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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.
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