The lowest common demoninator

Sometimes Steph and I like to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation in the afternoons. However, the only channel that plays it at this time is Spike TV, a television station that caters primarily to teenaged boys and young, straight men. Given the previous descriptor, you can only imagine what the programming must be like.

Lately I've been disturbed more than usual by the commercials that appear on Spike--commercials for violent horror flicks such as Hostel, and the newest from-the-dregs-o'-hell offering, See No Evil. Then there are Spike's commercials which depict scantily clad nymphs touching one another all over and sitting in provocative and inviting positions, women making sexual advances on other women--encouraging voyeurism, and sex mixed with violence in almost every depiction. It's an appeal to the basest in the male, testosterone-ridden nature, the lowest male common denominator, and literally sets my teeth on edge.

I find me asking myself "what happened to the women's movement for God's sake?" In the 1980's women wouldn't have stood for crap like this! Have we slid so far back that we've literally gone back to the cave? If Spike is any indication, then yes, we have, and it's really scary. I fear that the next generation of women have no idea what they are facing, and it frightens me for them. It seems that we passed this precious, hard-won, golden baton, entrusting them with something that women for generations before them have fought for diligently with their blood, sweat, and tears, and this new generation of women, in their indifference for what was won for them, have dropped it.

It's time to get back on the wagon, ladies, before it's too late.


Today's musical feature is Mozart's Lied for voice and piano, Als Luise die Briefe, K. 520