Girl on TV: In Defense of Women on Television

If you were to ask Dame Beyonce Knowles-Z “Who runs the world?,” she and her back-up dancers would respond with a resounding, “Girls!” The same question could be posed regarding the current landscape of television, and I feel you’d receive the same answer. If you turn on your TV to any channel (or browse any show on Hulu) you’re likely to find a strong, independent woman who “don’t need no man” to show her how it’s done.

You may think that’s a good thing. Two and a Half Men producer Lee Aronsohn begs to differ. He recently tweeted this classy quip regarding the amount of shows lead by ladies (his words, not mine): “We’re approaching peak vagina on television, the point of labia saturation.”

Seriously?

Aronsohn has since deleted the tweet and issued an apology, but his words still ripple through the Internet like a chauvinistic pebble cast into a politically sensitive pond. The story has been picked up by countless news sources and blogs and has even made the rounds among some Hollywood elites. Martha Plimpton, Emmy-nominated actress from Raising Hope, tweeted in response: “Um, Lee, women are 51% of the population & a coveted demographic for advertisers. What are you thinking?”

What, indeed? By my thinking, Plimpton’s points are precisely right. Television is, above all things, a venue for advertisements. It’s common knowledge that, based on millions of dollars of research, women tend to shop more than men do. It makes sense from a business standpoint for networks to sandwich their expensive ads around shows that women will watch to ensure they’ll be seen and the products will be bought. Therefore, it is important to provide women with characters and stories that they can relate to.

It should be a point of praise to note the high volume of talented women that grace our screens each week. There was a time when women weren’t allowed to appear pregnant on screen. Now, we have complex female characters that are given scenes with more gravitas and/or hilarity than their male counterparts.

For every Archer, there is a Nikita. For every Walter White there is a Nancy Botwin. There’s an Olivia Dunham for each Seely Booth, a Liz Lemon for every Andy Bernard. I can’t think of any quality male-driven law shows that aired in the past year, while both The Good Wife and Damages have earned their stars (Juliana Marguiles and Glenn Close, respectively) Lead Drama Actress Emmys. The same goes for politicians: what man can possible score higher in the polls than Leslie Knope?

Let’s be fair: All women on TV are not created equal. This TV season gave us the likes of New Girl’s adorkable Jess, Revenge’s scheming Emily and Enlightened’s optimistic Amy. It’s hard to believe these fine ladies were also joined by Whitney’s Whitney, Are You There, Chelsea’s Chelsea and 2 Broke Girls’ two broke girls. No, I am not making those titles up. These are the shows people like Aronsohn seem to have the most problem with: the shows that take the Sheen/Cryer brand of vulgarity and spit it back through lipstick-glossed lips. Is he threatened by the emergence of female comics that can dish it out just as raunchily as the bros? Without a doubt. I myself have no problem with the social progression that women like Whitney Cummings and Chelsea Handler have made on television. My problem is that most of the time, their jokes try too hard to be dirty and shocking and lack any semblance of humor whatsoever.

It appears there is hope on the horizon. Premium cable, in all of its glory, has done wonders for the lead female character. We’ve seen it on Showtime with Weeds, Nurse Jackie, The Big C and now Homeland. HBO currently has the aforementioned Enlightened plus butt-kickers Sookie on True Blood and Daenerys on Game of Thrones, and previously brought us a little show called Sex and the City. Next, the show to watch will be the aptly titled “Girls.”

Though I haven’t seen “Girls” yet (it premieres on HBO on Sunday, April 15th at 10:30), I’ve been inundated with critical ravings for this show that appears to be “anti-Whitney.” Is there vulgarity in the previews? Of course, it’s HBO, silly! But is it over-the-top? No, but it is rather used to bring out some personality and humanity in the characters. The description on the official site is simple: “In New York, in their twenties, trying to survive.” No mention of role-playing or vodka or vaginas, just real life.

“I think I could be the voice of my generation,” 24-year old Hannah (writer, director and star Lena Dunham) tells her parents in the show’s teaser. Off their not-so-subtle wariness to her claim, she backtracks: “”Or a voice… of a generation.” From just a short teaser, Dunham does a great job presenting the life these single twenty-somethings lead because it’s all so familiar to us. It’s our lives: not mine, exactly, but those of my female friends and family. Strapped for cash, struggling to make ends meet but still optimistic about their future. Sound like any college students you know?

It remains to be seen whether Girls will be a breakout hit or fast flop, but regardless of it’s reception, it should serve as a stark symbol that those like Aronsohn can look to as a more accurate example of women on TV. They say the best revenge is living well, and I hope for all of the women angered by Aronsohn’s remarks, they’ll do their best to let the quality female-focused programming continue to live on. Nobody wants to live in a world where men like Lee Aronsohn run it.

Mike Ladue hosts and produces Dual Redundancy, an entertainment talk show that airs on ICTV, and yes, the title is a reference to that LFO song.