It’s time to bury Bones

Because plastic women are the best women!
(image by Dave at morgueFile)

Not real bones, mind you.  But the TV show Bones.  It began broadcasting back in 2005, and, as per the write-up on IMDB, is about “a forensic anthropologist and a cocky FBI agent build a team to investigate death causes.”  It’s in season 9 already.  I’ve seen almost all the episodes.  I say almost all because I have no idea if there were any episodes after episode 14 in season 9: The Master in the Slop.  The end of that show convinced me that I should never ever watch it again.

Why?  Well, if you saw it, you might know why.

The plot was interesting, someone being set up for a murder they didn’t commit, chess, pigs.  What more do you want in an episode?  Well, perhaps you might want a lack of rampant sexism.

In this lovely episode, Dr. Brennan (Bones) is upset that Dr. Camille Saroyan is receiving an award.  The award is for “Outstanding Women of Science,” and it’s from “Science Monthly.”  But Dr. Saroyan is concerned because she knows that Dr. Brennan expects the award.  To try to mitigate the situation, Dr. Saroyan contacts the institution offering the award and asks if it can be shared between herself, Brennan, and their artist/computer whiz Angela Montenegro.

The women hear back.  The publication has chosen to “honor” all three of the women…actually, they’ve chosen to “honor” 12 women!  You see, they’ve decided to have the “12 Outstanding Women of Science.”

So far, this doesn’t sound so bad, right?  And then they produce the “humorous” twist...the “honor” being bestowed upon 12 brilliant women is that they get to wear bikinis (with pictures of male scientists on the breasts!) and have a photo shoot “showing a lot of skin.” 

Well, who the hell would agree to that?  According to Brennan, all the “brilliant” women.

When Saroyan points out that, “We’ll be hanging in labs all across the country,” Brennan argues that it will simply show that at the Smithsonian, “….pulchritude is as abundant as brilliance…I never thought I would be honored in this way.”  

Wait.  What the fuck?

It’s an honor to pose in a bikini for men to look at you?  Really?  Being ogled and turned into a sex object shows pulchritude?  And this is an important thing to show?  Because Brennan, Saroyan, and Montenegro all think that this is a huge honor that they’re being allowed to help the publication stay solvent by turning into Playboy Bunnies?

I mean, they’re only a lap dance away from really earning some money for the magazine…and think about how much extra the Smithsonian could pull in if they went full monty!

What makes this even worse, I think, is that when I looked up the episode and read user reviews on tv.com, most of them make no mention of the sexism.  They focus on lack of realism, stereotypes, and failed gags.  No one thought it was horrific that being a scientist and a woman meant that the woman would need to prostitute herself for the sake of a publication.  No one seemed to find it painful that three intelligent women would throw themselves into bikinis so that men across the country could ogle them.  No one mentioned that it was sending a horrible, horrible message – that being smart isn’t enough.  You also have to be willing to show some skin to get anywhere.  Brennan even mentions that if they don’t do it, the “honor” will go to three other women, and she can’t possibly let that happen.

I say again: what the fuck?

I am willing to put up with a lot of stupid shit in TV shows.  It’s TV after all.  Most of the time, I’m not watching it for high quality, but for amusement and perhaps some mystery.  But when it’s personally offensive, the amusement is gone. 

So what time is it?  It’s time to bury Bones.  Let the ratings go to hell.  It’s going to get put to rest after season 10 anyway, but maybe we can encourage them to end it a bit sooner than that…

I find your lack of faith disturbing…

Yeah, I'm looking at you!
(Image by Karpati Gabor,
via morgueFile)

So the world is all atwitter (quite literally) because of Dylan Farrow’s statements against Woody Allen and Stephen King’s tweets about them.  The quick summary: Farrow was upset that Allen is still being honored, despite accusations of molestation when she was seven years old.  King tweeted that he felt that there was “palpable bitchery” in the letter that Farrow wrote to the New York Times.  The conversation continued, with King saying that he “[didn’t] like to think it’s true” and then finally asking for “mercy” when people flooded him with negative comments.

First up: the irony.  Stephen King, in his book Dolores Clairborne, has his character kill off a child molester in order to protect her family.  (Yes, it’s her husband…) 

Hmmm.  In the real world, when a girl comes forward and says that her father has molested her, King wants it to be untrue.  But in a fictional world, it’s all good and sympathetic for a woman to kill her husband for molesting their child.  Admittedly, the fictional world is not the real world, but to write a book that attempts to justify a murder through child abuse and then hope that it doesn’t happen in the real world…how does that cognitive dissonance work exactly?

Second up: the personal connection.  No, I was not molested as a child.  However, a family member was molested by her father.  Not naming names as one of the parties involved is still alive…but this happened back well before I was born, and it did involve my grandfather (who is dead now).  I only learned of it when my sister and I turned about 12 and 13, and my grandfather, who had previously shown no interest in us, began asking my parents to allow us to go visit him overnight up in New York state.  My parents refused, but my sister and I, unhappy at being stymied from going away, protested, and it was finally explained to us why they would not let us go. 

Meanwhile, the only punishment that he ever received for his crime was that his wife divorced him and took their children away.  Did he ever molest anyone else?  How did the person he molested ever deal with it and stay “friends” with him?  This, to me, is completely mind-boggling.  After learning that about him, I couldn’t stand him, and I wished that he had been put in prison or somehow punished for his actions against a child.  But he wasn’t.  And because of the year and the fact it was family, people just pushed it aside and kept going.  But it was wrong.  Very, very wrong.  And it was not something that should be easily forgiven nor forgotten.   

Because of that, while I can’t feel Farrow’s pain, I can definitely understand her feelings of betrayal from the world at large.  How can people celebrate and honor someone who is so capable of doing such a heinous thing?  How can you forgive that just because someone is talented at something else?  If Allen had put someone in a coma…if he had murdered someone…or if he had been formally charged, would it have made a difference?

Third up – and the final point I feel the need to make: this brings up the most horrifying aspect of child abuse, in my opinion.  The lack of faith and belief in children when they bring these things forward.  Now, I’m not saying that there are times when there are false accusations.  I grew up in Maplewood, NJ, home of the infamous Kelly Michaels case.  But, by and large, I do believe that if children are brave enough to come forward, we need to believe them. 

In the case of Farrow, back in 1993 in Connecticut, “State'sAttorney Frank Maco says there was "probable cause" to charge Allenwith molesting Dylan and that police had drawn up an arrest warrant, but thathe decided not to pursue the case, in part because it would traumatize Dylan.”  

How sad that it never went forward.  And how sad that so many children are treated this way. 

In a CNN article, “The Rapist Next Door,” one girl shared her story of how, when she told that she was being molested by her brother, she was sent into foster care.  A boy who tried to tell that he was being molested was accused of being liar and a “no good, mischievous boy.”  Knowing that those who were abused or molested are more likely to abuse or molest themselves (according to one study of incarcerated child molesters, 30 to 70 percent were themselves sexually abused, according to the New York Times, we should be seeking out these cases and helping the children, not ignoring them and their pain. 

Perhaps this blog doesn’t belong under a feminist heading – it’s not just about women or girls.  It’s not just about boys or men.  It’s about a lack of faith in believing when problems are reported.  In many cases, yes, it is women and girls who are ignored, but it’s also children and adults who are ignored when they report a case.  Or, in even worse cases, are accused of being responsible for the crime. 

So, truly, I find that lack of faith almost as disturbing as the crime itself.