From: stewart@tscvm (Mark Stewart)
Subject: Topfree equality on Fox TV?
Originator: news@nimaster
Organization: Trenton State College
Distribution: na
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1992 03:10:43 GMT


A couple of Sundays ago I was pleasantly surprised by the intelligent 
treatment of some CO issues on a sitcom broadcast by Fox.  (Aug. 23 to be 
exact, almost 2 weeks ago -- but nobody else seems to have mentioned it on 
the net.)  The newspaper said simply: "9:00 _Down the Shore_ : Donna 
sunbathes in the nude (cc)".  I don't watch much TV and I'm not much 
interested in sitcoms, but here was something different.

6 young people share a beach house in New Jersey (Belmar) on weekends.  
One night the 3 men go out to a wet T-shirt contest, over loud objections 
from the 3 women.  Later, discussion ensues: Aldo smirks that it must be 
an "honor" to be "admired" by hordes of drunken males, and Miranda asks 
how things would be "if society had a healthy attitude" toward the human 
body.

The next day 4 of them hit the beach; without warning Miranda removes her 
top.  Immediately the men panic and look away, visibly feeling awkward.  
She is clearly challenging her companions: "They can't just look at 
breasts, they've got to leer at hooters... can't they see they're attached 
to a person?"  "If every woman took her top off, it'd be the end of wet 
T-shirt contests."  Donna soon follows Miranda's lead.  Presently the men 
get over their shock, and at last Eddie (the slightly nerdy overweight guy) 
goes topfree as well, grinning widely, liberated.  Donna later says she 
enjoyed feeling "really free" -- Miranda considered it a "political 
statement" as well.  (shades of the recent Rochester case)

Later, a cop comes by their house -- seems someone filed a complaint and 
they face a $265 fine.  Miranda calls this hypocritical, puritanical and 
absurd.  She asks the officer: "Where were you last night when Mickey 
Green's bar was having that wet T-shirt contest?"  Cop: "Second row."  
Faced with this penalty and a growing crowd of hecklers and would-be 
gawkers outside the house, M. and D. discuss their options.  D., concerned 
about others' perceptions of her, plans to cooperate: "It doesn't affect 
my life."  M. prepares for a crusade, reading up on legal precedents: "But 
it does.  It affects all women everywhere."  The next day concludes the 
story.  Miranda has paid the fine, for Donna's sake -- but her friend is 
now triumphant: "I didn't pay! ... Sometimes we just have to take the law 
into our own hands.  Like Thelma and Louise!"  The payoff, of course, is 
that Donna told off the judge and got a contempt of court rap instead.  

What I found remarkable was the sympathetic portrayal of Miranda and the 
generally balanced tone overall.  The show was not played for titillation: 
we see M. and D. only from the back on the beach (OK, so it's TV) but 
neither are we subjected to a stream of crude humor or thinly veiled 
sexual innuendo.  Despite the adventure's outcome, the show effectively 
pointed up the hypocrisy of a puritanical/pornographic society, and even 
addressed some of the power issues involved.  

Never know what'll turn up on TV.

-----
mws

It is better to have learned and forgotten than never to have learned at all.
                                                   - Julie Ann Sosa


 
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