30 Rock on the ‘porn for women’ bandwagon too?
Just finished watching the latest 30 Rock. I do love their take on the Comcast takeover of NBC, as they’re spot on: Comcast provides no minimal service to its customers. (She says, typing away on a computer connected to the Internet via Comcast.)
But the final twist in the episode was “Kablevision” (the 30 Rock stand-in for Comcast) attempting to double its porn profits by providing “porn for women.” Specifically, attractive male models who will look at the camera while smiling and nodding. All for $24.99 an hour. Because the only thing women want is “to jabber,” which conflicts with the only thing men think about: sex. They take the train of thought to its logical conclusion, with one character saying “I mean, I’m more than a pair of ears! I’m a brain, too! A brain that thinks about sex every seven seconds.”
Well, xkcd said it best:
30 Rock was playing into the same basic premise that led me to create Cupcake and Shut The Hell Up Day. (Which I missed earlier this week. A late ‘Happy Cupcake and Shut The Hell Up Day,’ everyone). Namely, that women don’t enjoy sex, and their fantasies revolve around the one thing they’re not getting: emotional and/or household support.
Well, maybe the women I know are a tiny minority, but that’s just not the case. We have close friends and significant others who are able to provide enthusiastic and consistent emotional support. And we like porn because it’s about sex. And, guess what, we like sex!
And I’m including all the women I know: lesbian, straight, bi, trans, cis, genderqueer, whatever. We like sex. Porn for women exists. Get over it, mainstream media.
Themocracy
I could see a major network actually doing something like this.
It’s all old white guys in suits talking about what to air with the people pitching the show getting the few people who would like the idea into a focus group.
The old guys are probably thinking “My wife is on me because I don’t listen. So instead of listening to what she would actually want, I’m going to approve a show where people listen for her.”
I suppose this could be considered a double standard to an extent.
That sounds about right…
I had the same thought when watching this. I also wondered though if it was satirical, it was so over the top it seemed like it was making fun of that stereotype. Liz Lemon does often claim to dislike sex, preferring it “fast and only on Saturdays.” That always bothered me a little, as it bought into the notion that ladies don’t like to get laid.
Yeah, I went back and forth on how the ‘porn for women’ bit was satirical. Obviously it’s satirizing something (as is most of 30 Rock) but I’m torn on whether the butt of the joke is the executives making the porn or the women watching the porn.
Ultimately, because of the way the show is structured, I think they were trying to make fun of both groups, but I don’t think they really succeeded. That is, because mainstream culture associates porn with being something purely made for and marketed to men, the idea of porn for women is presented as inherently ridiculous. I feel like the bit could have been more successful in specifically poking fun at the executives if they had had some other character step in and say, “This is a dumb idea. Porn for women should be, well, sex.” (Although I can’t really imagine who on the show could have filled this role.)
I am surprised by the protests- I thought Kabletown had a fabulous idea. I don’t get the whole anti-stereotype thing either. I am sure lots of women like sex a lot, but I also think it’s a small minority. Seems to be a very vocal minority however. I personally feel inundated by sexually explicit material almost everywhere I go it seems. I’m really, really tired of it. Sex is a bodily function, one I perform regularly but is in the same category as eating, sleeping and going #2. Necessary, extremely enjoyable in the moment but each has its place, and once done move on and focus on being a productive person in life.
Ever hear the phrase, small minds discuss people, average minds discuss events, great minds discuss ideas? To me, small minds are focused on sex, whether they be male or female.
I’m really not sure I agree, but I’d love to see some evidence either way (that the majority of women do or don’t like sex). My anecdotal evidence – from friends and coworkers and peers – is that women love sex just as much as men, but I’m sure that’s also be a generational and cultural issue.
I really have to disagree here, too. First, eating and shitting are “do this or die” type functions. So sex (for better or for worse) isn’t quite on the same level of bodily functions. At the same time, it’s so fun! And why can’t one focus on sex and be a productive person in life?
Wow. That really seems like a false dichotomy to me: I can think about sex some of the time and ideas (or events, or people) at other times.