oe FEATURE ae ee i ? “Hot Lips” Hoollhan has come a long way from the days when as an army nurse she was scorned and ridiculed on MASH — although sheis the only major female character, in contrast to the five or six male stars. TV’s unreal world of women By Dolores Dwyer Hot Lips Hoolihan has come a long way from the days when as an army nurse she was scorned and ridiculed on MASH for her ridiculous trysts with Major Frank Burns. He’s off the show and she has" become a more sympathetic and complex character. Now she’s Major Hoolihan, wrangling with job prob- lems and relationships in the thick of the Korean War. Aithough she is the only major female character—in contrast to the five or six male stars—her part indi- cates a significant change in the show’s treatment of women characters. MASH could go further, but it still gets high marks - for its portrayal of women. It is one of the few excep- tions among a morass of prime time TV shows that depict women as passive, often the helpless victims of bizarre crimes, or as scatterbrained sex objects. The worst example is dumb-blonde Chrissie on Three’s Company, a travesty masquerading as a TV comedy. A recent study of over 1,600 prime time television shows found that on those shows, male characters outnumbered female characters three to‘one. By and large the women were weak and dependent, and mostly typecast as mothers or lovers. They were vast- ly more likely be passive, their lives centered around confident and aggressive men cast in a variety of roles. The study was conducted by George’Gerbner, dean of University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School of Communications. The study found the same kind of patterns for Afro-Americans on TV, that’ when they appeared, they were mostly in supporting roles to white charac- ters. So if you think it’s hard to find women characters in general on TV, try finding a Black women. I can think of only four shows with regular Black women characters. Fame is the best, with the school’s danc- ing instructor a talented Black woman, committed to her students, Black and white, male and female. A Black woman is head nurse of Trapper John, M.D. Despite the fact that most of the plots involve primarily the white male leading characters, a few episodes have focused on her, and the writers handle her part with respect. Dolores Dwyer is on the staff of World Magazine. Louise on The Jeffersons is not a bad character. But her part is nothing but a foil to her husband George’s swaggering bravado and his supposed ‘‘re- verse racism.’’ Louise Jefferson is not shown in an insulting way, but the show itself is an insult. This is no honest comedy of{a comfortable Afro-American family. The Jeffersons have ‘‘made it’’ enough to even have a Black maid themselves—TV proof of the theory that Blacks would. be just obnoxious as well- to-do whites once they climb that ladder of suecess—a not too-subtle apology for racism. Even worse is Gimme A Break. Nell Carter, an extremely talented performer, has been awarded the role of nanny to a white cop and his kids. The joke so far seems to be how much she weighs and what size her breasts are. The show is racist and sexist. As for Puerto Rican or Chicana women on TV, I can’t think of one single regular character on any show. TV shows are filmed and produced mostly in New York City and southern California, where Afro- Americans, Chicanos and Puerto Ricans constitute a high percentage of the population. You would never know it from watching TV. e The TV women I grew up with were the situation comedy heroines of the day. Many is the girlhood hour ~ T howled over the zany adventures in I Married Joan, where Joan Davis never failed to get in some kind of trouble before her husband, Brad, the judge, came home. He always bailed her out, and then he bawled her out. But he forgave her, of course, because he loved her childish stupidity. I Love Lucy was the same, as were many other sitcoms of the 50s and 60s. Gracie Allen provided a similar laugh on Burns and Allen, except she always triumphed. She was so out of it she never realized her stupidity. The shows were funny and the comediennes top _ notch, especially Gracie Allen. But what a message those shows gave about women and marriage! To- day’s sitcoms are much improved on the whole. Changing attitudes about women and changing roles for women have come to be reflected on TV. * But TV women, even when shown in a good light, hardly represent the female population in this coun- try. The Annenberg study found that under 20% of TV’s mothers go to work, contrasted with over 50% in real life. Anu when they do go to work, they usually have some kind of high-paid profession, often a5 @ lawyer. The study found that under 10% have work: ingclass occupations, as opposed to a good two-thir ds of the real work force. re Alice, on Alice, is one of the few independent work: ing women in a ‘‘blue collar’ job. We have other shows like One Day at a Time, where a divorce mother and her two grown, daughters are the mal? characters. Ann Romano is an advertising executive who has started her own business. She, like Alice 2! many of TV’s other independent mothers, has chil dren old enough so they don’t need a babysitter. Ihave yet to see a television mother drop her kids off at day care before she goes to work. TV mothels with young kids are hard to find. Elaine in Taxi § reported to have two, but I have never seen them eve? though they are mentioned from time to time. BU! then, rarely do the episodes focus on her becausé there are so many male characters compared to he! one. Archie Bunker’s little daughter Gloria is now mak: ing her own way on Sunday nights. Though she is 4 mother herself, she plays the child to the older and wiser father figure Dr. Adams and his cynical sop ticated heart-of-gold woman partner. And because she lives and works in the same place, the problem 0 child care is neatly avoided. The independent women are always single. Mal ried women are rarely featured as comic figures @ the sitcoms lest they upstage their husbands. BoD Newhart’s wife is nice enough, but hardly a memora” ble character. Same. with the wife on Too Close for Comfort. e If some independent women have emerged on the comedies, they have also found a new dramatic format—cop shows. Police dramas seem to be the traditional launching pad for those seeking liberation. Some of TV’s first respectable Afro-Americans welé, cops — for example, in The Rookies and Mod Squ@' (also with a white woman). Charlie’s Angels provided a soft-core introductio® of women into the world of crime-fighting. In Cagney cand Lacey and Hill Street Blues they have reached the hard-core stage. Nevertheless, these shows are sensitively done: .Cagney is the career woman, aggresive yet caring: Lacey is family oriented, but she’s also committed 10 her job. Cagney and Lacey is one of the few TV dramas where two adult-woman relate primarily each other about their work. . Hill Street Blues has a little of that too, although its story line is far too complex and too dominated by males to spend much time on it. However, we see the women cops on the job, but usually in the context of them relating to their boyfriends. The men cops we see in hard-hitting stories about their work. The pro- fessional woman, Joyce Davenport, is given a lot more play involving her career. 5 Even so, Hill Street Blues goes deeper and moré realistically into human drama than any other regu- lar show in TV. That’s why it has gotten so many awards. I just wish it wasn’t about cops. After watch- ing that show, you come out thinking that police brut- ality is justified, that official inquiries into police con- duct are witch hunts and that cops are the only heroes we have. . = : And for every female crime fighter we see, we se€ many more times more women crime victims. The Annenburg study found that prime time shows cast women as victims of violent crimes, as it also does minorities and the elderly, far more frequently that ~ real life does. It found that 55% of prime time charac- ters are involved in violence once a week, as com- pared with 1% in reality. : If you think these imbalances on TV have no effect on the U.S. public, think again. One of the most in- teresting parts.of the Annenberg study was a poll of attitudes among television viewers. It found that heavy watchers have more reactionary attitudes to- wards women and Blacks than light watchers—they favored segregation more often, for example, and felt that women should stay home and let the men run the country. Given the fare on TV, this should come as no surprise. : — L-ESS NATURALLY You Buy ae 5 eo - SO WE HAVE A SuRpL WE CUT Ls dh MS aay Filet cur TO KEEP hd AND LAY You OF F x Le8: -© . AS To THE Econonic CRASIS,. ITS ALL CAVSED bY SUN. SPOT ¢ (eu