Television- Women's Kryptonite?

In Susan Douglas’s first chapter, “Get the Girls” she discusses popular TV shows in the 90’s and their affects on women, and teenage girls more specifically. She shows how shows like 90210 created an ideal woman as an appearance focused, more materialistic person rather than a moral and just person. Douglas writes, “so 90210 was an important early building block of enlightened sexism because it insisted that the true, gratifying pleasure for girls, and their real source of power, came from consumerism, girliness, and the approval of guys” (p.31).

Today, I still find this idea to be true. Parents are always wary when their young children watch TV because they don’t want their kids to copy something negative or inappropriate they see on the television. However, this censorship usually ends when the children reach their teens and are deemed mature enough to watch R rated movies and more explicit shows. But, even though these children have matured, they still tend to perceive televisions depictions of society as the norm. These shows not only affect young woman, but also young men and their views of women. I once had my guy friend tell me he wanted to be just like Christian, the egotistical, extremely sexist plastic surgeon on Nip Tuck. I was shocked by this because not only does Christian lack any respect for women, he also is portrayed as depressed and suffering from emotional issues. Yet, because he was so successful and had sex with many beautiful woman on the show, my friend desired to be like him. My friend, probably like most sexually driven teenage boys, was overcome with Christian’s relationships with women instead of his more realistic life problems of depression and fear of commitment. This show set up an example of a successful man disrespecting women yet having women madly desire him. I noticed after this show came on the air, my friend changed a bit and became ruder and more sexist to women. Shows like 90210 and Gossip Girl set a negative, yet popular example of how young men should behave towards young women.

On the other hand, I recently got my nails done over break, when my manicurist was telling me about a 11 year old girl who came in every month to do her nails. I found this absurd. To me it showed how our women and girls in our society were indeed affected by this materialistic image of how a woman should look and behave. I had never gotten a manicure until I was at least 15, so I was shocked by this story and this young girls obsession with appearance.

These shows, 90210, Nip Tuck, Gossip Girl, all started the wave of new “enlightened sexism” and unfortunately, have lead to a tsunami of shows following in their footsteps. Television and media will always be a major part of society, but as a younger growing generation, I think it is our jobs to really watch shows with a critical eye because of the negative impacts they had have on women.