Monday, November 9, 2009

Post 26: Lifetime Televison

So its sad to say that I am exposed a lot to Lifetime Television Network during my working on Saturday. My co-worker watches it on a rather regular basis (ALL day!!) and I feel I have seen a lot of it enough (whether I like it or not) to make a few comments and reflections about it.

First off I would like to openly say I love women, their rights, their opinions, and their ACCURATE and fair representation just like any other occupant in this world. With that being said let the trashing of Lifetime begin...

HOW could women be proud of this network?? Its supposed to be a network dedicated to women by women to help give them a voice on television and create a niche for themselves in male-owned media conglomerates. What we are treated two are substandard acting, horrific plots, and worst of all the continued reduction of women's representation through the use of stereotypes. Granted there are strong female leads (typically just one amongst a supporting lack-luster cast) but women are consistently portrayed as emotional, erratic, not very intelligent, abused, cheaters, liars, and reliant on not their own self power but the yearning of having to have a male (or female) lover to have any kind of grounds to stand on for themselves.

My personal opinion is that Lifetime portrays women as victims more than anything. I know that they have been mistreated, silenced, and given little right in the past. But times are changing, rights are being recognized, and values are understood. In fact two months ago I saw a broadcast of news Channel 7 about how women now own more than half of the jobs in America making them the job leaders in our country! In my opinion Lifetime doesn't support women in the way that they are hoping, but rather returns back to stereotypes that their image has been built on damaging their representation even more.

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