... in which I've seen your drill press a million times
I'm one of those people who likes making things relevant: I think everything is political, and if there's a way to turn something into a continuum rather than discrete, seperate things, then I will. And so, when I watched Green Wing for the first time the other day, I had some random political thoughts. About TV. Cause I'm deep, me.
I started off thinking "wow, there's a lot of women in this show, THAT IS SO COOL", and on the one hand, this is true and it's awesome. But on the other, the gender balance only seems so female-heavy because it's equal. Counting, men and women get about equal screen time - it's just in comparison to every other show out there that it seems all about the women. And then there's Guy, who kind of scares me because he's the kind of sexist manipulative asshole who actually exists, and Mac. And between them, Mac and Guy are the moral force of the show - Mac being Mary-Sue levels of good and Guy being eeeevil. They are the standards in the show by which other things get measured: the main dilemma of the show is whether Caroline's going to end up with Mac or make the wrong choice and go with Guy, Sue is partly exonerated as being good despite being crazy because she fancies Mac. And it bugs me so much because I want to laud this show as a beautiful feminist comedy utopia, but then they put most of the importance of the show into the men, and the women are all way too characterised through their sex lives for me to be entirely comfortable with it.
Like.. the Dykes To Watch Out For Test for films asks whether a movie has more than one female character and if, during the film, they have a conversation with each other that does not revolve around men. (It is totally fucking disgraceful how few films fulfill even that simple women-friendly requirement, incidentally.) And as I was watching, I kept thinking... there are lots of women, and they have conversations with each other, but pretty much all of them seem to be about men. Or about how to be attractive to men.
Strangers With Candy is kind of the opposite. There's less women numerically (although Jerri as the main character influences that), but their lives revolve much less around the men. And even though the most awful sexist crap gets spouted, it gets explicitly shown up as being awful sexist crap: I'm specifically thinking of the scene in To Love, Honor and Pretend where Geoffrey and Cherri make a pretend budget, and he puts up ridiculous fish-based things and when she asks for a dishwasher he laughs and says that they've already got one, "your hands in the sink!" It's one of the most gorgeously and truly feminist things I've ever seen on television. Also, the men and women in Strangers with Candy are equally awful - the people who are shown most positively are probably Tammi and Orlando, a guy and a girl who pretty much share the moral highground, what there is of it.
Which isn't to say Green Wing is not funny or anything... it is funny and even just getting women on screen at all is, sadly, a win at this stage. A good portion of the difference comes from the different intention - Strangers with Candy is explicitly political, and Green Wing isn't. It's also relevant that in Green Wing the men are mostly just as sex-crazed as the women. But... the point of view of Green Wing is such a very male sexualised one, with so much more 'oh look at the hot' gratuity being dedicated to the women than the men. Out of a large cast of women, the only one who isn't sexualised is... the mum, who is, of course, dumpy and doesn't really have anything else in her life other than her family. (To be fair, they do make it clear that her life is difficult, but the fact remains that she is the only female cast member who isn't fairly conventionally good looking, where there are multiple 'unattractive' men who have more to their lives than that.) And men finding women unattractive being considered funny in and of itself... it's less the unattractive bit and more that their attitude towards it implies that whether or not men think something's attractive is the most important bit. For a show that seems on the surface so women-friendly, it seems like a lot more time is spent on the men's opinions (and on things other than sex) than the women's, and it bothers me that this show I honestly like seems to be upholding some really bad ideas. Ideas that it assumes are true, presents as true in a way Strangers with Candy doesn't, that just plain aren't.
It also bugs me that it seems like to be successful, a show with lots of women in it can't make feminist points without being labelled 'extreme feminist tv' or something. Like you have to decide which is more important to you: getting women on TV, or having your comedy make feminist points. For instance - Smack the Pony, ex-members of which are now in Green Wing. That was good, and very feminist in its own non-extreme and non-political way. It had women who were funny outside of their relationships with men. And what the hell happened to that? Why did the feminism vanish as soon as they're in a show with men? It's not impossible, so why do people either think it is or make it so? Why do men's stories trump women's every single goddamn time?
Eh, I'm all conflicted, so I really hope somebody here has something to make me feel better about liking Green Wing. Cause I honestly do like the characters - even Mac, cause for all he's a Mary Sue, he's weirdly loveable, and I adore Caroline and Sue, like, a lot. Also, getting so many women on TV really is a hugely cool step forward, something completely unheard of even ten years ago. It's just that I really kind of wish it passed the Dykes To Watch Out For test more.
I started off thinking "wow, there's a lot of women in this show, THAT IS SO COOL", and on the one hand, this is true and it's awesome. But on the other, the gender balance only seems so female-heavy because it's equal. Counting, men and women get about equal screen time - it's just in comparison to every other show out there that it seems all about the women. And then there's Guy, who kind of scares me because he's the kind of sexist manipulative asshole who actually exists, and Mac. And between them, Mac and Guy are the moral force of the show - Mac being Mary-Sue levels of good and Guy being eeeevil. They are the standards in the show by which other things get measured: the main dilemma of the show is whether Caroline's going to end up with Mac or make the wrong choice and go with Guy, Sue is partly exonerated as being good despite being crazy because she fancies Mac. And it bugs me so much because I want to laud this show as a beautiful feminist comedy utopia, but then they put most of the importance of the show into the men, and the women are all way too characterised through their sex lives for me to be entirely comfortable with it.
Like.. the Dykes To Watch Out For Test for films asks whether a movie has more than one female character and if, during the film, they have a conversation with each other that does not revolve around men. (It is totally fucking disgraceful how few films fulfill even that simple women-friendly requirement, incidentally.) And as I was watching, I kept thinking... there are lots of women, and they have conversations with each other, but pretty much all of them seem to be about men. Or about how to be attractive to men.
Strangers With Candy is kind of the opposite. There's less women numerically (although Jerri as the main character influences that), but their lives revolve much less around the men. And even though the most awful sexist crap gets spouted, it gets explicitly shown up as being awful sexist crap: I'm specifically thinking of the scene in To Love, Honor and Pretend where Geoffrey and Cherri make a pretend budget, and he puts up ridiculous fish-based things and when she asks for a dishwasher he laughs and says that they've already got one, "your hands in the sink!" It's one of the most gorgeously and truly feminist things I've ever seen on television. Also, the men and women in Strangers with Candy are equally awful - the people who are shown most positively are probably Tammi and Orlando, a guy and a girl who pretty much share the moral highground, what there is of it.
Which isn't to say Green Wing is not funny or anything... it is funny and even just getting women on screen at all is, sadly, a win at this stage. A good portion of the difference comes from the different intention - Strangers with Candy is explicitly political, and Green Wing isn't. It's also relevant that in Green Wing the men are mostly just as sex-crazed as the women. But... the point of view of Green Wing is such a very male sexualised one, with so much more 'oh look at the hot' gratuity being dedicated to the women than the men. Out of a large cast of women, the only one who isn't sexualised is... the mum, who is, of course, dumpy and doesn't really have anything else in her life other than her family. (To be fair, they do make it clear that her life is difficult, but the fact remains that she is the only female cast member who isn't fairly conventionally good looking, where there are multiple 'unattractive' men who have more to their lives than that.) And men finding women unattractive being considered funny in and of itself... it's less the unattractive bit and more that their attitude towards it implies that whether or not men think something's attractive is the most important bit. For a show that seems on the surface so women-friendly, it seems like a lot more time is spent on the men's opinions (and on things other than sex) than the women's, and it bothers me that this show I honestly like seems to be upholding some really bad ideas. Ideas that it assumes are true, presents as true in a way Strangers with Candy doesn't, that just plain aren't.
It also bugs me that it seems like to be successful, a show with lots of women in it can't make feminist points without being labelled 'extreme feminist tv' or something. Like you have to decide which is more important to you: getting women on TV, or having your comedy make feminist points. For instance - Smack the Pony, ex-members of which are now in Green Wing. That was good, and very feminist in its own non-extreme and non-political way. It had women who were funny outside of their relationships with men. And what the hell happened to that? Why did the feminism vanish as soon as they're in a show with men? It's not impossible, so why do people either think it is or make it so? Why do men's stories trump women's every single goddamn time?
Eh, I'm all conflicted, so I really hope somebody here has something to make me feel better about liking Green Wing. Cause I honestly do like the characters - even Mac, cause for all he's a Mary Sue, he's weirdly loveable, and I adore Caroline and Sue, like, a lot. Also, getting so many women on TV really is a hugely cool step forward, something completely unheard of even ten years ago. It's just that I really kind of wish it passed the Dykes To Watch Out For test more.