In 1976, Paddy Chayefsky put the finishing touches on the script to a movie called Network, which satirized the exploitations of the television industry. It was outrageously cynical, completely absurd and observant as all hell. Here we are in 2010 and our television lineup looks like Faye Dunaway’s Diana Christensen programmed it for UBS. The Bachelor, Rock of Love, Flavor of Love, I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant, Millionaire Matchmaker. People have literally thrown away any level of personal dignity for a chance at either ratings, money, or both.
But while it was amusing to watch The Osbournes swear or Jessica confuse tuna or fashion designers make dresses out of trash bags, watching women backstab one another in order to win unnecessary surgical procedures is pushing the needle too far. By watching E’s new reality series, Bridalplasty, not only have we given up rewarding any semblance of a skill, we are willingly participating in a woman’s self-mutilation. And frankly, I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore.
Women, I implore you. We’ve worked hard to obtain some respect and credibility as professionals. We’ve worked to balance motherhood with career. We’ve worked hard to manage our hormones with our brains. We’ve worked hard to obtain some influence and even power. We’ve proven that we can compete with men in sports. Yet we’ve allowed ourselves as a gender to be repeatedly degraded and humiliated on television. We have collectively represented ourselves as a gender who will will rip their bodies apart in order to get a man… or stay relevant. And it has got to stop.
In 1974, William Goldman adapted a novel into what would become The Stepford Wives, a movie about the lengths people will go to keep women in their place. The only way to do that of course was to turn them all into robots. In our incarnation of The Stepford Wives, we’ve taken it a step further. Men are not taking us down and implanting us with a digital chip. The women are willingly reconstructing themselves into something that is no longer even physically appealing! We cannot blame men or the networks or the casting departments or their programming departments when we sit here and watch these shows, and we willingly line up and audition for them. We willingly sign contracts that allow people to exploit us. We willingly mutilate ourselves, and the reason we do it — other women tell us to.
And that is not ok.
It is not ok to take a bunch of female “contestants”, none of which are even over 35, and repeatedly affirm their insecurities with a bunch of humiliating televised exercises. It is not ok to turn women into vultures who will attack one another for the chance to be shot up with botox or sliced open like a peach with the reward of looking unrecognizable on your wedding day, a day that incidentally is supposed to be a celebration of two people who have committed to love each other no matter what.
We wonder why celebrities have massacred their stunning faces with lips that look like they’ve been attacked by wasps and cheek implants so pronounced you could eat dinner off of them. We wonder why actresses trying to make it will drop thirty pounds just to get a headline magazine cover. We wonder about the women who go on reality shows to beg for a date. Well, why wouldn’t they? We have sent them a message that this is ok.
Most of us ladies are in a search to find ourselves, but the compass we’ve been sold is broke. Instead of blaming the manufacturer, it’s time we just changed the damn channel ourselves and drove them out of business, before this mutilated version of Stepford takes over completely. I mean, aren’t we all tired of remakes anyway?
Daryn
I remember seeing a commercial for this show, and I just shook my head in disgust. I felt embarrassed for the ‘contestants’ and disgusted that this show even exists. It reminded me of the ‘The Swan’, another reality show that took ‘ugly ducklings’ and turned them into ‘Swans’.
We not only need to not watch this, but we need to create some sort of petition that says this show needs to go.
I wouldn’t know about these shows at all unless I read about them on blogs such as these. Do what I did. Kill your television. Go outside. Ride a bike. Make a meal. Spend time with your family. The less you watch television, the easier it is to love oneself.
I’m all for unplugging from the boob tube, but let’s not sit around and wait til Internet TV turns your PC into a dumb box! If not for sites like this, I wouldn’t be able to find web series about women (with clothes on), or made for women (who weren’t diapering a baby or painting their foyers). Women have GOT to ratchet up and support other women– in every field– but specifically those making decent content for women. The investment money goes where there are eyeballs. So check in on some of these listed series and make sure you SUBSCRIBE! The added revenues will go towards better production values, better writing, better talent, etc. Eventually, we may be able to create an entertainment industry that gives a shit what HALF THE AUDIENCE would like to see!