No one working in online video today will claim that the medium is a safe zone for feminism. I mean, there are plenty of dynamic and talented women working behind and in front of the camera, but the web’s special talent for objectifying them can usually be considered to be a factor in their success — especially in light of Steve Bryant’s observation that “boobs evolved for thumbnails.” Putting hot chicks in your videos is a commonly accepted way of getting people to watch them. We accept it, and move on.
But every once in awhile a show comes along that makes me think about this again. Because the question at the heart of today’s review is as follows: How sexist is The IT Chicks, exactly?
Produced by the entertainment division of L.A.-based Woo Agency (whose clients include Intel, Fat Burger and Linksys), IT Chicks is a comedy series about a small Internet company whose IT department consists of two model-hot women, who speak fluent geek and in theory are smarter than their bosses. (It is also an advertising platform for technology products, with the first episode devoted to singing the praises of NETGEAR’s ReadyNAS backup system.)
The fact that this is considered to be enough of a premise to hang a series on — holy smokes, attractive girls know how technology works? How unexpected! — should be offensive to women of all levels of hotness. And the show’s presentation on meettheitchicks.com doesn’t do either gender many favors. Take this quote from the show’s about page:
The IT Chicks must devise a way to inoculate themselves from the stream of techno-tards that invade their space. For example, “The Stance,” the girls’ famed position, where one of them visits their needy co-worker’s desk, leans over sensually, and attempts to work on their computer. This move is 100% effective in disarming all male co-workers’ techno-stress whether the Chicks actually fix anything or not.
According to the character bios, Stephanie and Chloe went to MIT and Cornell. Those schools sure have some progressive approaches to preparing their graduates for the corporate world.
I mean, when French Maid TV uses scantily clad women to sell a product, there’s a goofy charm to it, an acknowledgment of the stereotypes being exploited. But there’s none of that here. This is women using their sexuality to manipulate easily duped men, which does neither gender any favors.
However, while on the surface the show might make Gloria Steinem shudder, the actual execution…isn’t as bad. First off, the show (written by National Lampoon writers Scott Rubin and Phil Haney and directed by Rubin) is well-written, slickly produced, and occasionally pretty funny — one character is told to keep hitting the F9 key on his keyboard every two minutes “or you’ll never get off the island.”
And Elspeth Keller and Jade Catta-Preta are decent actresses who create a sense of realism with their characters, not only ably managing the technobabble written in the script, but capturing the impatient superiority of an IT expert surrounded by morons. So when Stephanie does use sexy double-entendres and the aforementioned “Stance” to manipulate her boss (played by famous houseguest Kato Kaelin) into getting the back-up system their office desperately needs, at least it’s a choice grounded in characterization, not stereotypes.
Is The IT Chicks worse than any other product series out there in its depiction of gender? Not really. But are there plenty of other shows out there that don’t use a woman’s sexuality to sell a product? Absolutely. I guess the question is, how many products do they sell?
