Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Invasion

I saw a TV show the other night that struck me as so wrong that I just have to write about it. I rarely watch TV, but I was visiting a friend who had it on. The show was sort of like Candid Camera, where Howie Mandell sets people up in weird situations while secretly filming them.

This situation was that two older women had signed up to be in some kind of workshop. They were learning to pole dance, being taught by a couple of younger women, and they had been told that they were being filmed so that they could see their dances. There were several camera men around the set. The idea of the workshop seemed to be about teaching them to open up their sexuality. They were very sweet, really, in their innocence and willingness to experiment.

The first disturbing thing was that the audience that was viewing this film laughed as the women played at letting their sexuality out. As if it is funny that older women can be sexual!

But it got a lot worse. A couple of male strippers came bursting in, ripped their pants off and began “dancing” in their G-strings. Their dancing was really more like just thrusting their pelvises. It was a shocking invasion. Then more men burst in, dressed as police, and began busting them for making a porn movie. It was even more invasive.

It made me feel sick inside. These lovely women had taken a chance, made themselves vulnerable, and decided to open up. The message they got was an overwhelming smash-down. Just when they thought it was safe to come out!

The fact that people thought this was funny shows that we have a long way to go.

7 comments:

tinque said...

Wow. How awful. I don't watch TV either. There's nothing on and/or it's usually so bad, but this...
I'm horrified that they would exploit these beautiful and brave women in such a crass, tasteless way. I sincerely hope this horrendously stupid behavior does not cause them to shut down.

Selena Truth said...

I agree. I'd like to send them the message somehow that they did nothing wrong, that they were indeed brave and beautiful, as you said.

tinque said...

I'm still outraged. It was so incredibly insensitive.
I'm enjoying your site.
I would love to have you visit me sometime.
www.tinque.blogspot.com
I will be moving soon, but for now...

Moi said...

Wow. How terrible. Fucked, actually. I'm surprised that they were able to broadcast the show without the women giving them permission. I thought that was illegal.

Selena Truth said...

tinque: Nice blog! I just became a follower.

Gillette: I imagine that they did have to get a release from the women. Makes you wonder what was going on in their hearts and thoughts at that point. Resigning themselves to the role that society puts upon them?

Pet Shoppers Palace said...

They should have told the woman what was going on and asked there permission to do this.
http://tinyurl.com/4xvkkk

Sarah said...

I think that is rather a sad state of affairs when people do not realise that older women probably have more base sexuality than most younger women could ever hope to have..

It made me angry just reading this. Those reality TV shows sometimes go too far, and hitting on vulnerable people in that way shows the TV people up for their stupidity, lack of imagination and human kindness.

Bravo to the older ladies for even daring to pole dance.. I considered it once as a way of keeping fit, but backed out in the end..