Reality Women…Really?

I believe, like many other feminists, that we are experiencing a backlash regarding the image of women in television. Our young girls get a lot of information regarding the image of women from television.

Our family doesn’t watch much television so I’m not really up to date with current, positive images of women on TV. But, since we were all off for spring break, we got quite a bit more exposure than typical.

I was surprised by the amount of reality TV shows and the role women played. Here are just a few examples just off the top of my head…

• The Bachelor-Women desperately fighting for and doing anything for a man.

• American Idol’s Paul Abdul- Is she drunk, high, or just bizarre being the only professional on the show who can’t provide constructive criticism.

• America’s Next Top Model- The title says it all.

• Platinum Weddings- Women planning wedding ceremonies that cost approximately one-million dollars or more...seriously.

• Bridezillas-Now I appreciate strong, opinionated women, but there really needs to be a respectable balance here...embarrassing!

• Little Miss Perfect-Pageants for young children and their mothers.

• 17 Kids and Counting-The example here is that you should have 18 children, birth all of them, home school them, and be full of grace…definitely not my reality.

• Flavor of Love- This one makes my skin crawl…I don’t know what else to say.

• The Real Housewives of (pick a city)- Is this really reality?

• Say Yes to the Dress- A show dedicated to the drama of picking out your wedding dress.

• Who’s Your Daddy?- Need I say more?
• The Girl's Next Door- This is a show about the Playboy Bunnies.
  

• Nanny 911/Super Nanny-Even the women who stay at home with the children can’t handle their own kids and have to be “rescued”!

What messages are we sending our girls? What message are we sending our adult women? Is this really reality for America’s women? I hope not!

Where are the shows with the strong, intelligent, leading women?! If I am missing them, please send them to me (I don’t watch as much television as I did as a youngster). I asked my family and they could only come up with the following: Hannah Montana, iCarly, Medium, The Closer, and Mariska Hargitay on Law and Order SVU. My concern is that with just these few shows listed, there is a big hole in the programming for our pre-teen and teenage girls (they don’t watch the Nickelodeon shows and probably don’t view Medium, Law and Order SVU, etc.). I also wonder what our young men’s concept of women’s roles are? Do they think this is what real women are all about? If so, they’re in for a rude awakening.

I recall growing up in the 1970s with The Bionic Woman, Cagney and Lacey, Charlie’s Angels, Maude, Murphy Brown, Mary Tyler Moore, etc. And these leading ladies were a big, positive change compared to June Cleaver and I Dream of Jeanie, etc. We made tremendous progress and now here we are in 2009…what happened?!

I feel like we’re slipping here with our prime time TV image. We need more positive role models for our girls and our women in television. We need to pressure the television executives to portray women in better, more respectable roles. We need women in prime time TV roles that really reflect real women.

Think about it. We don't want this to be our reality.