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"I Would Defend This Show To My Death:" Evaluating The Real Housewives
On TV, Single, Middle-Aged Women Are Aliens
Channeling Stereotypes Of Men & Women On TV

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otherginger
11/05/09

In reply to "I Would Defend This Show To My Death:" Evaluating The Real Housewives
My father, Harvard/MIT grad rocket scientist of 75, confessed to me he thought he'd watch two minutes of an Orange County episode and was confounded to find himself sucked into the entire episode (I did not ask if the cleavage helped - this is my DAD). The housewives are repulsive and yet fascinating - in fact, the more repulsive (hi, Kim!) the more fascinating. Anyway, I watch em all. Not ashamed. I enjoy feeling superior to people who have lots more money than I do. #therealhousewives
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maybeimamazed02
11/05/09

@otherginger: My mom has a master's degree and a high-profile marketing job. Guess who got me and my sister watching The Girls Next Door? #therealhousewives
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lurkerbynature
11/05/09

In reply to "I Would Defend This Show To My Death:" Evaluating The Real Housewives
I can give a pass to schadenfreude, the prurient interest in watching people act horribly, and the feeling of "well, at least I'm notthat bad." They might not be the most noble reasons for entertainment, but they're valid.

The idea that these characters are any sort of "archetypical women," however, I find completely offensive.
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rednrowdy
11/05/09

In reply to "I Would Defend This Show To My Death:" Evaluating The Real Housewives
cohen, like joe francis and his franchise, would defend the show to his death because it makes him money. #therealhousewives
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BeckySharper
11/05/09

@rednrowdy: exactly. #therealhousewives
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Diziet_Sma
11/05/09

In reply to "I Would Defend This Show To My Death:" Evaluating The Real Housewives
Can't stand these shows. It's lowest common denominator television that validates and encourages their juvenile behavior and generally horrible values - extreme greed, extreme competitiveness, extreme vanity, extreme materialism etc. Yeah, I said it.
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Edited by Diziet_Sma at 11/05/09 1:01 AM Diziet_Sma was starred Diziet_Sma was unstarred

first man
11/05/09

@Diziet_Sma: I don't know that it validates and encourages the behavior so much as it calls these people out. At least, that's the way I see it because I could NEVER act like these women. And honestly, after seeing all of the shit that happened in Atlanta, I have really been watching myself with what I say about other people. It may be a weird source of inspiration, but the Real Housewives has kind of changed how I view my relationships with other women. For the better. Yes, it shows these women being complete asses to each other but maybe it's important for people to see that. Sometimes examples of what NOT to be are just as important as images of what we SHOULD be. #therealhousewives
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Diziet_Sma
11/05/09

@first man: The fact that the show even exists is a validation, and the producers undoubtedly encourage their worst excesses: such is the nature of 'reality' TV. I hear what you're saying about the way you watch it - and hey, each to her own; it's only a matter of personal taste - but not all its viewers are as intelligent and thoughtful as you, or most Jez commentors, for that matter. I'm sure there are many who watch it and actually aspire to be like those women. *Shudder*
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Edited by Diziet_Sma at 11/05/09 2:11 AM Diziet_Sma was starred Diziet_Sma was unstarred

BeckySharper
11/05/09

@Diziet_Sma: It totally makes fun of their competitiveness, greed, materialism, etc. Those women look like fools and are held up to public ridicule and contempt for their behavior. I don't think it glorifies them at all--except perhaps in their own minds, which is part of why the joke's on them. #therealhousewives
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Diziet_Sma
11/05/09

@BeckySharper: I guess that kind of humor is so obviously and clumsily set-up that I don't even find it funny; just tedious. Still, it would be a boring old world if we were all the same.
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Edited by Diziet_Sma at 11/05/09 5:36 PM Diziet_Sma was starred Diziet_Sma was unstarred

Kayleigh R. Carter
11/04/09

In reply to "I Would Defend This Show To My Death:" Evaluating The Real Housewives
"Yes, the Real Housewives are full of themselves, but it's kind of exciting to watch women who are unafraid to assert how important they are."

But they aren't important, and no matter how many times they assert that they are, it never becomes true. I suppose that's why I don't find it exciting, or liberated, I find it pathetic.

Example: every tweet ever from Kim. #therealhousewives
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hughman
11/04/09

In reply to "I Would Defend This Show To My Death:" Evaluating The Real Housewives
i'm probably hooked on the shows because after all their whining, posing, unrealistic grandstanding and drunken outbursts i keep hoping for the scene where i see their behavior come back to bite them in the ass and they majorly fail. will that scene ever come? probably not and if it does dribble onto the screen it certainly won't live up to the comeuppance i feel they deserve. #therealhousewives
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jigglyball
11/04/09

In reply to "I Would Defend This Show To My Death:" Evaluating The Real Housewives
Archetype? Unless desiring your 15 minutes of fame has become an archetypal quality, I don't think that word means what he thinks it means. #therealhousewives
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Penny
11/04/09

In reply to "I Would Defend This Show To My Death:" Evaluating The Real Housewives
I find no reason to watch this show, or The Hills, or whatever else. However, I also find no reason to judge others for doing so. It's not like I am sitting on my vintage leather chair smoking a pipe and drinking scotch while I read Shakespeare every night. #therealhousewives
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femme-bot
11/04/09

In reply to "I Would Defend This Show To My Death:" Evaluating The Real Housewives
"Independent women"? Don't most of them live off of rich boyfriends or husbands? #therealhousewives
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redqueenmeg
10/20/09

In reply to On TV, Single, Middle-Aged Women Are Aliens
Hey now, TNG was not *all* about evil female scientists over 35. Look at Doctors Crusher and Pulaski--both over 35 when they *began* on the show and both awesome. :) And both way more main characters than the Crystalline Entity Destroyer or whatever. #womenontv
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braak: You are, as usual, completely correct.
10/19/09

In reply to On TV, Single, Middle-Aged Women Are Aliens
Aw, don't pick on Star Trek. Dr. Crusher was a great character. #womenontv
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jenrobe
10/19/09

In reply to On TV, Single, Middle-Aged Women Are Aliens
At least we got CJ Cregg for a while though, eh? And Laura Roslin on BSG wasn't unhinged (well, any more unhinged than anyone else on that show, and given that pretty much everyone but Lee was a bit nuts, that seems ok to me).

I think this is why my mother almost exclusively watches BBC period dramas and murder mysteries. There are often female characters of a certain age who aren't, well, you know. #womenontv
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LilyBonesBurana
10/19/09

In reply to On TV, Single, Middle-Aged Women Are Aliens
These "Sad, Single Older Lady" minstrel shows have got to stop. The only thing missing is the equivalent of perimenopausal blackface. Maybe some laff-a-minute hot flashes? (Never mind that the average age of menopause is 50. Hello.)

Seriously. These shows make a tacit mockery of being over 35, to the point of offensive caricature.

Plenty of women over 35 aren't crying by the phone, hurting for dates (or husbands...yes, women over 35 can and do marry!), or suffering from intimacy deficiency, or clowning after younger men while pinching their own muffintops and grimacing.

It's not the age thing that sets heads aspin in Hollywood--it's the Older and Single thing that seems incomprehensible/unmanageable as a theme.

Why?, I wonder. There are plenty of female writers over 30 in Hollywood. Why aren't they given a crack at writing about their own lives? Os "Sex and the City"--in all its cultural and ratings success, now almost 6 years in the rearview mirror--all the over-30 set gets?!

Again, if so, WHY?

These shows aren't doing particularly well. Repeatedly banging the "you're over 35 single, so you're dead meat" drum isn't working. So why keep trying it?

Is it simply that Hollywood must do it poorly first, then, eventually do it right? (ie, believably, and to critical and popular praise) Are we going to be stuck with these bullshit Stepin Fetchit Saddy McSingleton ladies until someone with chops steps up to show tv how it's done?

If so, can that woman (or man) please show up as soon as possible? We can just rely on Nancy Meyer movies every 5 years. #womenontv
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LilyBonesBurana
10/19/09

@LilyBonesBurana: *can't* just rely on Nancy Meyer movies. Shoot, I must be going senile. #womenontv
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JLady
10/19/09

In reply to On TV, Single, Middle-Aged Women Are Aliens
This reminds me of the third season of the Canadian mini-series Slings & Arrows, in which the character Ellen (early-50s I'd guess), a successful stage actress, tries to make the leap to television. The only roles she's offered are literal aliens on bad sci-fi.
While it's great to see Margulies, Hargitay and Cox playing lead roles, it's kind of disheartening that the Slings & Arrows scenario doesn't seem that fictional. #womenontv
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unpopular
10/19/09

In reply to On TV, Single, Middle-Aged Women Are Aliens
I'm single and 35. What people wonder is - Is she going to try to steal my husband? What's wrong with her that no one wants to marry her?
Answers: No, if I wanted to marry your husband I would've done it 10 years ago, and Nothing, I just have better things to do than be someone's housekeeper, cook and mommy. #womenontv
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"I Would Defend This Show To My Death:" Evaluating The Real Housewives

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