Television director, Linda Day, was responsible for creating some of the funniest scenes in television I had ever witnessed as a child. Day made history when the show, Married with Children aired its pilot on FOX in 1987 and I was hooked. She helped establish a show that told women it was acceptable to have absent an enthusiasm for taking care of a family (although Peggy Bundy surpassed not being enthusiastic), and there was absolutely nothing wrong with, instead of the husband (as we mostly spectate), the wife pursuing, even pleading, with her partner for sex.
The lead character, Al Bundy, was an obnoxious, unkept, sexist shoe salesman, who never missed an opportunity to belittle and degrade women. Why does a feminist like myself love what Day helped to create in this character? It was Al’s obvious, but sparse, love for his wife that redeemed himself with me.
Day’s approach to Married with Children was unchanged when directing the urban hit comedy, The Parkers. Once again, the heroin, Nikki Parker, is in hot pursuit of a man, Professor Ogolvee, who appears to be uninterested. For the second time, I was captivated. Moreover, the compensation for the male lead not reciprocating his feelings for his female pursuer is that he marries her at the end of the series, showing some compassion.
In Maggie Wykes Barry Gunther’s, The Media and Body Image: If Looks Could Kill, Gunther writes, Women feature in culture more often than not because of how they look and the preferred look is young, slender, sexual and white (p. 206). In both television shows the female pursuers, Peggy and Nikki, are the total physical antithesis of one another, but Day masterfully gets the same plausible results from each. Both women feel sexy and it shows through the director’s lens.
Day directed 33 episodes of Married with Children and as I remember, feminists hated the series and I understood why. But Day did something that many artists are currently executing through their art, but they have reversed the roles of their characters. The modern message seems to be, “If a man pursues a woman long enough, she will eventually say ‘yes’ after being worn down.” Although Married with Children and The Parkers are off the air, what keeps me going back to them is acquiescence of the man.
Works Cited:
- Wykes, Maggie and Gunter, Barrie. “The Media and Body Image: If Looks Could Kill.” Sage Publications Inc. 2005 : p. 206
- IMDB.com
- youtube.com
- Google Images
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