There are whole days and nights in my life where I've had clothes on. But in TV Land (and film for the sake of argument), it's almost an impossible ask for a female character.
A few years back I started realizing how many scenes female talent are asked to do in underwear. Now it's getting ridiculous. If it were a drinking game, every night spent watching TV would leave viewers a drunken mess.
Someone told me all these underwear scenes are actually empowering. Apparently if the underwear isn't lacy, it's a girl power moment. And when lacy, a woman is owning her hotness. I disagree on all fronts. I think it's still sexualization, glossed with a feminist sheen.
Representation of women on television has always been tricky, and an uphill battle from the early days of the small screen for women to be presented as complex, nuanced characters. Now they're complex, nuanced characters—who don't always get to wear clothes.
If you're unclear on what I'm talking about, here are a dozen recurring women-in-her-underwear onscreen scenarios. It's becoming the norm for women to act without clothes on. In a lot of cases a stretchy singlet replaces a bra but I'm counting it as underwear. I think it's meant to stop anyone from calling out the sexualization but in fact it's preferred cause it shows more nipple.
While I think it's fine for the occasional dash of realism, it's unrealistic—if not downright ridiculous— for so many scenes to be done without clothing. In today's world, it would be great if female actresses got to be dressed as often as their male counterparts. Wild idea, right?
1. Morning Undies
You see this a lot in "serious" television. Like procedurals, and legal dramas. A female character wakes up, and gets out of bed. We get an underwear and bra or singlet shot, and then she dresses, usually pulling on jeans.
Thing is, the male characters more often start the day wearing a t-shirt in bed. Then it's a cut to the breakfast table. Or we meet them coming downstairs of a morning, or in the car on the way to work.
Why do women have to begin the day with a gratuitous flesh shot?
Once you see this pattern, you can't unsee it, and it will really annoy you.
2. Argument Undies
No idea why, but female characters on TV love to save their argument scenes for when they're in their underwear.
I don't know about you, but I like to fight with my clothes on.
3. Underwear And One More Drink
Apparently women without (most of their) clothes and booze go hand in hand.
When men on TV drink alone, it's usually in a t-shirt or shirt, and they have a beer. Or when they've had a hard day at work, they pull off their tie, undo a few buttons, and go the hard stuff like scotch or whisky.
Female characters on the other hand, like to drink at home in their undies. Usually it's wine, but if they're hardcore in a down to earth way they wear a singlet instead of a bra with their pants, and drink beer from a bottle.
The funniest version is when it's cold so they wear a jumper or a wrap while they drink. In their underwear.
Still unclear why women can't get drunk with their pants on.
4. Locker Room Dresslessness
This one is especially true for high school dramas but pops up anywhere with change rooms, like the gym or the workplace. The girls pause and have a conversation in bras and undies.
Guys, however, usually don't have a top on, but they are wearing pants. The least they wear are boxers. Why is that?
5. Undies In Space
Storytelling in outer space offers endless opportunities for women-in-underwear scenes.
A lot of the time this is presented as authenticity because the female characters are in no-nonsense undies and singlets. Thing is, I follow NASA on Insta and female astronauts seem to be doing a-okay in t-shirts and stuff.
On TV women prefer to fly their ships in as little clothing as possible. And when they wake up from stasis, they rarely get dressed. Likewise if they live and work in space, they just stick to boy short panties. Apparently this is clothing in orbit. Maybe the lack of gravity does something to the brain.
6. Type This
If you want to read emails or find information online, you do it in your underwear. Most googling in TV Land is done wearing undies, whether lying on the bed, sitting at the desk or relaxing on the couch.
Do search engines work better when women are unclothed? It's a question for the ages.
7. Prison Slash Experimental Facility Undies
When a character wakes up in prison, especially a futuristic one, she is usually in pants and the singlet alternate version of a bra. Are coveralls or even a shift too much to ask for?
Same for when she's being experimented on, or used for organ harvesting. She's stripped down to her undies. I don't know why she wouldn't be in a hospital style gown, or alternately just naked.
Maybe a bad guy can explain.
8. The Underwear Dance
Television insists that when women bop around at home to pop music, they can't put pants or a skirt on. Or shorts. Or even a wrap.
You get the drift.
It's still not clear why a female character can't dance around the house dressed.
9. Underwear/Makeup/Conversation Combo
This one is so popular and legit drives me up the wall.
Women on TV put makeup on before clothes. I understand if the fashion has to go over their head but usually it's a shirt. And they're often applying lipstick so it won't make a difference?
Also they have a female friend or gay male friend over, and they drop a heap of exposition. In their bra. Once again I'm a weird person who usually has clothes on before chatting with friends, whatever their sexual orientation.
10. Undies 'n Ugly Crying
Men on television rarely curl up in a ball of despair against the wall in their undies but this is a standard TV show move for female characters. Whether drinking, just having gotten a phone call that was basically A REVEAL, or dealing with a wild plot twist, women will slide to the ground in their underwear and have a meltdown.
Are they supposed to look more vulnerable this way? Is it another opportunity to bring the sexy back? Or a little of both?
11. Answering The Door In Your Undies
Many times on television, female characters answer the door in their undies. (Sometimes they have a gun, but that seems like a sub-category,) The front door, the back door, the side door, and the door to the basement—is this is going to a weird place? And now I'm multi-punning.
Sometimes they throw on a jacket or dressing gown but leave it hanging open which seems pointless.
I asked a friend if she'd ever answered the door in her underwear and she looked at me as if I were crazy. "So that's a no?"
12. Undies And The Apocalypse
When the world ends and things get weird with bunkers and roaming militia, we're back to the singlet-as-bra and undies combo.
I feel like when times are tough, I'd at least want a nice cardigan.
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