Oh, hi! I'm Jackie, a writer, improvisor, video editor and general purpose human. I work at a pretty great place called Maybe the nation is too busy still mourning the loss of Outsourced, the most outstandingly offensive piece of shit on television since the last time Khloe Kardashian opened her mouth, but we should be mad about this new show Work It premiering in January.
Granted, the show isn’t on TV yet so hey, maybe it won’t be the gloriously backward, unfunny turd bomb it seems. But I’m sort of thinking it will be. First of all ABC describes it on their website as ‘high-concept comedy’. That makes sense when you consider ABC has touted America’s Funniest Home Videos as ‘basically the cold fusion of comedy’. Preemptively describing something as high-concept doesn’t get you off the hook for making something that’s ACTUALLY sexist and offensive to both women and transgendered or genderqueer individuals.
How exactly is it offensive? Let’s start with the show’s description, where the two main characters are described as realizing America’s not in a recession but really a ‘man-cession’. Haha, whaaat? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics most recent unemployment numbers, men and women are pretty much neck and neck with men at 9.9% unemployment and women at 8.3%. So everyone’s fucked pretty equally as far as binary gender classifications go.
Anyway, I would love to think that this show’s premise hinges on the small discrepancy in male/female unemployment rates or any kind of modern reality but I don’t think so. I think what the show suggests is, while women can work, it’s a little bit of a joke, right guys? A recession, though felt by all, is still inherently a man’s problem because they’re the ones who are really supposed to have jobs in the first place.
And maybe the most obviously sexist part of the show’s premise is the overarching concept that, as men, these dudes are unemployable. As women, it’s easy to get a job. There are two workforces out there, one incredibly competitive for men and one really silly and easy for women. I wish I could be more articulate about this but I feel like if you don’t get why that’s is enraging, there’s no hope for you anyway. I did research on government websites to write a blog post so deal with my blind fury.
Maybe this show will find some deft, clever manner in which to write around a hopelessly stupid premise. I doubt it, but fingers crossed. Oh, and speaking of writing, on the show’s IMDB page 1 in 5 writers is a woman. Man-cession indeed.
