It was telling the story of its world, which was the 60. But the POV was modern and it was told with all the historical context of being written 40-50 years after it took place.  Saying all that, it was a pretty niche show. 

As for abortion, there was quite a run on abortions in the past year or so.  Both Jane The Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend told stories about abortion, including a married woman having one.  They're dramedies but You're The Worst is a half hour sitcom and a character on that show, also married, had an abortion. So I don't know if I agree that it's a story that wouldn't be told today.  I think it would on a show that wanted to be topical--as opposed to a show like The Big Bang Theory.

Along with random out of the nowhere references to an abortion that a lead character had in the past. Remember artist are not just trying to sell soap they are trying to change the world  and move the political conversation where practicable. You could say the pro choice guide is how from the 70s going forward the casual use of out of the closet gay characters and in this century the  upon use of interracial couples which was a taboo before.. .

[Jacqs]

19 hours ago, UYI said:

Not to get too off-topic, but you actually posted that commercial on the 30th anniversary of Judith Barsi's murder yesterday--and of course, Heather O'Rourke died only a few months before her, too. :(

 

The different treatment of Judith and Heather in the public memory illustrates gendered treatment too - Heather is still all but revered as the Poltergeist Girl and that IMO is helped by the fact that she was blonde and blue eyed and so-called "All-American". Judith was - and looked - Eastern European as both her parents were Hungarian and there's still a prejudice in the USA against non-Anglo "ethnic" people, particularly girls and women. Also dying from a birth defect is sad, but being murdered is far worse and that doesn't get acknowledged too much. 

[kathyk24]

On ‎7‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 6:14 PM, UYI said:

Oh no, I know that, I was talking more about having someone who was obviously an outspoken feminist. It was no secret Maude had been married four times, lol. 

CRAP! I DID say "single woman" in my original post. I only meant Mary, but I can see how that would be confusing when I mentioned Maude right afterwards. I meant a more timeless example of a strong, independent (married or not) woman on television. My bad. 

I think Maude would have been a better show if she was single. I never understood why Maude and Walter were together. Archie Bunker and George Jefferson yelled at their spouses but it was clear that they loved them. I never felt that Maude and Walter loved each other. 

[Spartan Girl]

Am I the only one that just cannot stand the Long-Suffering Wife Character Trope? It's just been used so many times that's it's gotten old, and I'm willing to bet that a lot of these characters were written by men.

Theres one example of such a character -- let's call her, oh, maybe, "Smarge Simpson". Her "long-suffering wife" card has been used to many times it just makes her come off whinier and pettier with each passing year. 

Edited July 28, 2018 by Spartan Girl

[Jacqs]

8 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

Am I the only one that just cannot stand the Long-Suffering Wife Character Trope? It's just been used so many times that's it's gotten old, and I'm willing to bet that a lot of these characters were written by men.

Theres one example of such a character -- let's call her, oh, maybe, "Smarge Simpson". Her "long-suffering wife" card has been used to many times it just makes her come off whinier and pettier with each passing year. 

I hate Marge Simpson for a number of reasons. I hate that she forces worship of Christianity onto her husband and children, that she marinates Lisa's veggies in meat juice... she's not "long suffering", she's a despicable human being who tries to force people to adhere to her outdated, hyper-conservative view of the world. She proves that women can be horrible human beings too.

[Spartan Girl]

1 hour ago, JacquelineAppleton said:

I hate Marge Simpson for a number of reasons. I hate that she forces worship of Christianity onto her husband and children, that she marinates Lisa's veggies in meat juice... she's not "long suffering", she's a despicable human being who tries to force people to adhere to her outdated, hyper-conservative view of the world. She proves that women can be horrible human beings too.

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?!

Ahem. But seriously, I couldn't have summed it up better myself. And the show glosses all over that with the "long suffering wife trope" and enables her to always play the victim, even when she's in the wrong.

[Jacqs]

48 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?!

Ahem. But seriously, I couldn't have summed it up better myself. And the show glosses all over that with the "long suffering wife trope" and enables her to always play the victim, even when she's in the wrong.

 

There was an incident a few years ago in the UK where a bunch of real life Marge Simpson types tried to get a Children's BBC presenter with a visible disability sacked because her lack of an arm was supposedly "scaring" their toddlers. Nothing like projecting hatred of the disabled onto your children, is there?

[Spartan Girl]

Jesus, that's awful. I despise those kind of people, male or female.

It's amazing how Marge is portrayed as someone who passes herself as liberal, yet at the same time, acts like all women should have a husband (which is laughable considering how many times she's kicked Homer to the curb), acts like mundane household chores are like going to Disneyworld, wants everybody to believe the same things, and believes that everybody should just mind their Ps and Qs. She's insufferable.

I really hated it when she told Lisa that being a women means she can hold onto a grudge forever. WTF?! This is the kind of sexist crap that we've been fighting against. And she's exactly the reason why the Long Suffering Wife trope has become so stupid: most of the time, theses women know exactly who the guys are when they marry them, yet decide to take them on as their own little "fix-it project". And when it doesn't work, they get bitter and petty. That's not love, let alone a good relationship. And it feels like the writers are using it as another way to reinforce sexist sterotypes.

[Jacqs]

@Spartan Girl Marge was hyper-conservative even when i was watching as a 12 year old in 1992. Remember that episode where she forces Homer and the kids to go to church in the middle of a freezing blizzard rather than do what someone who wasn't a radical conservative would do and simply not go that week?

[Spartan Girl]

4 hours ago, JacquelineAppleton said:

@Spartan Girl Marge was hyper-conservative even when i was watching as a 12 year old in 1992. Remember that episode where she forces Homer and the kids to go to church in the middle of a freezing blizzard rather than do what someone who wasn't a radical conservative would do and simply not go that week?

Yeah, I view that whole episode differently now, Marge taking such issue with Homer deciding he didn't want to go to church anymore. 

But the one that makes madder was when Reverand Lovejoy called Lisa Marge's "devil daughter" because he converted to Buddism, and Marge didn't do anything to defend her, but instead joined in Lovejoy in trying to bribe and guilt her back to Christianity. Chalk it up to another example of Marge being a control freak.

[Jacqs]

@Spartan Girl as you said, they keep portraying Marge as liberal when her actions and words indicate that she is a reactionary old trout who can't stand challenges to her 1950s white picket fence "everyone should believe in Jesus" reactionary worldview. Refusing to accept Lisa's stated wishes and trying to force her to conform to meat eating and to Marge's really fringey brand of Protestant Christianity just makes me rageful.

[Jacqs]

@Spartan Girl Another thing i hate about the early seasons is when Marge is referred to, or refers to herself as, "Mrs. Homer J. Simpson". I know that's how "Mrs" is meant to formally be used ("Mrs. Woman's First Name Husband's Last Name" is only formally correct for divorced women) but it's just another example of how outdated and reactionary she is.

Edited July 29, 2018 by JacquelineAppleton

[proserpina65]

On ‎07‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 10:03 PM, selkie said:

 

It's an Australian-made sitcom so it only partly counts, but the episode of Please Like Me (on Hulu in the USA, I think) where Claire gets an abortion is both recent and really well done. But then PLM never shied away from any topic. 

There are shows on various alternative platforms which would have no problem handling subjects like abortion, but Maude aired on a major commercial network.  I don't think ABC, CBS or NBC would allow a sitcom to handle such a divisive issue now.

Edited July 30, 2018 by proserpina65

[Jacqs]

1 hour ago, proserpina65 said:

There are shows on various alternative platforms which would have no problem handling subjects like abortion, but Maude aired on a major commercial network.  I don't think ABC, CBS or NBC would allow a sitcom to handle such a divisive issue now.

Yep. In the USA, abortion is viciously politicised, much more than here in Australia. My friends on the left should ignore the polls in the USA showing widespread acceptance of abortion - the real support will be lower as people can and do lie to pollsters, especially if they feel guilty and or ashamed for their prejudice (cf. the exit polls in the 1992 UK election which indicated people had voted for the Labour Party when they hadn't)

[proserpina65]

5 minutes ago, JacquelineAppleton said:

Yep. In the USA, abortion is viciously politicised, much more than here in Australia. My friends on the left should ignore the polls in the USA showing widespread acceptance of abortion - the real support will be lower as people can and do lie to pollsters, especially if they feel guilty and or ashamed for their prejudice (cf. the exit polls in the 1992 UK election which indicated people had voted for the Labour Party when they hadn't)

It's not that support for abortion is lower than polls indicate; those polls are actually fairly accurate in that respect.  It's that the 'pro-life' extremists tend to be the loudest, much like extremists of any ilk, and I think many advertisers shy away from controversy.

Edited July 30, 2018 by proserpina65

[Jacqs]

If any one wants to see Judith Barsi's TV Tropes page, it's here (and by the way WTF did Turner Classic Movies mean when they described Judith as "waif-like"? She's not Young Cosette from Les Mis)

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/JudithBarsi

[Trini]

'TV's writers' rooms have a mother of a problem' -- about how being a mother can make even harder to work as a woman in Hollywood. Part 2 focuses on a few places that are making accommodations for working mothers.

[Dee]

Emmys: Directing and Writing Nominations Still Woefully Lack Female Representation

Quote

Progress can be frustratingly slow, and that’s been the case when it comes to the Primetime Emmy writing and directing categories. While there are more female writers and directors nominated for Emmys this year than 10 years ago, they are still underrepresented on the final ballot. And what’s more, their representation is not keeping pace with the overall growth of women writers and directors in the TV industry.

[methodwriter85]

On 7/18/2018 at 6:57 PM, UYI said:

I can't speak on the quality of the show--I've never really watched it--but as I've posted here before, the producers of this show were sexist AF and treated the women terribly. Joyce DeWitt's unyielding (yet quiet) anger during this E! True Hollywood Story on the show gives me LIFE.

I loved what she said- that "if that's how the game is played, then I don't want to play it anymore." The fact that she spent 8 years helping to make those producers rich and they couldn't be honest about what they were doing (setting up a spin-off) is incredibly hurtful and disrespectful, and I don't blame her for not getting over it.