I watched a soap opera two years ago, almost every day. Passions, I think? But I am not stupid. I merely had nothing better to do, and watching it was a good laugh.
Intelligent people can be stressed out about important stuff all the time; even we like to do brainless activities, too!
wanders off to play Slingo and then study for her government midterm
Well, Bill, if you REALLY wanna see the worst on TV, watch the movie Mitchell, without Mike and the Bots. UGH!!!
Joe Don Baker-love scene! AAAAHHH!!!
Also, my dad never watches action or sports-he watches the Masses and musical concerts on EWTN. (The Catholic Channel, I call it.) He likes that kind of music. Does that make HIM a sissy? BTW, my dad’s six foot three and in EXCELLENT shape for a 52 year old…I don’t think you’d wanna pick a fight with him.
Oh, and he likes cats, too.
But wouldn’t that make him less of a man?
Arguing about tastes is completely futile, agreed. That said, however, I think most of us are choking on the idea that Bill, admirable though he might be for standing up for his beliefs, gets to set the list of Acceptable TV Shows for Men, or indeed, that there can possibly be such a list. It bothers me not at all that Bill thinks soap operas are an intellectual and artistic wasteland, I happen to agree with him on that issue. Although I would also say that sometimes that’s exactly what people want to watch.
But the idea that by watching them, a man is somehow less masculine or less ‘manly’ is not only ridiculous but insulting. What makes a man or woman is not for Bill to decide, but for that individual alone. Not only that, but no matter what definition of masculine or feminine is used, it’s far, far, far down the list of importance. Compared to being a good person, the issue of being “a man” is utterly negligible.
I am not less a man because I don’t limit myself to the Wildest Bill Approved List of Acceptable Programming Choices. I find most action shows to be utterly unrealistic and simplistic and most comedies to be inane and ridiculous. I choose to watch other programming, but according to Bill it makes me less masculine than he and his ilk. He decries the viewing of soap operas because they don’t teach the viewer anything:
What pray tell, can I learn from watching action movies and comedies? How to develop insipid and transparent chatter that grates on the nerves of everyone with an IQ over 12? The priceless lesson that no act of violence by the hero is ever complete without the snappy rejoinder that shows he has no concept of the seriousness of killing another human being? Perhaps its the fact that the smart, clever intelligent and amusing minority character will always be killed in a futile and ultimately meaningless firefight that has only one true purpose, to show the nobility of hero by avenging his dead partner.
I’ve heard a few of Bill’s more outlandish assertions and taken them with a grain of salt. In the first days of my visiting SDMB, I have to admit, I formed a working hypothesis that he was the single most incompetent troll I’d ever run across. However, after watching him for a number of months, I discarded that theory and admitted to myself that he actually did hold most of the beliefs he professed. I laughed, I cried, I winced in fear and trepidation and while I was occasionally drawn into a discussion he sparked, I generally just shook my head and wandered on. I have no passion for tilting at windmills. Its utterances like this, however, that make me wonder if he is, in fact, the best troll I’ve ever run across. He’s managed to get me to rise to the bait, a feat that should not be minimized. If he’s trolling for knee-jerk reactions he should be congratulated, it worked. All Hail Bill.
If, on the other hand, he actually does believe this load of offensive tripe then… well, I’m not really sure. It is, without question, his right to believe such garbage, but I find it offensive that he feels it proper to define my masculinity through what television shows I choose.
Christ, I thought only fags watched that show Bill. Got a thing for men in uniforms?
Okay, I’m done now. (I really shouldn’t have opened this thread with food poisoning.)
I want to know how I stack up on Wildest Bill’s scale o’ sweet lovin’. I’m serious. I want to know, for sure, finally exactly how appropriate I am.
~I’m a girl, since that is evidentally important.
~I don’t watch TV, but when I do I like junky action shows. Preferably plotless, where I know the physics and chemestry is out of whack, but lots of things blow up.
~I read sci-fi, fantasy, and classics (think Plato, Kipling and Shakespeare, m’kay?)
~I like giving blow jobs
~I hate cleaning
~I like sewing
~I like making large amounts of fire
~The dresses I enjoy wearing are all period clothes. From periods where Wildest Bill would have been the equivalent of a feminazi.
~Other than that I wear jeans and other durable, low maintence, ‘I don’t give a damn what you think’ clothing
~I play with stuffed animals
~I play conquest strategy games, even decently well.
~The language used is Latin. I’m learning it.
~I’m also learning Matrix theory.
Is that enough to tell me what kind of a womanish being I am? How feminine I am? I truly want to know. I have been questioning myself for years. I may be taking too many gray areas into account, I need your guidence, Wildest Bill. And please be specific, I want to know which traits are “good” and which are “useless” for me. As a woman. M’kay?
Well, I quit watching one because OBVIOUSLY they had some sort of deal with the fur industry but I guess the question is WHY do I watch them at ALL:
Well, duh! But I only watch to make fun of them! I’m sorry, but it’s true. While I’m working in my studio they are usually on in the background; horrible dialog, terrible fill music and I just hum along while working and shout out at them.
Call it Real Time MST3K but I enjoy it! I used to really love ripping on one guy from DOOL (Days of our Lives) called John Black; truly, this man couldn’t act his way out of a wet paper bag! Look constipated! Look concerned! Look angry! Look in love! It was all the same look; he looked like he needed glasses! I don’t watch that soap anymore (above) but I still watch two others.
I dunno. It’s like a person that comes into my house everyday that I can be mean to, make fun of, and they can’t say shit back! I really, really enjoy it! And no, I could never just plunk my ass down on the futon and watch; I have to be doing something else and just fling comments over my shoulder… it’s my little fun… it’s my way of laughing at day time TV… hey, I’m not hurting anyone… so, give me this, my little bit of “mean” in my day!
Christ in a side car; if not for the soaps I don’t know where I’d dump all my piss and vinegar!
Donahue has been off the air for years.
Being a man, I do watch two action shows: Charmed and Dark Angel. Both feature women kicking ass and taking names. They are strong, capable, and intelligent, not unlike the women of this board. You need to pick your simian knuckles off the floor and consider that gender is not only a fluid continuum, but that men and women are a lot more than their genitals.
Now, buy a dictionary and a thesaurus and work on that grammar and spelling so your neanderthal rants are a little more coherent, Mr. XXY chromosome.
Hastur – well, HARUM! But what a big, bold man you are! I don’t watch Charmed but I do like Dark Angel but he said “soaps” and well, my bad, I thought he meant, well, soaps… like DAYTIME… was I WRONG here?
Let me give you a hardy and hale woman’s high five for Dark Angel (that’s NOT a soap, but a DRAMA) and can I ask if you like Xena? I do… I think she rocks! I like a woman that kicks ass and occasionally takes names, you know, when she feels like it… like when she runs out of bubble gum… that is MY kind of lady! 
I like a strong lady… that’s why I make fun of the soaps but NOT make fun of the Saturday (Action Pac) shows… those aren’t soaps… those are DRAMAS and yeah, I like those… FWIW I love Bruce Campbell in just about anything… even Jack of all Trades… so it’s camp… it’s STILL Bruce… gotta love that man!
Byz:
I was responding to Weirdest Bill about his assertion that men should watch action shows. My point was slight agreement, but also that women in action shows are at least where I think it is at.
Check out Charmed. That show is highly entertaining. I have watched Xena, and find it entertaining. But, as Bruce Campbell was behind the creation of the show, how could it not be entertaining. It’s… groovy.
You muscling in on my turf?
No, you come on. At least Kinky Friedman rhymed when he told women to get their Biscuits in the Oven and their Buns into the Bed.
…like how to impersonate lard, judging by myself.
Grammer skills??? Are you trying to impersonate a Seattle Psychiatrist?*
What the heck can you WHAT from “The Young and The Restless”??? Would you care to diagram that sentence?
No fool no fun, but I don’t think you and your audience are quite eye to eye on this one…
(Note to everyone else: My wife and I just caught Flawless on TV. Should we recommend it to WB? It’s got a good fight scene in it…)
*[sub]Uh, Kelsey Grammer plays Frazier, a Seattle psychiatrist. It’s a TV show. Grammar refers to …well, you know.
Wildest Bill, I’ve decided you’re a funny little man who, from this point on, shall no longer be taken seriously. I really mean that 
I don’t know how to take this statement. Do you really mean that you will not take me seriously anymore or were you being silly with the smiley? Yes, I know this was a goofy rant. But that is just what it is - a goofy rant. I don’t care if people watch soap operas or not(even though I think they bite(the soap operas not the people). I was just starting a thread to attack soap operas for FUN!!! I mean this was just suppose to be a light thread for the pit.
The intention was for ya’ll to chime in and say how stupid soap operas were or say how good they were. That is all.
And no, I don’t think a man is a sissy that watches soap operas I just think he is a man with no taste.
Sheesh some of you people don’t have a sense of humor.
And Juanita, btw I am NOT a little man I am 6ft and I work out very hard everyday to get looking like one of those dudes playing volleyball in “Top Gun”. But I still don’t to get in a scuffel with Guin’s daddy because I’m a lover(or at least before I fall asleep) not fighter.
slight hijack-Kathryn…would you by any chance be capable of making Titanic or REgency dresses?./…
Hmmmmm
Guin, I do crafty sewing, my mom makes clothes. It depends on the pattern, some of them are hard, some of them are easy…
At the moment I do no sewing as my machine is at home.
Really, Bill? Tell me more about your hard muscles, stud.
I’m a gay guy, but I watch action shows and I loathe soaps; does that give me macho points? In addition, while I don’t watch soaps, I don’t feel the need to cut on those who do. Every one has different tastes; a chacun son gouter.
I do some embroidery myself-I’m currently teaching myself.
I would LOVE to get my hands on a sewing machine…
Bah! The only good soap was GH 20(?) years ago when Luke and Laura were the only ones who could protect the world from evil. I did like Holly Scorpio though…
Shucks, Wildest Bill, don’t go gettin’ all serious on me now.
And I did mean what I said I told you I already agreed with you until you started in on your sexist and quasi-anti-homosexual rant.
Here…how 'bout I add to your rant and we can both get flamed together…kind of like a Thelma and Louise thing, k?
I think Soaps are about as stupid as romance novels. They seemed to be aimed at housewives with nothing better to do. Soaps (or the stories, as my granny calls them) assume that people who stay at home during the day don’t want to watch intelligent TV - I mean they come on ALL of the big three networks!!!
I don’t think anyone who watches Soaps is stupid, though. I just assume they have bad taste in television. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being a housewife.
Have we driven off the cliff yet? [sub]What a dumb movie…[/sub]
Hey, I um, like romance novels. Good escapism, cheesy, but oh so fun to read!