I was a little shocked after reading the Poniewozik and Rosenberg articles and the analysis of the Playboy Club and Charlies Angels. I am very surprised that anyone could have thought these shows to be geared towards men. Yes, there are women who are scantly clad, but more importantly they had leading roles that were filled with women and although I never watched either of these shows, they seemed to be strong female characters. As noted in the articles it might have been this confusion that lead to their almost immediate removal from the prime time line up.
There seems to be a disconnect in the greater audience and those who produce the media on what qualifies as t.v. for men and t.v. for women. This disconnect can also be seen in two other shows mentioned by Poniewozik and Rosenberg, New Girl and Whitney. The show New Girl was created and ideally marketed to men because of Zooey Deschanel's character. Ponziewozik describes it as the male fantasy character, "known as the Manic Pixie Dream Girl."However, this show is overwhelmingly viewed by women. This polarity in who was expected to view a show and who actually views it can be seen in Whitney. This show, like many of the other new prime time sitcoms and series, has a strong female leading character and was expected to be predominantly viewed by women, however, Ponziewozik points out that this is a show that is viewed by a large audience of men. The disconnect found between what is expected to be a show for men and a show for women, and what is actually viewed by men and women is so great due to the changing views of femininity and masculinity.
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