Glancing over the front page of CS, I see that there is no currently active thread objectifying women OR men. This must stop, lest the SDMB implode upon itself in a singularity of moral rectitude. Thus I am opening this thread, not for my own amusement, but for greater good.
Often in television shows & motion pictures, one character in an ensemble is clearly meant to be the “babe” by the creators–the one they think the audience will slobber over. Nearly as often, the so-called babe is overshadowed in the minds of many by a supposedly-plainer friend. I’ve listed two classic examples in the thread title: almost everybody I know thinks that Mary Ann was ten times hotter than her red-headed roommate, and Loni Anderson’s big-haired charms were utterly eclipsed by the bespectacled loveliness of Jan Smithers.
Uma’s looks are…um…variable, to be nice, while Janean is gorgeous when she isn’t even TRYING–and, of course, she never tries very hard, having some philosophical arguments with the beauty myth. But it’s obvious that all it would take very little to tip her over into the gorgeous categroy.
Truly ugly women in TV and movies are rare. The simple fact is that actresses tend to be more beatuiful and in better physical shape, on average, than your run-of-the-mill woman on the streets.
Naturally, getting cast as the Plain Jane sidekick is still intensely desirable for an actress, and so the women that are cast are often – athough not always – beauties in real life. Their characters are then adorned with glasses, sweatshirts, and unflattering hairstyles to signal to the audience that they are supposed to be unattractive, and the story lines continually show them as not having the sex appeal that their bombshell roommate/best friend/neighbor has.
So we have (objectively) good looking women, in story lines that show them as not getting much male attention. This is a beacon to the male audience: they know they don’t have a shot with Jennifer Marlowe… I mean, LOOK at her. But in contrast there’s Jan. She’s not fielding passes from men constantly – there’s no real competition for her. I might have a shot!
So – it’s the combination of actual beauty and the continual message that she’s plain, and thus not subject to competition.
I think this discussion works for men as well. For instance, when I was growing up I & most of the other girls preferred Spock to Kirk; the sidekick to Mr. West in The Wild Wild West TV series was hotter than West; and who denies that 2nd banana Ilia Kuriakin (David McCallum) was the sexiest Man From UNCLE?
I don’t think that’s it, though. For one thing, I think that Bailey Quarters is objectively better-looking than Jennifer Marlowe. And second, Bailey is still way out of my league – hardly attainable at all.
I came in here to mention the lovely Ms Rosenberg, played by Alyson Hannigan. As pretty as Sarah Michelle Gellar is, both in real life and as the titular heroine Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I always thought sweet, geeky Willow was hotter.
It’s possible that what American males are responding to is the persona. For instance Loni Anderson and Tina Louise were both playing the archetypal femme fatale (with a twist in Anderson’s case of her being really very smart), whereas Jan Smithers and Dawn Wells were playing the girl scout.
Wait, I thought you were talking about The Graduate, where Anne Bancroft played the older femme fatale Mrs. Robinson, and Katherine Ross played her daughter Elaine.
If you’re thinking of Firefly, I believe the episode was entitled “Our Mrs. Reynolds,” referring to the wife of the captain, Mal Reynolds, who only appeared in one or two episodes. Not the greatest example.