So why is it Still on our TV Screens?
Come on sisters! We want equality. We want fairness among the sexes. So will somebody please explain to me why in the hell the ‘dating’ show that is ‘Take Me Out‘ ever made it past a flippin’ pilot show and on to our televisions? Am I missing a trick? Because to me all this programme screams is total and utter sexism!
If you haven’t viewed said show before, here’s the rub.
A semi circle of (mostly) dizzy twentysomethings of a certain stature and hair type… almost always with poker straight bangs and extremely small clothes. And a guy. The latter makes his grand entree in an elevator to take his cherry pick from the array of ‘hotties’. Oh, and Paddy McGuinness who plays host. A funny and talented comedian and actor whose previous CV is frankly wasted. Somebody tell him!
So what’s wrong with any of the above?
Well, nothing if we’re going to have all things fair in lurve and war. Except they are not. And the last time I reluctantly agreed to submit to watching said shenanigans, – okay, confession time…that’d be this weekend because there was nothing…and I mean nothing on TV – there still wasn’t a sassy, feisty and independent woman making her way down in the elevator to take her pick among a giggly and excited male contingent.
Which to me says two things:
1) Women in these modern times are still being paraded like objects to gratify the ‘dominant’ sex.
2) Women are not helping themselves by agreeing to subject themselves to take part in a show that’s a trashy, discriminative excuse for entertainment.
Strong words from a positivity guru, perhaps. But I am beginning to wonder how sane this world of television executives really is?
Cilla would never have fronted a show with such inequality!
Back in the days of ‘Blind Date’, a format which was well-thought out, fun and didn’t base one’s decision to date another purely on looks and the number of tattoos emblazoned across a chest in the ‘sneaky peek’ style video of the guy working out/revealing his weird pasttime, it was a very different affair. A partition wall kept the identity of three male contestants covered. A woman got to do the chatting up too and, okay, plenty of daft questions aside, it was based on personality and brains as opposed to brawn. A date took place between the lady and her lucky fella (and vice versa when it was the guys turn to pick from the girls) and hallelujah, it wasn’t always to the imaginary island of bloody Fernando’s. Which to me is just another metaphor for the stereotypical blonde bimbo who signs up to Take Me Out…
‘Well, she won’t know anything about geography, so let’s just tell the girls that anywhere abroad is called Fernando’s… keeps the budget down as well if we jet them all off to the same place, after all, all they’ll want to do is wear bikinis and have sex… no need to arrange a date in the Antarctic, the rain forest, or the cultural delights of Vienna for this lot.‘
You can still hear the echoes of the TV execs’ conversations.
Listen, the show has potential. I’ll grant it that.
If you like that sort of thing. And if you give the woman the upper hand with a selection of madfurrit men. But not at the expense of women’s lib! And call me a feminist, go on, I don’t mind. But #youthinkitwesayit is what us Glass House Girls are all about. And sometimes, just sometimes, as un-LOA as it may be, I need to have a rant. Today is one of those days. Us women have worked our arses off for liberty, equality and all the rest of it. So when something sticks out like a sore thumb… and I’m not exactly reading a whole bunch of protest style material about it from any other dimension, then damn right I am going to say what I think. This sort of show is not good enough.
Because equality means equality in ALL areas.
We want to be paid for our merits in the workplace and shatter those petulant glass ceilings, we fought for the vote, we want fairer treatment for our girls in government and for academic opportunities in third world countries. We even want to have the right to fart without the male of the species rolling their eyes. So it’s not rocket science. We either scrap such pathetic portrayals of women in media, or we add the men into the mix too. We cannot have fairness any other way, because it works both ways.
So, ladies across the land: next time you find yourself rollicking around on the floor in fits as the airhead wearing a serviette gets ditched by the Romeo who prefers the brunette in the boob tube, you may as well be holding up a mirror. We are looking at ourselves. We are one. So stand up for your sisters.
