We’ve all sat down watching the Cosby show wondering how Healthcliffe Huxtable got with Clair or how Doug got with Carrie (King of Queens). These are just two examples of the many sitcoms that feature an average, not too attractive male, whom happens to have the hottest MILF as his wife.
Why is it that so many of these family sitcoms feature such unequal couples? Well frankly because it’s more important to have attractive women on TV than to have attractive men.
For decades we've seen shows upon shows and movies upon movies that have fit this mold, to the point where we don't even bat an eye because we are so used to it.
Leah Remini-King of Queens
It seems that overtime not only have people gotten used to, but would rather see a man with a trophy wife than an average looking woman with a trophy husband. This mentality is not something instilled in just men but shared by women as well.
Women will often harshly criticize other women for getting with a hotter mate than if a guy is with a hotter girl. I know we've all (especially women) heard statements like “How did she get with him?” Unfortunately women are known to be more critical at times to other women than men are to women: Whether it’s criticizing another female’s clothes, face, and body or insulting each other with words like bitch or slut.
But this common trend of hotter wives we see on TV doesn’t seem to do much with the female audience; it is mainly for the man. This trend could serve to possibly be an underlying message to all average looking men that they are capable of getting with a hot girl.
Constance Marie Lopez-The George Lopez Show
Kellita Smith- The Bernie Mac Show
This trend also goes along with the issue of women having to always look beautiful and be the idea of perfection. The media has always put more pressure on women than on men to look good. These shows make it seem realistic for women who are married and have 1+ kids to manage to stay in complete shape, be a size 0, have hair and makeup always done, while still doing the cooking, cleaning and being on time.
To all women: THIS IS NOT REALISTIC!
To the women who actual fit this mold, more power to you. Please tell us your secret! And although this is not impossible for women, it’s still hard to keep your family and work in order and still look like a supermodel throughout it all. We don’t have that luxury. Not to mention, after all those kids, who expects a woman to stay a size 6 or below? This is just not realistic.
Barbara Billingsley- Leave it to Beaver
(Not all of us can be like Mrs. Clever ,killer housewife and sexy while doing it)
Jami Gertz- Still Standing
{~The very least you can do in life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope~}
Some more Hot wives!
(Not all of us can be like Mrs. Clever ,killer housewife and sexy while doing it)
Some of these shows have even realized the inconsistencies relating to this matter. In King of Queens, Doug is always stating how Carrie is too good for him. In Still Standing, Bill is also always commenting on his wife's beauty.
Jami Gertz- Still Standing
Courtney Thorne-Smith - According to Jim
This is why I love shows like Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City where all the men are especially very handsome. Four averagely pretty, middle aged women hooking up with gorgeous men: we should be seeing more of this on television. Women too should feel that their looks shouldn’t get in the way of their love life and finding an attractive partner.The media constantly rides on the stereotype that as women get older they look older and as men get older they look more defined. But women, if confident can possess the same type of advantages that these men on TV have, at any age.
I’m sure we’ll have many more sitcoms to come with that quintessential “hot wife”, because the idea of a trophy wife is still a huge part of both women and men’s mentality. But I hope that as time progresses, we can have less pressure on women to be the supermodel trophy wife, and more women in realistic settings. I also hope to see more women, especially older women with attractive men as their co-stars.
{~The very least you can do in life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope~}
Some more Hot wives!
Patricia Heaton- Everbody Loves Ray
Suzanne Pleshette- The Bob Newhart Show
Katey Sagal- Married With Children
Megan Price- Grounded for Life
Meredith Baxter-Family Ties
Lois Griffin-Family Guy
Marge Simpson-The Simpsons
She's not the hottest, but that blue hair adds a bad girl streak
16 Comments:
What you failed to realize is that these actresses are props and compliments to their respective comedians. Being actresses, producers search for a certain look when casting them. Meanwhile the shows are based on the male comedians, so their looks aren't as important. If the men were not comedians they would not even be on TV.
The actresses that play these wives have to be beautiful because their characters are not explored enough for a viewer to fall in love with their personalities. (Exception for Patricia Heaton & Claire Huxtable)
It's true...Though Grey's Anatomy seems equal (I don't really watch, I glance...) I just find it cute when it really is the case, like with Shaycarl and katilette on Youtube. And Zesty, you should get a Xanga and double post, one here, one there!
To vivaville: I defnitely see where yoo're coming from and for some of these shows this seems to be the case, such as maybe a show like bernie mac where aunt wanda really isnt that funny or entertaing. But for many other shows like the cosby show and still standing we defnitely fell in love with both wives because they were so sassy and hilarious. Jami Getz's beauty on still standing was defnitely played into the script but we would have still loved her charcter because of her quirkiness and etc.
I am not saying that having hot wives is such a bad thing, but it does give off some negative subliminal messages to women out there. Ands you cannot deny the fact that besides the reson that you gave, casting producers just want to have a hot women just for the sake of seeing a beautiful woman on TV.
And besides having these beautiful women, they seem to be "done up" a majority of the time on the show even when they are in their homes or just going to the supermarket, I know our moms defnitely look a little different when they are in their homes.
But thank you for ur comment and keep em coming!
Thanks GIGI, and its true I think we all like seeing couples on TV where both actors are hot lol. But I see tyhe pattern that vivaville was speaking about when he/she said that it based on the comedians and the comedians are usually ugly lol.
Im not sure about Xanga, but i defnitely plan to expand my marketing moves. Thanks for your support and comments! Hope you're enjoying my blog.
Zesty I don't feel that you failed to realize anything. I feel like vivaville is just simply justifying the "social system" of thinking of which he/she was brought up to believe is correct or normal, unfortunately. First of all, sitcoms only amount for a portion of this argument. The very argument Zesty is making is that producers should NOT typecast what a comedians wife (in the case of sitcoms) is SUPPOSED to look like, regardless of the fact that they may want to delve into his character's personality more so than his wife (no matter how prevalent her character may be).
"The actesses that play these wives have to be beautiful because"....
because what???
...And even if they NEEDED to be beautiful to make up for their lack of personality......who do they need to be beautiful for????? Not your average female viewer...
"their characters are not explored enough for a viewer to fall in love with their personalities."...?
That's only a matter of opinion, in my opinion. ;)
No offense to Vivaville, but I think you are missing the point. Like she pointed out in her comment to you......regardless of whether your comment is valid of that...that still doesn't justify all the subliminal messages that get sent...
*valid or not
In addition, to me, there's so justification when something is sending a negative subliminal message.
This subject can be challenged, yes! But in my opinion it CAN'T be validly challenged, if girls are growing up being anorexic because they think that's how they have to be and look!
Mr. Brandon do not misinterpret my previous comment. I am fully aware of the focal points of this article, but I am disagreeing with the main one.
(Zesty, "I am not saying that having hot wives is such a bad thing, but it does give off some negative subliminal messages to women out there.")
You acknowledge that the appearance of these wives are unrealistic & may have a negative effect to women who view these shows. But these images may also have a positive subliminal affect, showing that it is possible for women to raise 3 children, a job, run their household, workout & etc. Beauty's subliminal effects are just as positive as it is negative. I thought u should have mention that.
If u comment back & infer that gorgeous wives on TV will mostly have a negative affect on women, then the real underline issue is why do women have negative perceptions of media images of other attractive women? Maybe u should have evolved your post into that, but you are not bold enough yet to make such a claim.
Your underlying message is very subjective and is based on the outlook of the individual.
Vivaville: "why do women have negative perceptions of media images of other attractive women?"
Vivaville ,It is not about women viewing other attractive women in the media as a negative thing. It is how situations get played out and the relationship between these beautiful women and where we might be seeing these women and how. And by where, this article is an example of it. It has literally been decades, stemming from The Honeymooners, that we have seen beautiful attractive women paired up with goofy, overwieght unattractive men.
And when I say how, I mean even seeing these beautiful women in degrading situations, whether it be in a music video, magazine, etc.
We all love to see attractive people period, and besides men loving such celebrities such as Beyonce, Halle Berry, Britney Spears etc, women too also like these girls cuz they are beautiful. We are just a society that thrive on looks.
Do you get what Im saying? It may not be the issue itself, it can be more of the why,when, where, and how.
And yes, I agree, beauty can be a positive AND negative thing, the lines do sometimes blur. And although like you said, this whole Hot Sitcom Wives issue can be a positive thing, there are defmitely negative aspects. And feel that it is MY job to bring them to my audience. I think Holloywood already does its job of making it seem like a completely positive issue, when it certainly isnt.
Vivaville:"Maybe u should have evolved your post into that, but you are not bold enough yet to make such a claim."
My friend, I am VERY bold, or else I wouldn't write about or discuss the issues that I do. I wouldn't think its smart to insult the author of the website you are commenting on.
I like to keep the respect around here, i advise it to you as well.
Thank you for your comment.
Back to Brandon, My comments do not justify any social practices. Nor does it justify 'all of the subliminal messages that get sent', b/c the author failed to do so. So I wanted to state my theory of why the men in sitcoms can look anyway & the women must look beautiful, according to the world of TV.
It would be naive of me to think that TV execs don't hire these beautiful women for the male viewership. But beautiful women on TV is also for women. Wives will not view the actresses in a sexual way, but judge these actresses based on a standard of beauty. Women are the first critiques of female beauty.
Regardless of show in visual media, producers know average looking people do not sell.
My underlying point is having hot TV wives may be equally positive as it is negative.
Okay "vivaville", I don't know what was your intention towards the end of your initial response to me, but you DO NOT KNOW ME to be making comments like "you are not bold enough yet to make such a claim", to back up anything you said. Who do you think you are? The grandiloquent expert on a whole lot of nothing when you use a tone of that manner. Your argument goes straight out of the window when you make comments like that, nevermind the actual comments, which I again don't agree with.
I will only adress this post once more.
"But these images may also have a positive subliminal affect, showing that it is possible for women to raise 3 children, a job, run their household, workout & etc."
I still feel like you are missing the overall picture. When something has a NEGATIVE subliminal connotation, it is NOT okay. Like I said before, young girls growing up anorexic because they are trying to live up to a media image is NOT okay. People die from anorexia and bulimic diseases every day, mainly females. I won't even delve into how the fashion industry has been involved in this. That's a whole other story. You argue that there are just as many negative messages as positive. That is simply not the case. The damaged self-esteem of a young female is much worse than another female happening to get a message that "she too" can be hot and beautiful after having 5 kids. That, I think is a given in most cases. Most women who were fit and in shape BEFORE marriage and children know that they need to do already to remain on top of their game....none need a TV show to tell them that. It's the stress of a marriage, childbirth, child raising, financial means, residence and all the other things that go into making a marriage and family work that may or may not keep a woman from looking her best, staying in the gym or even wearing make-up. Sorry but your argument does not add up in the long run.
"My comments do not justify any social practices. Nor does it justify 'all of the subliminal messages that get sent', b/c the author failed to do so."
And if you were talking to the author of the blog, that's uncalled for as well. There is a certain message she is trying to get across in her posts. Yes it will be a little biased based on her views, but at least she is very encouraging and receptive to different opinions and outlooks, therefore not deserving to be dogged for not "evolving" her post correctly to "your standards", Vivaville.
I thought that the post was very well-written and made me think about habits of the media that would not cross my mind all the time.
I am open to any other view, but when it is directed in a know-it-all, pompous, borderline conceited manner, it overshadows the initial view that you are trying to get across. And it definitely overshadows it and erases it from my mind when insults are used about people's levels of confidence, based upon your opinions of what they have said.
If you are going to comment on something, comment on it intellectually and fairly. Using proper English is not all that constitutes and intellectual discussion.
*an
Mr.Brandon, my insult was not directed @ u my friend.
I do not disagree with any of your points. I get that the overall picture that these images in the media have a negative effect; but I just wanted Zesty to address that these images may have a positive affect on women.
Of course the tone of her article is to put light on the negative aspects(which she should). I believe her argument would be stronger if she used a couple reasons why Hollywood want women to believe these images are positive. Then listing her reasons why she believes they are negative would have a more powerful effect. When people just mention only the neg aspect of a particular issue w/o stating the pos, & vice versa, it reminds me of the FOX NEWS machine.
Those are just my preferences. If you or Zesty do not agree with me its ok, I get it popping. I feel you are misinterpreting my point of views & beliefs just as much as you think I do not understand this article.
There are some things I just wanted to bring up, but overall this is a good post Zesty
Brandon we will have to have a verbal conversation on this topic b/c this will lead to infinite amount of back & forth commenting by us,(which Zesty would love) and I have a website to run.
The VIVA VILLE Relaunch Party coming soon!
Become a Vivillian & check out the best sports blog on the web!
All I have to say is wow...reading these comments was a great exercise for my brain...But Zesty what I wanted to say to you is that I really do like this post. I did read it before and didnt get a chance to comment, but I want to thank you for opening up the eyes of your readers to things that they wouldnt always think of otherwise.
In my Sociology class we were just talking about the control of the media and how much we have to see. I actually learned that most big businesses in the media are conglomerates, meaning that they own other businesses in other branches of media that are very unrelated to the "head" corporation. This may seem insignificant, but it really isnt. It is because of this that these multi million dollar corporations are able to continue to sell their products because they own these companies from different branches of the media. They in turn get to show whatever it is they feel like it, according to their liking to the branches of media that they have a hold on therefore controlling what we see, the point of view it comes from, and whatever side of the issue they choose to show us.
I just want to thank you for doing this blog, because in a small, but very big way it is easing the grasp that the media holds on us. Keep em coming Zesty!
Post a Comment