The programming executives at ABC have been secretly replaced by alien pod-people from planet MRA. That’s really the only logical explanation for “Work It,” an upcoming ABC sitcom whose premise seems to have been lifted straight from the comments section of The Spearhead. Here’s a description of the show from ABC:
With unemployment an ongoing issue and women now outnumbering men in the workforce, the new comedy series Work It follows two alpha males who realize the only way to beat the current “mancession” and land a job in pharmaceutical sales is to pass themselves off as women.
Yep, it’s a retread of Bosom Buddies, this time sprinkled with MRA buzzwords. Alpha males, mancession – all we need is a few false rape accusations to complete the MRA-cliche soufflé.
Gawker has already hailed the show as an abomination that “Could Be the Worst Television Show in History.” After watching the promo clip below, I’m thinking that may be an understatement.
Of course, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this isn’t an MRA show at all. Maybe it’s just a really inept and misguided attempt to explore the issues faced by trans women in the workplace. But somehow I doubt it.
i take issue with the last bit of that cartoon. clue is hilarious and it will always be hilarious. the fact that battleship looks terrible doesnt take away from that.
re the OP:
What. The. Fuck.
I don’t know about other men, but you’re doing yourself no favours by calling yourself “buttman” buttman.
You know, I’m getting pretty sick of all this blaming of feminism for portraying men as doofuses. Feminism didn’t invent slapstick comedy. In fact it existed long before feminism really took off. Look at The Three Stooges. Charlie Chaplin, even Mr. Bean. Look at court jesters for fucks sake! men making idiots of themselves for comedy has been happening for centuries, and they ARE revered for it because it makes people laugh.
There are examples of serious and good male characters on TV. In CSI or Law and Order for example (that’s all I can think of at the moment since I stopped watching TV awhile ago) As long as you balance the doofus characters with the smart characters, then it doesn’t seem like such a big deal. And really, what female characters are SO great on TV? Snooki? The Kardashians? Paris Hilton? screechy, superficial bimbos? yea…great female role models. I wouldn’t be against seeing more women doing slapstick or raunchy comedy routines either. Bridesmaids did well for that reason.
Seriously MRAs…research comedy before adding it to your list of 384389489234728 things to blame on feminism. And maybe if it bugs you so much address your complaints to the majority of MALE WRITERS who create these shows.
This show in particular does look asinine though.
and I looked up that commercial buttman, he was wearing a french fries costume. How is that any different from wearing ridiculous costumes for work? it could have been a girl and would have made no difference.
ive said this before, but if mras are seriously up in arms about the portrayal of men on television, what the fuck? is jack donaghy not enough?
Wow…what an asshole character Jack Donaghy is
Oh! what about that Don Draper from Mad Men? I heard he’s quite popular even though he treats women like shit.
Yea. This is why I don’t watch TV. Most characters suck.
The thing that I hate about shows/movies with the premise “men disguising themselves as women” is that it covers over the very real danger that trans women, drag queens, gay men who prefer women’s clothing, crossdressers, and any other MAAB person who presents or dresses in a female-coded way face. It’s not “LOL I wonder if I’ll get found out today!!!” for the people who are actually out there living their lives. Since this is part of their identity as a human being, they can’t just be like, “aw shucks, you got me! guess I’ll go back to being a masculine man!”
People sometimes die when their trans status or their anatomical sex is revealed. They also can get assaulted, raped, lose their jobs, get kicked out of housing, have medical caregivers refuse to treat them, etc. You almost never see men-disguised-as-women have to navigate these sorts of dangers in TV/movies, when in real life, it would likely be a continuous and pressing concern, even for someone “disguised” and not trans or queer or whatever. It would definitely not be a source of the lulz.
at least a show like this has a built-in shelf-life: there’s only so many times you can have them almost get caught but escape at the last minute before that particular tension loses its effectiveness, and without that, the show basically has nothing.
You’d think, but “Three’s Company” lasted eight years on the premise, “Maybe THIS week their landlord will figure out they’re not gay!”
@ullere, I was addressing the OP, but many of the points transfer over. Women in the industries affected by the recession were affected worse, the women who were less likely to lose jobs were in “pink collar” low paying and under-employment prone jobs. And, in the end, men did not end up in as low of an economic situation as women were already in, which makes it even worse to piss and moan that women are better off in the recession than men.
I am right now watching a Tv show/documentary called “my sexy robot” about fembots and their fetishists….
I do watch t.v and have to laugh at the people who do not watch and then complain about how men or women are portrayed.
My favorite comedy shows right now are just off the top of my head that I’ve watched in the last few days:
The Office: Everyone can be the idiot on any given episode. Jim and Pam are mostly the straight guys but not always, see this years halloween episode where Jim finds out that Pam believes in ghosts etc.
30Rock: Same thing, created by Tina Fey, her character is a bumbling fool, as is the rest of the cast. It took me a while to get into the show simply because I couldn’t sympathize with any of the characters. But it is funny as all hell.
New Girl: This is a new one again around a female character. Super geeky girl moves in as a roommate with three “normal” guys. They learn to like her even though she’s a super tweeb.
The Big Bang Theory: Mra’s should love this show. At a dinner party a while back we posed the question which character would you date. My answer was Sheldon.
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia: It’s a horrible show in a good way. Enough said.
As far as comedies are concerned a good indication of how this show is going to be is, is there a laugh track? If there is chances are today the show is geared to a low intelligence audience. Low intelligence audiences tend towards obvious slapstick comedy instead of nuance where they are told when to laugh.
As far as drama is concerned my favorite show right now is Sons Of Anarchy. Jax and Tara are the heroes. As polled from my friends Jax is the number 1 man crush on t.v today (by men). All the other characters including Jemma are complicated, they engage in evil acts but they do believe they are doing those acts for the better good. Jax’s and Tara make bad mistakes as well.
Grey’s Anatomy : MRA’s hate this show. I doubt anyone of them watch it. If they did they would have a hard time explaining how men are seen in a negative light. It has a interesting character plot including what should be a mra highlight that the main female characters have issues with commitment while the men just put up with them. (a gross generalization).
I forgot Dexter, great show. Is Dexter a villain or a hero?
Fox basically did this same show back in 1997. It was called Ask Harriet and lasted about 7 episodes.
Just checking
Buttman, if you watched that much TV, you would notice plenty of positive portrayals of male characters. You only notice men shown in a negative light because you like to complain. You would notice Lex Luthor being a jerk on Smallville, but ignore that Clark Kent is always so sweet. You probably ignore when women are shown in a bad light, too. Try watching television without your confirmation bias sometimes.
I think Buttman must watch a lot of crime shows, because that’s the ONLY area I’ve seen a lot of growth in female-only TV shows. There’s Rizzoli & Isles, which is about two women, and a show about a 40-something female investigator whose name escapes me. There’s also Castle, where the female detective is the “straight man” and the male writer is the goofball.
In most TV, though, there’s similar time for both male and female leads because, usually, they’re involved in some kind of main plot line or subplot where they are deeply in love with each other but never acknowledge it so it can be drawn out over multiple seasons…
Interesting that the “female-dominated” profession they’re talking about is pharmaceutical sales, a major source of jobs for female college cheerleaders. Clearly, the bias against males in that field is unconscionable discrimination and not at all the result of historical gender bias in the medical profession causing the population of prescribing physicians to skew male, or any desire by Big Pharma to cater to the physician demographic by having attractive ladies hawk their drugs.
In other news, down is up.
Yeah, that hooks me to shows but sometimes it’s so frustrating. I don’t like it when they build up lots of sexual tension between characters, and then have some terrible coincidence or mistake ruin their feelings for each other. After two or three times of being let down, I’ll give up on the entire show. That’s what made me mad at the show Lois and Clark back in the 90’s.
there’s always the news radio approach- ‘its obvious were gonna have these two hook up so lets just do it at the beginning and move on to funnier things’
I gave these examples in another thread, but I think they’d be helpful here for Buttman to see. I can think of some non fictional men on TV who are portrayed in a positive light. Adam and Jaime from Mythbusters are both shown as intelligent and likable. Most game shows have men as hosts, and the hosts are usually shown as friendly and funny. Ty Pennington from Extreme Home Makeover is shown as a humanitarian, although some people here in Joplin said he’s not as friendly in real life. Another positive male role model on TV is Anderson Cooper.
Here are some fictional men who are shown in a positive light. Mike Delfino from Desperate Housewives is shown as a hero and a good husband (usually, but soaps have some extra drama now and then). Clark Kent from Smallville is a total sweetie to everyone, even his frenemy Lex Luthor. Leo Boykewich is a charming and successful widower on The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Raising Hope has a likable single dad. MRA’s would also like seeing the mom shown as a villain, because she was a serial killer. See, Buttman? There are good portrayals of men on TV, too.
What really drives me nuts is when the will-they-won’t-they turns to they-will, and then all the tension and drive goes straight out of the show. Or they make each other miserable, constantly, to create the drama that used to come from them dancing around each other. Case in point, Lorelai and Luke on Gilmore Girls. Although the show had gone downhill by that point for other reasons as well.
Now, Chuck and Sarah on Chuck? That’s how you do it! They still had their little dramas but mostly they just loved each other a lot. And I squee’ed at home about how sexy they both are.
I don’t like it when they build up lots of sexual tension between characters, and then have some terrible coincidence or mistake ruin their feelings for each other.
I’m really not of fan of the set ’em up and knock ’em down approach to fiction in general, whether it’s about romance or personal growth or whatever else.
More often than not it comes across as a cheap way to regress characters back to their previous mental states so they’re easier to write for.
Pretty Little Liars, a show aimed at teenage girls (and those of us still teenage girls at heart) has several very positive portrayals of male characters. One character was wrongfully accused of murder and has had to deal with the consequences of that, including having to drop out of school and find work to support himself. He saves the day all the time. Dude, the teacher having an affair with his student is portrayed as one of the kindest, most thoughtful, all-around good characters on the show.
But shows directed at teen girls are misandry.
(That was sarcasm by the way)
Viscaria
Gilmore Girls was so well written that I would excuse many sup-plots.