I own a TV strictly for video game usage. Most of my TV watching is for sports anyway, and I can see those on demand online at no cost. Same for the handful of TV shows (all of which are on cable only) I still bother to follow.
Here are the facts:
-Women control
the majority of household spending.
-Women account for
85% of all consumer purchases.
-Women buy
more than half of the new cars in the U.S., and influence up to 80% of all car purchases.
-Women control
more than 60% of all personal wealth in the U.S.
-Boomer women born between the years 1946 and 1964 (the women most likely to sympathize with the whole "cougar" phenomenon you see constantly paraded on TV)
control net worth of $19 trillion and own the majority of the nation’s financial wealth. In the coming decades, they will inherit much more (thanks to the passing of their husbands and parents).
-There is evidence that women are
more susceptible to advertising.
Now, considering all of the above, why are we surprised to learn that our television industry (which depends to a large extent on the advertising industry, which in turn depends on its ability to attract consumers willing to spend) caters to women?
Women spend more, and America is all about spending. The consumer is king today and thus, by extension, women are the queens. They get what they want, and you see the results on TV. What they want, of course, is often in direct contrast to what men (particularly men like us) are really interested in, but our saving and spending habits render us somewhat irrelevant in all of this. One can afford to pay token attention to male interests and expect to actually make more money today.
Like I keep saying:
just follow the money. 90% of the time, you'll get a clear answer to the issue you're seeking clarity on, especially in America. It is simply more profitable at all levels (small business, big business, the economy as a whole, etc) to cater to the interests of women.
Quote: (10-06-2012 06:34 PM)basilransom Wrote:
TV occupies just this role in America. It seeds and sustains support for the status quo, just as North Korean propaganda does. This status quo, naturally, is radical egalitarianism, to the point of elevating 'oppressed' groups like women above their 'oppressors.'
Close. TV's job is to elevate the ideal of radical egalitarianism
in support of free market capitalism. Egalitarianism for its own sake is not profitable.
This is why white women, specifically, have probably seen the
greatest benefit since the civil rights movement of
any group (including groups like hispanics, blacks, and native americans of both genders who, historically, probably have a bit more to complain about). They're the least "oppressed" of the "oppressed", but it is far more profitable to pretend otherwise, so just about everyone does.