Feature: NOW report -- women on TV

On any average night in the United States, more than 100 million men, women and children settle down to watch television and what they're often treated to is an adolescent boy's fantasyland, according to the National Organization for Women's "Feminist Primetime Report."

In the world of TV, women -- who are almost always young, thin and use their sex appeal to great advantage -- may be capable but must answer to male authority, the NOW report said.

"The discussion of what we are watching on TV has been getting louder and louder as we are seeing more and more sexual exploitation and more female victims," NOW Foundation President Kim Gandy told United Press International. "Network programming sends a distorted, often offensive, image of women, girls and people of color brought to you through the point-of-view of white men and boys."

The third annual "Feminist Primetime Report" examined all of the primetime programs on six broadcast networks: ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, UPN and WB.

"In our official tally, the six broadcast networks employed 134 more men than women in regular primetime roles," the report said. "Programs told from a male point-of-view outnumbered those with a female point-of-view more than two-to-one."

The report, conducted by volunteer NOW monitors, found 57 percent of primetime programs last season depended on some level of violence or hostile behavior for entertainment value.

"Included in this are newsmagazines like NBC's "Dateline," ABC's "20/20" and CBS's "48 Hours," which have become increasingly tabloidized, relying on salacious murder mysteries for content often with young women as victims," the report said. "And numerous comedies, reality shows and game shows spotlighted anger, back stabbing and cruel intentions for fun and profit."

NOW's field analysts commented on the low level of maturity in primetime TV and its overall lack of interest in social issues.

"Virtually no one on TV cares about what's going on in their communities or the larger world, and television is reluctant to accept older people, fat people, people with disabilities, blue-collar workers," the report said.

The report said that on television, the majority of women are young and thin -- 140 women on television were model thin while 31 appeared to be larger than size 10.

However, Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University, told UPI that not all people on television fit the young and thin category.

"There is the superficial 'bikini' factor for the reality shows, and some are chosen for that and that's why there will never be a 'Survivor' in Alaska," Thompson said. "But in the first 'Survivor' on CBS that had such tremendous ratings, the last three people on the island, the 'stars' were: an old ex-U.S. Navy SEAL, a middle-aged female trucker not traditionally attractive for television and an overweight gay male not considered traditionally attractive for television."

The gap between shows that portray female characters with dignity and respect, and programs that sexually exploit women appears to have widened, the NOW report said.

"On one end of the spectrum the networks give us "Judging Amy" on CBS, "ER" and "The West Wing" on NBC where women are smart, resourceful and in charge," said Gandy. "On the other end of that spectrum, the networks offer 'Fear Factor' on NBC, 'WWE Smackdown!' on UPN, 'The Bachelor' and 'The Drew Carey Show' on ABC where women exist to be ogled, used and demeaned."

"The trouble with television is that it's not a good place to look for reality, the level of drama is so jacked up, in ABC's "The Practice" they try two or three cases an episode and very little on NBC's "Friends" is anywhere close to reality," Thompson said.

While "The West Wing" gets high marks in the report and seems to be liked by both men and women, there is disagreement over the character of C.J. Craig, the spokeswoman for the White House.

"C.J.'s character portrayal is realistic but shows that women who reach a certain level still put up with a lot of garbage from their boss and others such as being called 'girl,'" Gandy said. "She still questions her competentness probably because others do."

According to Thompson, the political correctness prevalent in the 1980s flipped to a post-politically correct world where political correctness is a bad thing.

"Murphy Brown would never let anyone call her 'girl' or she might have slugged them, she just wouldn't put up with it, she was the strong woman to compensate for the weaker women ahead of her on television," Thompson said. "While Fox's 'Ally McBeal' main character was ambiguous, she went to Harvard but was a bimbo, she was slowly going insane, she was hallucinating about babies."

The NOW report said: In a situation comedy, a woman must be beautiful, thin and younger than her male counterparts, and willing to use her sexuality for laughs and titillation. In workplace comedies, female characters often shrug off sexually harassing behavior that would be unwelcome in the real world.

"In family comedies, women frequently play the sensible, hard-working wife/mommy to a lazy, immature husband, such as CBS's 'Everyone Loves Raymond' and 'The King of Queens,'" the report said.

"The networks feel little responsibility for what they put on the air, as long as it brings in billions in advertising revenue," Gandy said. "Because the networks use a public asset, 'the airwaves,' in order to transmit programming, they are required by the 1934 Communications Act to 'serve the public interest.'"

However, the Federal Communications Commission and Congress do little to enforce this obligation, but Gandy said the NOW Foundation is determined to help viewers hold the networks accountable.

UPI contacted several networks, but they declined to comment on the NOW report.