I realize I may be the only person posting this week because I happen to be here, but . . . LOL
Do any of you watch The Apprentice? The show is so completely sexist, I'm amazed that no one has said anything. The tasks so far have been 1) baking cupcakes 2) creating an ad for a website that caters to the "everday woman" and 3) selling wedding gowns. The groups are, of course, segregated by gender.
On the first episode, I feel like the men had a much stronger ad campaign. They had a good location, they generated a lot of attention, and they sold a lot of cupcakes. However, they lost. Do you know where the women set up camp? In front of the Playboy offices and a former Playboy model called in favors and sold extraordinarily pricey cupcakes to a lot of men (in her defense, some women, too). Seriously - I was thinking are these cupcakes purchased in exchange for sexual favors? I'm sure that's not the case, but that was clearly the implication. Can they not just be good business women? Do they have to involve sex appeal? I'll not even go into all the crude remarks made by Andrew Dice Clay that were poitedly ignored by everyone on set. Seriously - "reality" TV? Either way you look at it, this is a sorry example of reality. Either women are routinely treated as unintelligent bimbos or we live in a society that never speaks up when such comments are made. I don't like either of those choices.
I didn't catch all of the second episode, but I did see the end product each group created. The website they were creating an ad for was www.zappos.com. From what I can see on the site, it caters to both men and women in apparel, but the comic book character both groups designed was a "superwoman" who saved the "everyday" woman from portraying a poor physical appearance. Why was a woman chosen to be the comic book character and why was a woman chosen as the victim who needed saving? And seriously - what did she need to be saved from? From not complying the the sociocultural standards for appearance demanded by men in a sex-for-consumption environment? Maybe I've been reading too many articles for my paper, but I just couldn't see past this issue in this episode. In addition to that, Trump goes so far as to mention how he tried to hook up with one of the apprentice candidates (the Playboy bunny) back before he became THE Trump and asks her why she didn't wear the supergirl outfit. Oh, so now "reality" TV includes sexual harrassment of women in major corporations?
I haven't yet watched the third episode, but the commercial implied that the women have an unfair advantage because they are females. Because all females inherently understand weddings and wedding dresses?
Part of me cannot believe I am reading so much into all of this, but the other part of me cannot believe that this goes unchallenged on TV! Really - what message does my daughter grasp from this show? That to be a successful business woman she must comply with the social dictates that oppress women? Although the women have won every task so far, I can't help but wonder if they're wins are the result of skill and talent in the job or skill at utilizing her beauty currency/feminity to manipulate men?
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Haha I'm not in Clemson but I'm only at home in Columbia so I'll reply!
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen the apprentice but I've heard a lot of very similar criticism from other friends, especially about the cupcake ordeal. I think that, however, this is true of many shows that are like this. I feel like a lot of the "reality" tv shows show over-sexualized women. I find myself often thinking, "good lord, I would never wear that while working!" or something of that sort (or just "good lord, I would never wear that!" period)
However, I understand that while media plays a big role in shaping our ideals and while there are many fields where women still appear to be far more disadvantaged (or advantaged) based solely on gender, I think that perhaps there are also a lot of areas where it does not matter so much anymore. I think that there is more of a push for qualifications. And I think that a lot of the "qualifications" for women on the apprentice are quite laughable (at least for the UK apprentice. I scanned through a list of the female's qualifications that I found on google.) Some of them have legitimately good degrees for the projects (like marketing) but some of them just look silly, especially in their personal statements. I know that it might be different for the apprentice here but I highly doubt it since it seems to go that way in a lot of cases (but perhaps I will google it later and find out). At any rate, I don't think that "reality" tv reflects reality all that well and as such this is perhaps not the way that it would ever turn out in a real-life situation...not that they'd be doing these "challenges" in a real-life situation. I feel as if I'm rambling now but basically I just think that yes, the media is portraying women as idiot manipulators which is amusing to me because we're so dumb but still able to manipulate our way to the top. I think, however, that this is not a reflection on reality and that not all of our knowledge on the workings of such endeavors comes from television shows. I think that in some cases it is starting to even out some, especially as women are earning more high level degrees and that we are seeing changes come about accordingly. I don't think that this has very much to do with their looks or ability to manipulate on this basis.
I completely understand your thought process other Rebecca but I hope you see the other side too! :)
To both our Rebeccas -
ReplyDeletethis is not overthinking, but righteous anger and strong analysis! It's frustrating that this overt sexuality seemingly cannot be escaped. I'm a fan of the CSI shows, NY in particular. They have some strong, smart, amazing women characters, but I could do with a lot less cleavage on them. Two steps forward, one step back (or something like that).
Alas, as you mentioned in the main post, Rebecca, becoming more aware of these issues, and reading in depth on generalities and specificities, most certainly effects one's ability to float along in the world and not see damaging constructions all around. One of my favorite bumper-sticker-esque quotes: "If you're not angry, you're not paying attention!"
Now I have to decide whether this makes me want to run screaming from The Apprentice, or watch immediately...