Rosanne Barr on Sexism & Network Television

[xulamaude]

Two out of every three shows on TV include sexual content, an increase from about half of all shows during the 1997-98 television season [the last season of the groundbreaking Roseanne, which ran for nearly a decade to top ratings]. The most widely viewed shows -- those airing in primetime on the major networks -- are even more likely to include sexual content. The bitches and ho's model isn't solely the province of gangsta rap. It's rampant in a more homogenized mode on TV.

Networks know that sex sells and their patron and cash cow is advertising. So we get female stereotypes with few exceptions, because that is what passes as humor in a culture that services the adolescent, chronically masturbating male -- the "target demographic" of network TV, which runs ads for movies that those chronic masturbators will pay to see.

Soft-core porn is big business with kids these days.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/roseanne-barr-wants-tv-viewers-665424

[seabeyond]

1. i will read in a bit, but want to throw out. i was being told, you see sexism everywhere.

i said... it is everywhere. i cannot keep it out of my fuckin house. i am being fuckin drowned in the sexism. i am not going out looking for it. i am not sitting there eyeballing for it. i am fuckin minding my own business, isolated in my own house and still.... it is fuckin everywhere.

this was my fault. my problem

so i quit watching tv

no, it did not use to be like this.

the normalization of the porn and pornification of women in our every day shows. the blatant obvious conditioning our society, fuckin in your face conditioning, condition that talks to us like we are dumbshits, 1. 2. 3., sexism all day long on tv. rape... as entertainment and sexualized for men to get off on, normalized on tv shows.

but, i am not supposed to say anything, be effected, call it out. just more... shut the fuck up

i stopped watching tv

[xulamaude]

2. The network show that always comes to mind for me

is Law and Order: SVU. That show is going into its 16th season.

When it first came on tv I was really impressed (and happy because I had worked with Mariska Hargitay way back when were quite young and was pleased to see her in a good, strong female role) with the groundbreaking nature of the show. Instead of sweeping the reality of rape and child molestation under the rug they were exposing it and being serious about it.

But over the years it's just slid into more of the same normalization-of-rape, semi-pornographic, titillating bullshit that is what passes for entertainment. And I stopped watching it. I feel sorry for Mariska because it seems that she still thinks the show is doing the good work it was doing in the early seasons (she also has quite a bit of control over the content these days...) and is not seeing what we see. It's tough for a woman to work in the industry and not be sucked into the male mindset. That was a big contributing factor in my decision to leave the biz.

[ismnotwasm]

3. I call them "dead chick shows"

With irony intended. I used to kind of like them, then I noticed a pattern, although the dead weren't always women, for too often the dead women were cheating wives, prostitutes, complicit in some crime involving a man, femme fatale's ect.. Then I saw one show with a plot line that just pissed me off. I was done.

In fact, other than movies, I don't watch TV shows anymore.

[xulamaude]

4. I barely watch any tv anymore

although I love Ancient Aliens because there is more rational, critical thinking on that show than some other places I know of...

Last night I ordered up Veep with Julia Louis-Dreyfus (HBO and nominated for a Golden Globe) through google-play - watched 2 episodes and am already wishing there were more than 8