copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2012
Such a discussion. We need to express sympathy to Larry Hagman’s family on his death. By all accounts he was a fun, lovely person who has done much good for those around him. We hope his soul rests in peace.
However, a breakfast conversation about Hagman was kind of different. Everyone was, at first, expressing what they had read in the media, heard from the media or saw on the internet. Somehow, the conversation turned to what Hagman was really about – looking at him from the perspective of the body of work he left behind.
The general expressions were about how skillfully and completely he had taken in an entire society and projected onto all of us a lethal kind of sexism, which influenced a generation of impressionable young people. How many are watching re-runs of “I Dream of Jeannie” and “Dallas?”
“I Dream of Jeannie” was a sitcom which I thought was cute, although I didn’t really watch more than one episode. It wasn’t described as “cute” around the table. Jeannie was described as a blond, Middle-Eastern belly dancer who was so into her inferiority and her role as fulfiller of this man’s needs, wishes and dreams that she even called Hagman ‘master’. It was a complete rolling out of a sit-com which fulfilled most mens’ dreams and which negatively paralleled the women’s movement – re-enforcing and making even worse, stereotypes which the women’s movement was trying to counter with an image of woman as equal. Was it coincidence that such a show was rolled out when the Women’s Movement was becoming an important force in American Society, Business and Culture?
“Jeannie” also parallels the stereotype of the Middle-Eastern male warrior dreaming about dying to reach his virgins. Jeannie herself, could very well be almost number one in that dream sequence – yet this was an American not a Middle-Eastern show. Hmmmmmmm!!
And then there was “Dallas”. Wow! This was the sit-com which made Hagman into a multi-millionaire on the backs of women – helping to make their lives difficult by depriving them of any vestige of equality, dignity, responsibility, etc., having to fight off other women falling all over themselves to hook up with the most machismo of men – looking to cash in on the power of the men in the show! It didn’t come in for any good comments. Nor did Hagman at this point. He lived well at a woman’s expense. May he rest in peace and the body of work he helped produce be buried with him.
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