WE need a Lifetime of Oxygen?

Ok, sorry for the extremely bad pun as this post's title. I couldn't help it, but my brain is too fried to actually make it any good. Since most of my time at the office is spent working on the original of the three major "women's networks," this Slate article was pretty interesting to me.

Why is my brain fried?
By Christmas break, I'll have watched over ten of Lifetime Movie Network's titles, and will have written promos for said films. And that's just writing. I'm overseeing/coordinating/producing a run of FORTY EIGHT PROMOS. After so many newly single mothers discovering love where they least expected it, independent women discovering strength when they needed it most, and mother/daughters discovering a bond they never knew they had, well, I'm done with discovery. Come Yuletide, I'll be recovering in front of utterly apathetic and thankfully phlegmatic C-SPAN.

Anyho-
As Slate points out, the differences between Oxygen, Lifetime and WE come down to demographics. Sure, it's all about the chicks, but there are many different kinds of women. First on the scene, Lifetime's been around since 1982 and is partially owned by the Walt Disney Company (who knew?). Currently, their original programming includes "Army Wives," "Cheerleader Nation," and "Gay, Straight, or Taken." Re-runs of "Will & Grace," "Desperate Housewives," and "Grey's Anatomy" also have found homes here.

If Lifetime is the old standard bearer and tries to gently appeal to all women, then Oxygen is the young upstart, launched as a network in 2000. (How young and hip? Well, it was originally conceived to be an interactive network with an important website component. And it also showed softcore porn.) It's mostly known thanks to Oprah's early involvement. However, the network was recently sold to NBC Universal. If Lifetime shows "Will & Grace," Oxygen shows "Xena: Warrior Princess." That should say it all (along with their current roster of sleazy bridal/slutty/true-crime/all of the above reality shows).

Lastly, WE: Women's Entertainment has been trying to make a home in the space between Oxygen and Lifetime. Originally it was a supplement to AMC, and showed romance movies without commercial interruption. (I never knew that.) Now it focuses on its hit Bridezillas, in between re-runs of Dharma and Greg. Slate points out their new slate of programming is mostly reality based (cash-cow rehashes of Bridezillas).

Surely there has to be more to women's television than bridal shows, fashion shows, and re-runs of older comedies? What Slate doesn't explore is whether or not there's really room for three of these networks. With such similar programming, one or all of the networks has to find a way to distinguish itself from the others, and hopefully break away from the pack. Looking at the programming offered, it'd be very easy to create a single channel using only the best programming from each: Army Wives, Bridezillas, Bliss (I can't resist!), etc. I don't think all three networks will survive in the long term, definitely not in their current incarnation.

Women in Refrigerators

A friend of mine pointed me in the direction of the cultural commentary blog, Crocodile Caucus. It’s good reading focusing on pop culture, television, comics, commentary, and more. Anyhow, I was reading through it yesterday, and found a terrific post about the television show Heroes, and the “Women in Refrigerators” phenomena.

For those that don’t know (and I didn’t, until yesterday), Wikipedia explains the WiF theory (and website) thusly: exploring “female comic book characters that had been injured, killed, or depowered as a plot device within various superhero comic books. Also, the site seeks to analyze why these plot devices are used disproportionately on female characters.”

These are superheroines who have been either depowered, raped, or cut up and stuck in the refrigerator. I know I missed a bunch. Some have been revived, even improved -- although the question remains as to why they were thrown in the wood chipper in the first place.

I know I missed a bunch -- I just don't know my comics deaths the way I should. I'm not editorializing -- I'm just curious to find out what you guys think it means, if anything. – From the site

Good question—what does this all mean and why is it happening? I don’t think this use of female characters is limited to comic books. As Crocodile Caucus points out, it’s branching out into television, and I’m sure with some thought and research, you can see this attitude in movies and literature as well.

Positive female role models and characters are really needed in our media. Sure, some of these women mentioned are intelligent, but they still meet a dreadful end because a man was powerless to save them. Why can’t they have power in their own right? What is this teaching the audiences (both children and adult) who watch or read these stories?

With Spiderman 3 coming out this summer, I’ll be curious to see how they handle the infamous Gwen Stacy plot line, and see if she meets a WiR ending. Another obvious example would be the fate of Jean Grey in the recent X-Men movies.

TV's Aryan Sisterhood?

As promised, I remembered to find some more info about the glut of blonde women newscasters. Slate had a terrific article and slideshow (written/compiled by Jack Shafer) on this phenomena back in Feb '06, but I think with the ascension of Katie Couric to CBS, this trend is far from withered. Check it out, and then check out TVHeads.com, a website he cites.

The double standard I pointed out (men can go gracefully grey, like silverback gorillas, and maintain power and wisdom--- nay, gather even more prestige with age, while women must stay forever young) is hardly limited to the nightly news. Take a look within our society. How many middle-aged women do you know dye their hair? How many guys?

Besides all of that, certain media outlets give their anchors/stars/newcasters "photoshop diets," making the women look even more youthful, vibrant and healthy. Here's a link to the now famous Katie Couric photos. The same thing happened a couple of days ago with Rosie O'Donnell's press photos for The View.

Unrealistic expectations and body images are being pushed upon the female gender, and while some progress has been made, I think that in certain instances, it's become even more insidious. People know it's sexist to shill beer with babes in bikinis, but fewer people realize that the equivilant is being done to the nightly news.

Some societies look upon older women as leaders and matriarchs. Clearly, that isn't the case with Western culture. Women newscasters (as well as the rest of us women) have to be able to let go of their personal Dorian Grays.