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.