# Why do women watch \[i\]Lifetime\[/i\]? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 24, 2004, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854 "2004-05-24T18:55:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/21 "2004-05-25T00:56:58Z")
You know what’s scary? There’s a whole second channel called _ **The Lifetime Movie Channel** _. Yes, they have so many horrible movies that it spilled over to a second channel dedicated to nothing but movies 24/7. _shudder_ ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/22 "2004-05-25T01:39:50Z")
The movies do suck. We forgot one storyline: beautiful woman is disfigured and valiantly struggles on with life until magically, she both gains revenge against her disfigurer and finds a plastic surgeon who can remove her scars _and_ also happens to fall in love with her! Usually starring Yasmine Bleeth, IIRC. 😃 But yay for _Strong Medicine_, _Any Day Now_ and picking up the syndication of _Providence_ and late night airings of _Mad About You_. They redeem the channel to some extent. More on the nights when the _MAY_ rerun features a good guest star like Mel Brooks, Nathan Lane or Carol Burnett. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/23 "2004-05-25T02:08:02Z")
> [@yosemite](#): > > I enjoy my share of “chick movies” but I rarely watch Lifetime. Only when they have a movie on that I want to see (like the one with Richard Dean Anderson. Repeat after me: _Richard Dean Anderson_). Repeat after me: 6 seasons worth of DVDs of _Stargate SG-1_. Personally, I don’t see what women see in Anderson, but it’s a good show. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/24 "2004-05-25T04:03:29Z")
Personally, I’d rather watch Extreme Elimination ( or whatever that crazy Japanese show is called.) It beats the \*He Beat Her, Killed her parents, Kicked Her Dog, Stole Her Bible and Now She’s About To Get Even Without Breaking A Nail or Going To Jail \* story line. Besides, there is never a decent car chase scene or spontanous old buick jumping a fruit market vendor cart. It’s just jibber jabber. I want to escape the mucky bowels of my life, not be sucked deeper into some co-depenants pathetic existance in by some B-List has been actress. With the Japanese show ( which sounds like some kind of Bizarre Stool Softener) you get the insanity of people who don’t mind breaking their necks swinging on a rope in a velco suit to miss the velcro wall. Clearly, there is something wrong with me. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/25 "2004-05-25T04:06:53Z")
Moving this to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/26 "2004-05-25T04:09:49Z")
OMG, **Shirley Ujest** , MX is one of my family’s FAVORITE shows! We watch it every day. The kids absolutely howl. The commentary is just inspired… ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/27 "2004-05-25T04:20:44Z")
I nearly pee myself everytime I’ve watched that show. Did I get the title right? We just refer to it as, " Those crazy japanese are on again." That show is pure gold, baby. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/28 "2004-05-25T04:23:03Z")
Don’t forget the reruns of “Unsolved Mysteries”. Even if half of the stories are bullshit, at least they’re entertaining. I was going to mention “The Lifetime Movie Channel” but **plg** beat me to it. Usually the movies are those stupid, made-for-tv crap featuring actors and actresses from current hit tv shows. My best friend and I used to MST them over the phone (and this was before I had ever heard of MST3K, mind you!) Wasn’t there a site that had the “Lifetime Movie Title Generator” or something like that? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/29 "2004-05-25T04:30:51Z")
Ah, yes, _The Man Hatin’ Station_. I had a roommate who used to watch that thing all the time. Drove me absolutely batty. The interesting thing was that she was an avowed feminist and would swear that all men were evil creatures. Yet, if she wasn’t watching the incredibly syrupy crap that was being spewed out by that network, she was watching some sitcom which _always_ prominantly featured an attractive looking bimbo daughter, or _Rosanne_. She was, BTW, in her mid-20s, and for all her talk of women being independant, dynamic, free thinking individuals, she spent her days lounging on the couch, watching _The Man Hatin’ Station_, and berating her husband for not doing the dishes before he went to work. (Mind you, he worked full time and went to school full time, to support her while she went to school part time.) She’s absolutely one of the most narrowminded people I have ever met in my life, she’d ignore wellknown facts if they conflicted with one of her pet theories, and even if you disagreed with her over a _minor_ matter, she was positively livid. She’s now a social worker, and is in charge of deciding if a parent gets to keep custody of their kid or not. Frightening, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/30 "2004-05-25T04:39:54Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > I nearly pee myself everytime I’ve watched that show. > > Did I get the title right? > > We just refer to it as, " Those crazy japanese are on again." > > That show is pure gold, baby. It’s called MXC, and it’s on Spike TV every day out here. I laughed so hard the first time I watched it, my stomach muscles hurt for a half hour afterward. **If6was9** was watching it with the sound turned down. When I told him to turn it up, because you can_not_ miss out on the dialog, I thought he was going to give himself a hernia… ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/31 "2004-05-25T04:48:10Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Wasn’t there a site that had the “Lifetime Movie Title Generator” or something like that? [Yup.](http://www.timbland.com/bredbox/movietitle.php) ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/32 "2004-05-25T05:02:13Z")
I don’t watch _Lifetime_ movies because they are generally poorly written and unoriginal. A quick look at the American Film Institutes Top 100 Films does indicate that even the good films are most often about victims. What’s a movie without an obstacle to overcome or a conflict to prevail against? The difference is in the writing. [http://www.moviesnapshot.com/Recommendations/FavFilms/AFITop100.html](http://www.moviesnapshot.com/Recommendations/FavFilms/AFITop100.html) Notice also that about 70% of the movies listed are _primarily_ about men. And those are the good ones! Look at most of the bunk that’s out in theaters and it’s guy stuff. Television movies about abused or sick women are sort of the equivalent of mindless violent cop movies that appeal mostly to men. Both genres have there exceptions. Did any of you see _Wit_ on HBO? [http://www.jsonline.com/enter/tvradio/wein/mar01/weincol20031901.asp](http://www.jsonline.com/enter/tvradio/wein/mar01/weincol20031901.asp) (Emma Thompson + Mike Nichols + Pulitzer Prize winning book) = one hellava movie about a woman with cancer. I think that it was every bit as gooda film as _The French Connection_, perhaps the best cop movie ever. But, oranges and apples… And I hate it when I generalize so much anyway. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/33 "2004-05-25T05:38:23Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > she’d ignore wellknown facts if they conflicted with one of her pet theories, Inspired, I’m sure, by the “you just have to _believe!_” attitude of the shows on _Lifetime_. I forget … does Lifetime also show those insipid “Guardian Angel Saved My Daughter” kinds of shows that you sometimes see on the Learning Channel, or does even the Lifetime Network have minimal standards? ---
**Author:** ![Pride\_of\_the\_Peaches](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Pride\_of\_the\_Peaches](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pride_of_the_Peaches)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/34 "2004-05-25T05:44:52Z")
Female reporting in . . . Maybe it’s just because I’m still a young’un and haven’t experienced as much as middle-aged women have, but I simply can’t get into Lifetime. I’m just not interested in watching some woman with a bad hairdo agonize and cry and grimace for an hour and a half. Then again, I can’t get into most “women’s entertainment,” including chick flicks. Maybe I’m just strange? Maybe there’s no “maybe” about THAT . . . ---
**Author:** ![BooBoo316](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e0b2c6/32.png) [@BooBoo316](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BooBoo316)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/35 "2004-05-25T05:59:29Z")
> [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > You know what’s scary? There’s a whole second channel called _ **The Lifetime Movie Channel** _. The only purpose a remote control serves when my mom is holding it is to switch between this channel and _ **Lifetime** _. Drives my dad crazy. Fortunately for me, my wife can’t stand these types of movies. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/36 "2004-05-25T06:20:42Z")
I really like _Mad About You_ and even though it’s showing its age _Designing Women_. Yeah, I know. I also used to like some of their series (_Strong Medicine_, _Oh Baby_), but mostly the DW & MAY reruns. The movies are just awful. ---
**Author:** ![Shadez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Shadez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shadez)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/37 "2004-05-25T06:40:34Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > Both genres have there exceptions. Did any of you see _Wit_ on HBO? > > _snip_ > > (Emma Thompson + Mike Nichols + Pulitzer Prize winning book) = one hellava movie about a woman with cancer. I loved Wit, at least the book; haven’t seen it performed. And I don’t watch Lifetime, but I do watch Spike TV, and I just “feel funny” when they say the only network…for men. I’m not a guy. Course, I also watched it before the conversion. But a lot of the shows aren’t “just for men”. I digress. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/38 "2004-05-25T06:57:29Z")
Well, they _do_ show _Who is Julia?_ Occasionally. It’s a little known old Mare Winningham movie about the trials and tribulations of a brain-transplanet patient. And it’s NOT a horror movie. That, if nothing else, can be said in Lifetime’s favor. Of course, “Oxygen” one ups it by airing _Plunkett & Macleane_ occasionally…what the hell’s up with _that_? Not that I’m complaining…but still, what the hell? Ranchoth ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/39 "2004-05-25T07:49:10Z")
Dude, your wife’s already given you all the explanation you need: some people like that sort of thing. Why do some people like that sort of thing? I don’t know. Why do some people like movies with 2-dimensional characters, plot holes big enough to drive a Mack truck through, and lots of boring-ass car chases and explosions? People like what they like, and often they couldn’t tell you _why_ they enjoy something. ---
**Author:** ![jellyblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e480ec/32.png) [@jellyblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jellyblue)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854/40 "2004-05-25T08:24:11Z")
I do not watch Lifetime. (Ever). _peeks down front of shirt_ I am female. That’s all 🙂 . [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-women-watch-i-lifetime-i/246854.md?page=3)