So, everyone is all of a doo-dah about this new Geena Davis show, wherein she will be the first female president.
ABC is doing its part to help the Hillary ‘08 campaign with this transparent attempt to get the nation “comfortable” with the idea of a woman president - one who will be portrayed as having soft edges, to round out Hillary’s own spear-sharp ones.
Funny how campaign-finance laws restrict the free speech of bloggers and independant groups, but don’t consider how the arts contribute to campaigns…but that is for better minds than mine.
Charmaine Yoest is taking some umbrage at the suggestion that this show is necessary to get Americans to think of women in Iconic ways…or something.
The Washington Post reports today on a press conference with Rod Lurie, the show’s creator. Lisa de Moraes reports that “Lurie thinks it a shame there are no ‘iconic’ women in history because women do have greatness in them.”
Aw, isn’t that nice? Someone in Hollywood thinks we women have greatness in us. Imagine if he’d never suggested it! We’d all still think we were slugs.
So, Charmaine is assembling a list of iconic women, and a gallery. She wants you to go over there and suggest some women. Nice idea. She also links to this excellent site all about women and what they have done.
July 28th, 2005 at 11:00 pm
Oprah was the best he could come up with for an iconic woman?
Leaving out the Blessed Virgin (which I did in my comment on Charlotte’s site, for which oversight I’m kicking myself), I thought of Marie Curie (yep, I’m a geek), Mother Teresa, Sandra Day O’Connor (whom the left seems to be drooling over now that she’s leaving SCOTUS, Catherine the Great (can you get “the Great” added to your name without being an icon?_and Princess Diana (who may not deserve it but you can’t say she’s not an icon and she did use her fame to do some good things).
Good grief, I’m half asleep and I picked better than Oprah.
Oh, and I left Krista MacAuliffe off my list too. If she’s not an iconic woman, she should be.
July 29th, 2005 at 8:42 am
President Red Lips
Lisa de Moraes: “ABC’s new drama “Commander-in-Chief,” about a set of plump red lips that take over the Oval Office after the president has a massive stroke and croaks.”
Hilarious. I saw for the first time a commercial for CiC last night and th…
July 29th, 2005 at 9:55 am
This was a laugh-out-loud post for me … “women do have greatness in them” … the Washington Post actually printed that lame quote?! I’ve never liked Geena Davis as an actress … maybe she’ll be no help to the HRC campaign.
July 29th, 2005 at 10:37 am
Well, I think West Wing has been hugely popular, and they want to replicate- same as when cop shows were popular, every network had their own version. How is this any different from CSI Miami, which is a copy of all the Law & Order stuff? They have to have a slightly different “hook”- using a woman makes perfect sense. And for the record, West Wing has bought, from me, more (thinking of the word) tolerance maybe? of Bush and his staff. It points out the realities of life in the White House- not always pretty, and not always perfect. It’s shown me the view up there isn’t always as nice and clean as we think. Which means when I read something negative about Bush’s (or his team’s) actions, I’m more likely to pause for a minute and think- cause the decisions aren’t easy, and sometimes you have to do things that aren’t exactly lily pure to get the job done.
July 29th, 2005 at 10:42 am
Oh and to add to your list of women- What about Eleanor of Aquitaine? Man, she had a pair of brass ones. Divorced the King of France, married the kind of England (and brought with her 1/5 of modern France). When he cheated on her, she started a war against him that lasted until he died. Now that’s hell hath no fury! She also founded the first abbey to shelter abused women- Fountevrault, as well as one of the leading sponsors of the Courts of Love in the 12th Century- which brought us great literature from the likes of Cretien de Troyes (Tristan and Isolde-romantic stories). It was also VERY influential in raising the esteem of women in the popular culture of the time. She was an EXTREMELY powerful woman in a timeperiod that didn’t have many.
July 29th, 2005 at 10:43 am
Yes, I know, I’m a history geek. But if I got to choose a woman from the past I could meet- definately her.
July 29th, 2005 at 11:22 am
I find it interesting that a ’strong woman’ on TV is in no small measure defined by attractive cleavage.
Golda Meir, Indira Ghandi and Margaret Thatcher were strong woman- the real thing. I wonder if any serious consideration was given to an actress that closely resembled those women.
July 29th, 2005 at 12:45 pm
I LOVE Eleanor of Aquitaine - one of my favorites! Good choice! And Golda! I’d forgotten about her!
July 29th, 2005 at 1:37 pm
I wonder if anyone else is wondering why Geena Davis is cast in this role. I certainly haven’t seen everything she’s done, and I haven’t seen her in anything for years, but from what I’ve seen she typically plays likeable but somewhat goofy characters. What made me start wondering is that her character becomes president after the previous president dies. That is, she doesn’t campaign for the office, she more or less inherits it. With Geena Davis in that position I expect comic hijinx, not serious drama.
I have a feeling this series is not going to be successful enough to be relevant to 2008 in any way.
July 29th, 2005 at 3:32 pm
If they’re looking to get Americans used to the idea of a woman president, why not go ALL the way and get a black actress (Cicely Tyson, anyone?)
Iconic women: Joan of Arc. Condoleeza Rice. The woman–I can’t think of her name–who invented COBAL (the first computer language developed for business). Sojourner Truth. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Susan B. Anthony (wasn’t she on a dollar coin once? ;)). Sacajawea (isn’t she on the dollar coin NOW? ;)). Jacqueline Kennedy. Eleanor Roosevelt.
There. That took me, what–two minutes?
July 29th, 2005 at 7:45 pm
I agree with you about ABC propping up Hillary; Lord knows virtually every show defended the indefensible and had the post-liberal take on sexual harrassment, Ken Starr and impeachment during that sordid episode. Just look at David E. Kelly’s law shows and tell me they haven’t had an effect on the juries work. We’ve gone from beyond a reasonable doubt to beyond all doubt in many cases. Yes in deed, Hollywood uses the tube to influence culture and promulgate their liberal ideology.