Apparently, "3 out of 33 comedy scripts that went to pilot were written by women. That is 9%," while only "6 out of 36 drama scripts went to pilot were written by women. That is 16%." In case you're bad at math, those numbers aren't pretty.
So what's the deal? Are we still dealing with a boys club in Hollywood? How else do you explain this ridiculousness (from WomenandHollywood.com):
NBC had no comedies written by women and Fox had no dramas written by women HBO had one female written pilot in two years. FX nothing. Lifetime nothing. USA nothing.
To quote Jezebel's hortense,"LIFETIME! Television for motherfucking women! In the words of Angelina from Jersey Shore: "Um, hello?!?"
It's been chilly in Phoenix. I'm not going to say "cold" because it doesn't really get "cold" here as the rest of the country would define the word. Still, on these chilly December nights, all I want to do is drink some wine by the fire and maybe watch something with a hot dude in it, something like Friday Night Lights. I've only seen the first 4 episodes of the third season of this TV drama about the politics of high school football in a small Texas town, but I've seen enough to know that the hottie quota has more than been filled by Taylor Kitsch, who plays party boy Tim Riggins.
Kitsch might not play a very good Gambit (dude is from Louisiana = he should have a hot accent), and I did worry that it may just be my propensity for losers (sorry, Tim Riggins is sort of a douche), but shirt or no shirt (and thankfully he does seem to lose his shirt a lot in the show) Taylor Kitsch is nice to look at on a cold winter's night.
Oh, you don't believe me? How do you like these apples, hmm?
I would def put a little Taylor Kitsch in my body.
Normally I would shy away from reading reports by an organization called the Parents Television Council because I'm always a little scared of any type of organization trying to curb 1st amendment rights - not that this org is trying to do that but I'm always brought back to images of people burning books or rap cds or condemning nudity on tv.
However, this report's findings are SHOCKING.
Some of the major findings in the report:
Incidents of violence against women and teenage girls are increasing on television at rates that far exceed the overall increases in violence on television. Violence, irrespective of gender, on television increased only 2% from 2004 to 2009, while incidents of violence against women increased 120% during that same period.
The most frequent type of violence against women on television was beating (29%), followed by credible threats of violence (18%), shooting (11%), rape (8%), stabbing (6%), and torture (2%). Violence against women resulted in death 19% of the time.
Violence towards women or the graphic consequences of violence tends overwhelmingly to be depicted (92%) rather than implied (5%) or described (3%).
Every network but ABC demonstrated a significant increase in the number of storylines that included violence against women between 2004 and 2009.
Although female victims were primarily of adult age, collectively, there was a 400% increase in the depiction of teen girls as victims across all networks from 2004 to 2009.
Fox stood out for using violence against women as a punch line in its comedies -- in particular Family Guy and American Dad -- trivializing the gravity of the issue of violence against women.
From 2004 to 2009 there was an 81% increase in incidences of intimate partner violence on television.
Yowza! Total sad face at this.
One would think that maybe Lifetime's repeats of Mother May I Sleep With Danger? could be the cause of this drastic increase but the study only looked at the major broadcasting networks (FOX, ABC, CBS, and NBC)! Imagine the results if they checked out HBO, USA, Showtime and FX?
As a culture are we really that cool with showing women getting raped and tortured on CSI vs some hot nakedness?
I'm totally writing a letter to each channel's president to tell them that as a female viewer, I am disgusted at the amount of depictions of violence against women they choose to feature on their networks and that they can count out my viewership if these alarming trends continue.
Here's the networks addys if you want to write your own emails or letters (ironically 3 of the 4 network presidents are women!):
Mr. Jeff Zucker, President NBC Entertainment 30 Rockefeller Plaza New York, NY 10112 (818) 840-4444
The new series stars Thomas Jane (uh yeah from the Punisher) as Ray Drecker, a down and out former high school sports star turned loser high school basketball coach who gets into prostitution to support his family.
This show has all the trappings of an interesting series: the premise (a hetero male prostitute?? What!?), an array of supporting characters (pimp, family, ex-wife, neighbors, etc.), and the freedom of cable to show lots of nudity and sex.
Before seeing the show I imagined it was going to be about a "badass" dude who fucks a continuous litany of beautiful, rich models for lots of pay (basically a platform for HBO to show a ton of boobs*) But thankfully, the show seems to mostly steer clear of that empty trap.
I like the relationship between Drecker and his pimp, Tanya (played by the always brilliant Jane Adams). Messing around with the seemingly inherent gender roles of pimp and prostitute really made me stop and think about mainstream depictions of gender within the sex industry.
Hung is an interesting tongue-in-cheek reflection of our current society. The series is set in Detroit, the symbolic city of the modern depression and the characters are people doing illegal and unorthodox things to survive in a crumbling world.
The show does fail in some places, however. Drecker works with some clients with bizarre fantasies not necessarily related to sexuality. Some of these fantasies seem trite and made up and I would rather explore more realistic images of female sexuality than the stereotypical portrayal of the relationship-crazed woman.
This is a show about the sex industry from the perspective of the female consumer! There is a lot of unexplored territory here and yet at times the writing feels like it's falling back on age old, worn out cliches of female desire.
If it can clean itself up a bit and get down to business, Hung does have the potential to be an enthralling satirical narrative, much akin to Showtime's beloved Weeds or the fantastic True Blood. It seems it's too soon yet to tell just how big Hung could get.
Lady of Leisure and I have been greedily devouring the second season of New Zealand folk rockers Flight of the Conchords on DVD. I highly recommend purchasing this season so you can watch it while smoking a j or while fapping or just with friends.
Both the Conchords are hotties but it seems that female fans usually favor one of the other. Are you a Bret girl or a Jermaine girl? While I have always been a Bret girl myself (the Lady perfers Jermaine), the second season is starting to make me love Jermaine as well, especially his sugalumps.
Also, too many dicks on the dance floor should never be a problem.
I would do dirty, dirty things to both of these Kiwis.
(Amy Sherman-Pallidino, creator of The Gilmore Girls, with star Lauren Graham)
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