Posted on 07/02/2009 5:47:48 PM PDT by optiguy
Feminists irate over game show ISTANBUL - A new game show claims there is entertainment value in asking men to guess which pair of women has managed to answer a simple trivia question. Womens rights activists react after just two episodes, claiming the show is evidence of the discrimination against women in Turkish society. Its format is an attack on women, the activists say
Feminists irate over game show Womens activists are up in arms over a new television show they argue depicts all women as unintelligent. The shows producer, however, says the show unveils the failure of the Turkish education system in an entertaining way.
The show "Ah be güzelim," which can be roughly translated as "Oh, my lovely," has appeared on private channel atv only twice, but its format has already attracted the ire of womens groups. In the show, three teams composed of two women each answer questions in advance, with three teams of two men each trying to guess which of the women answered the questions right.
In one episode, one of the womens teams did not know what a locksmith did, nor did it recognize a baboon. It didnt know what a solar eclipse was either. When asked to show the southern-most city in the country, one girl picked Cyprus. The womens teams have to come up with answers to the questions and the ridiculous responses the teams come up with are the shows source of entertainment. Women's Media Watch Group, or Mediz, which specifically monitors discrimination against woman in the media, said in a statement on June 29 that the show "insults and encourages insulting women. Its format is an attack on women."
Mediz said in its statement that atv had signed the "Ethical Principles of Broadcasting" document on July 3, 2007, in which the second article says "not to broadcast programs that include discrimination, insults or prejudices based on ethnicity, color, language, religion or gender." Mediz also noted that, "The fourth article says the signatory parties will avoid representing women as objects," and called on atv to cancel the show.
Melek Özman, a member of Mediz, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that the program is formatted in a way that presents girls who pretend to be foolish beauties.
"The format is constructed in a way that depicts women as stupid. They are probably choosing women who cannot answer the easiest questions and through them they insult all women," she said.
Nevin Öztop, a representative of the Ankara-based LGBT organization Kaos GL, said, "Gender discrimination on television is not a new issue, but it is done so openly that it has become normal." The program was imported by the production firm "Sinevizyon" and adopted from its original format titled "Pretty Smart."
Doğa Sülen, from Sinevizyon, producer of "Ah be güzelim," said they thought they might get some adverse reactions, but added, "There is no need to think like that since we do not have any kind of discrimination in the format and nobody is acting on the show." He said the general response to the show was positive.
Sülen also agreed the girls answers were very poor. "It is nothing to do with our show but the problem is our education system. We hold up a mirror to society, unfortunately this is the result." When asked by the Daily News why only women answer the questions, the producer Sülen said they have already filmed two other episodes in which men answer the questions.
Öztop, however, said she did not find this answer satisfactory. "Why does the shows name only mention women?" During the show, host Hale Caneroğlu and competing men shout, "Oh my lovely," when a female team, picked by men to answer the questions correctly, do not give the right answer. The show will be broadcast on atv throughout the summer. Sülen called on people not to focus on the discrimination issue and just watch the program "since it is only an entertainment show."
This sounds a bit like being “unemployed in Greenland.” (”Princess Bride”)
I would never encourage an insulting woman.
But, hey, that's just me.
this show does not sound like an attack on women in general, or muslim women specifically. it sounds like an attack on idiotic women, stupid women, the kind of women who really deserve to be made fun of in public. just sayin’.
Let’s see, burkas okay.
Covering face, okay.
Staying at home, okay.
No school, okay.
Surgery on their privates, okay.
Being give away like cattle, okay.
Being stoned for being raped, not so bad.
Silly game show, why that’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard.
The very idea. How dare they use women that way...
Just damn.
I think you have to go to our universities for that.
;-)
Let me know when the American version comes out...sounds hilarious.
Turn the tables and have a show that asks the man to locate an object in the house.
Barack does. He married her.
lolttt
"Dear, have you seen where I put the keys to the camel?"
Maybe the Turks got the idea from American beauty pageants. Or the old Sally Jesse Raphael show.
parsy, who still marvels at how ignorant that woman was
Signed, a woman (very conservative) I've been filling out the online Zogby poll with the designation of "conservative", going forward, I'm claiming VERY conservative
Sounds similar to “The Newlywed Game”.
I saw that show once (before you ask, I didn’t have positive control of the TV at the time) and the question was: In what compass direction does the sun set at your home? (Or something close to that).
The grooms all got the right answer, but not all of the brides did.
When one guy tried to tell his wife the sun always sets in the West, she said “Not in our neighborhood.”
Or perhaps how to operate a simple device, like a coat hanger.
If it were the Muslim version of the Newlywed Game, the question would go: “When was the first time you made whoopie?” The bride would answer: “That’s easy. It was my ninth birthday. Just like Aisha with Mohammed.”
where one of the events was to see who could drag a woman by the hair the farthest distance, you're getting to be a pretty old fart.
I bet the old hags (N.O.W.) loved that one.
No fair
amen sister! i personally refuse to watch sitcoms just for that reason. hubbymayhem is a wonderful man. when i first met him he was still married to what my son called “that cranky woman”. i called her many other less polite things. this creature spent half her time making fun of this good man, making jokes at his expense, basically portraying him as a clueless doofus. i hated that even before i loved him. my bro had same thing. these horrible women tried their very best to make two very strong intelligent decent men out to be moronic buffoons who could not function without a female to guide them. I HATE THAT!! this is why i say sit coms suck, and any t.v. show that makes fun of stupid women is okay-fine with me. that said, i do not agree with shows that portray women as bubbleheads who are not capable of getting thru a day without a man’s help. one is just as bad as the other. but truly stupid people of either gender really do deserve whatever public humiliation they get.
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