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      While all three of these shows portrayed women in all different types of jobs, they do seem to share a number of ideas. The first idea that all three of these shows share is the importance of male dominance and patriarchy. In all three of these shows the women are given their power by men, and in turn, are controlled by them. Mary Richards was hired by Lou Grant and in turn, answers to him. Jaime was given life by Oscar, and in turn, obeys his commands. Finally, the "Angels were "saved" by Charlie and in turn, answer to his. As one women stated, "Women are never independantly in charge of their own lives" on TV (Rock 24). At least according to the episodes that I watched, this idea seems to be true.

      The next issue that appears in all of these shows is power. While all the women in these shows achive power in different ways, none of them concentrate on using their own intelligence or internal beings as a means of achievement. Instead, they turn to tricks that undermind their own capablities as fully competent women, with thoughts and feelings all their own. The Charlies Angels most definetly use sex, Mary Richards uses her wholesome, vulnerable personality and the Bionic Woman uses her artificial body parts to achieve.

      Another issue that is common to these shows is that a women, if they dare to enter a man's world, needs to retain as much feminity as possible and in addition, cling to their "traditional gender roles" as much as possible. The Charlies Angels exploit their bodies and dress up like prostitutes as they fight bad men. Mary Reichards practices the passive, vulnerable characteristic of a "traditional female" and relies, almost solely on a "mothering quality." Finally, The Bionic Woman uses sex and vulnerability to get what she wants. In addition, they all seem to be neat and trim in both appearance and attitude.

      In addition, there are a number of ideas that are not shared by the three shows, but nevertheless become very important. In the Bionic Woman, Jaime needed to rely on child-like behaviors, hide her talent, and deal with constant critisism from men who were not thrilled by her arrival into "their" world. In The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mary needed to hold back her opinions, dress immaculately, and solve all of her fellow coworker's problems. Finally, in Charlie's Angels, they had to deal with ditsy drug addicts, sexism, and the dilema of when to find time to wash their hair.

      Although these three shows do depict single-working women (at least in name) and women who often fulfill their duties with little interventional from a man, Are these women actually in line with the dreams and desires of the women in the Liberation Movement of the 1970's?

      Let's compare them and find out...





      And the winner is... NO!!!
      They are not similar at all

      Although the TV women have the makings of a "New Woman" as defined by the Liberation Movement (i.e. they are single and working) many of these characters, at least in these three episodes that I watched, fail to encompase any of the experiences or desires of the Women's Liberation Movement.

      Because these shows do run so counter to the ideas that the Women's Movement preach, although they seem to perfectly coincide with it, a couple of questions arise. Why do we see these women on TV if they are not a true representation of the working woman in the 1970's? Why do these women appear to be traditional females masquarading as the "new women" of the 1970's?

      I believe that the answer to this, lies somewhere within the male population of the 1970 's society and the ideas, greed and materialistic values of the writers and producers of TV land.