I have previously made my feelings known about The Chaser team on this here blog. Recently I discussed the television show at a work meeting, my colleagues were aghast - it was if I had said, "Four Corners is gutter journalism at its finest". The only person who shared my view was my ridicuously hysterical workmate who is addicted to rsvp.com and carries a perky leather manbag. He is bang up for a bit of lady action but is frequently mistaken for a lesbian - go figure.
They have done some great work over the years and they never serve up lazy television. The show has a great pace and honestly any team that can come up with the idea of dressing Lawrence Leung as the gay Tellytubby and trying to get into The Peel is clever. Like you, and the other 2.3 million Australians I watched the show last week. I have never said these guys aren't talented and funny and their APEC stunt was very interesting to watch. I don't think they ever imagined they would have been permitted to advance so far. But one thing really bothers me - the way women are represented on their show.
They have done some great work over the years and they never serve up lazy television. The show has a great pace and honestly any team that can come up with the idea of dressing Lawrence Leung as the gay Tellytubby and trying to get into The Peel is clever. Like you, and the other 2.3 million Australians I watched the show last week. I have never said these guys aren't talented and funny and their APEC stunt was very interesting to watch. I don't think they ever imagined they would have been permitted to advance so far. But one thing really bothers me - the way women are represented on their show.
Even though the sketch is a parody of Channel Ten's Californication, it still featured two women dressed as nuns almost-pashing. Even if you splash KEVIN 07 across the front of their outfits, include it in a Led Zepplin parody and pretend you are making a statement on Kev's girly-bar experience, you still have corset-clad babes closing the show.
So I am wondering, even if you present some intelligent political satire, pull some audacious stunts and pad out the show with some mediocre sketches - how is The Chaser team better or different in its treatment of women than say...The Footy Show? Isn't this just the Sydney grammar school version of the boys club but with politics instead of sport? You know none of it would bother me if this was balanced with some other representation of women other than slaggy nuns and girly props. But apart from a member of the production team in a vet sketch and the bewildered receptionist at the Chinese embassy, these were the only females on show.
Why does it bug me so much? Am I being over-sensitive or doesn't anyone else notice?
