Which episode do you think was the most sexist episode?

Originally posted by Will and Grace Fanatic
Which episode do you think was the most sexist episode?

Job Switching.

Originally posted by JaneTVFan
Job Switching.

I agree.

Good topic BTW.

Originally posted by JaneTVFan
Job Switching.

I agree too.

I agree about Job Switching as well.

"Job Switching" was really just stereotypical, and it conveyed the message that-- among L,R,E, & F, anyway-- things are best if the men function in the business world and women stay domestic. That can be, but is not necessarily, sexist. After all, the fore(wo)man and the other female worker at the candy factory had no trouble doing their jobs; it was just Lucy and Ethel, who were new to it.

I think it was more 'sexist' in the ep where Lucy was surprised by that clown in her apartment, then later she did that routine she and Desi were already known for where she was the "professor" with the cello she couldn't play. In the tag scene she has baked a pie and is furiously dusting the apartment, then Ricky comes home and says he wants his wife to cook his meals, bring him his slippers (!), and be the mama for his children.

I was just coming back to change my vote from JOB SWITCHING to THE AUDITION, only to find your message here that you voted for that one yourself. Amazing! The tag scene in that episode makes me want to barf. How embarrassing to watch! It's so hard to listen to Lucy saying from now on, she's just going to cook for Ricky, clean his house, cook for him. It's so degrading. And I agree with what you write about JOB SWITCHING. You make a good point about the people in the chocolate factory who do their jobs well, including the person who runs the whole line, both being women. So I guess the message there is not that women can't do those jobs, just that Lucy and Ethel can't.

Originally posted by tdr
"Job Switching" was really just stereotypical, and it conveyed the message that-- among L,R,E, & F, anyway-- things are best if the men function in the business world and women stay domestic. That can be, but is not necessarily, sexist. After all, the fore(wo)man and the other female worker at the candy factory had no trouble doing their jobs; it was just Lucy and Ethel, who were new to it.

I think it was more 'sexist' in the ep where Lucy was surprised by that clown in her apartment, then later she did that routine she and Desi were already known for where she was the "professor" with the cello she couldn't play. In the tag scene she has baked a pie and is furiously dusting the apartment, then Ricky comes home and says he wants his wife to cook his meals, bring him his slippers (!), and be the mama for his children.

Good points about "The Audition!" I forgot about that one.

How about "Be a Pal?" You know that part where the book tells her to be all glamorus for her husband in the morning? Yick. :p

I just thought of another one. How about "Lucy's Schedule," where Ricky puts her on that damn schedule and makes her stick to it. That was just sick. Like he was all Mr. Perfect.

OMG, I totally agree with you Dawsongirl about Lucy's Schedule. It's one thing for Ricky wanting her to be on time but putting her on that schedule and making sure she stuck to it was totally sick and wrong.

Originally posted by dawsongirl
How about "Be a Pal?" You know that part where the book tells her to be all glamorus for her husband in the morning? Yick. :p

LOL! I like that word, yick. :) Doesn't that episode make you want to scream, "Lucy, why shouldn't Ricky dress up and be handsome and glamorous for YOU for a change, or take up some of the things YOU like to do?!"

Originally posted by dawsongirl
I just thought of another one. How about "Lucy's Schedule," where Ricky puts her on that damn schedule and makes her stick to it. That was just sick. Like he was all Mr. Perfect.

Oh yeah, that one's also pretty hard to take. Ricky acts like he's Lucy's MASTER. But at least she came to her senses after hearing that "trained seal" remark and then got her revenge.

I have found that just about every episode has some kind of sexist anti-equality stuff in it. How many times did Ricky turn Lucy over his knee for a spanking? How many episodes did Lucy answer "yes sir, or no sir" to her own husband. How about the many times she would say "Ricky's gonna kill me", and you knew there was some serious concern? But it was the 50s and wife abuse and inequlality were just a fact of life, and a source of amusement!!

Originally posted by cablejockey
I have found that just about every episode has some kind of sexist anti-equality stuff in it. How many times did Ricky turn Lucy over his knee for a spanking?

Three. In each of those instances, it's clear to me that Ricky isn't really trying to hurt Lucy. That still doesn't make it funny to me because it looks rather demeaning. Of course, I'm looking at these scenes through 21st century eyes.

Originally posted by cablejockey
How many episodes did Lucy answer "yes sir, or no sir" to her own husband.

Probably a hundred.

Originally posted by cablejockey
How about the many times she would say "Ricky's gonna kill me", and you knew there was some serious concern? But it was the 50s and wife abuse and inequlality were just a fact of life, and a source of amusement!!

I'm not sure if I would go that far. Wife abuse in those days was NOT out in the open. I don't think people took it seriously because people really weren't aware it was going on or the extent to which it was going on. I don't think Lucy Ricardo every really thought Ricky would ever truly harm her, she was just exaggerating. Remember the "Blackeye" episode? The Mertzes thought Ricky had hit Lucy, but he never actually laid a hand on her, and Lucy was amused that they would even think such a thing. Actually, I find that episode a little disturbing to watch today because of that scene where Lucy is acting out the way Ricky supposedly beat her up. Lucy was doing this just for laughs, at Ethel's expense, and thought she was being funny. Obviously, the writers, producer, actors, and everyone else involved, including the studio audience, thought it funny. If people in those days had been aware that this was something that really did go on in some households, I doubt if they would have been laughing. And I doubt an episode like that could even be produced today because people now ARE aware of these things. So the bottom line: I don't think the people on this show were trivializing wife abuse, they were just unaware of the problem. And I certainly don't think the character of Ricky Ricardo was conceived as a person who beat his wife, no matter how much Lucy liked to imply he would do that.

By the way, let's not forget the EQUAL RIGHTS episode. If you pay close attention to some of the dialogue in that episode, including the title, it's really ahead of its time.

Originally posted by JaneTVFan
By the way, let's not forget the EQUAL RIGHTS episode. If you pay close attention to some of the dialogue in that episode, including the title, it's really ahead of its time.

That's true, but who was really more sexist in that ep?... the men or the women? The men were at first, when after Lucy is late getting dressed and then she comes out and says where they are all going to dinner, Ricky puts her down and says, "From now on we're gonna run this house like we do in Cuba, where the man is the master and the woman does as she is told." Fred, of course, agrees with Ricky, and before long Lucy gets riled and she and Ethel demand to be treated "exactly as if we were men." Then they still expect their husbands to help them with their coats, let them walk through the door first, be seated first at the restaurant, and to have the guys light their cigarettes. Then it's really hilarious after they put on makeup at their table when R & F start to shave. Then the separate checks thing, then washing dishes {I don't think a restaurant would compel any nonpayer to work today, would they?}, then the fake 'holdup.' Then L & E let the police take R & F to jail. Neither the males nor the females are virtuous in this battle of the sexes.

So which was worst? Ricky coming on as the big "master," or Lucy and Ethel asking to be treated "exactly as if we were men" when they obviously did not mean that?

Originally posted by tdr


That's true, but who was really more sexist in that ep?... the men or the women? The men were at first, when after Lucy is late getting dressed and then she comes out and says where they are all going to dinner, Ricky puts her down and says, "From now on we're gonna run this house like we do in Cuba, where the man is the master and the woman does as she is told." Fred, of course, agrees with Ricky, and before long Lucy gets riled and she and Ethel demand to be treated "exactly as if we were men." Then they still expect their husbands to help them with their coats, let them walk through the door first, be seated first at the restaurant, and to have the guys light their cigarettes. Then it's really hilarious after they put on makeup at their table when R & F start to shave. Then the separate checks thing, then washing dishes {I don't think a restaurant would compel any nonpayer to work today, would they?}, then the fake 'holdup.' Then L & E let the police take R & F to jail. Neither the males nor the females are virtuous in this battle of the sexes.

So which was worst? Ricky coming on as the big "master," or Lucy and Ethel asking to be treated "exactly as if we were men" when they obviously did not mean that?

Job Switching may be the sexist episode, but I still have to make a minor comment on that episode. I loved the part when Lucy and Ethel put on their make up and then Ricky and Fred start to shave. lol

yeah "Equal Rights" was probably the most sexist episode or "Lucy's Schedule".

Ok, so the whole series was sexist, it was the 50's for gosh sakes, at least she was ahead of her time in her life, seperating her money from Desi's, wanting to live together instead of getting married, being the first female president of a studio and fifty more things like that. It couldn't have been that sexist if all those countries banned the show because she wasn't subserviant enough to Ricky! Leave it to people in Saudi Arabia who walk around in sheets thinking she was bossing him around too much!

Originally posted by tootiefan4life
yeah "Equal Rights" was probably the most sexist episode or "Lucy's Schedule".

Equal Rights was a sexist episode? I never thought so. Lucy and Ethel stand up and want to be treated equally. In the end they get their way. What's sexist about that?

Originally posted by SPLAIN
Ok, so the whole series was sexist, it was the 50's for gosh sakes, at least she was ahead of her time in her life, seperating her money from Desi's, wanting to live together instead of getting married, being the first female president of a studio and fifty more things like that. It couldn't have been that sexist if all those countries banned the show because she wasn't subserviant enough to Ricky! Leave it to people in Saudi Arabia who walk around in sheets thinking she was bossing him around too much!

You are so right. Where in 1950s television or movies do you see a woman constantly disobeying her husband? Lucy was always trying to be her own person which was a concept way ahead of its time in the 1950s. And you are correct about how this show played in other coutries. It's not just Saudi Arabia. I know the show was aired in places in Europe back at that time but was not successful because people couldn't understand a woman defying her husband.

I just think anytime Ricky refused to let Lucy in one of his shows. Yea, she would probably ruin it, but he let Fred, Ethel and Lil Ricky have parts!! lol. Might not be sexist if he let Ethel in it, but he totally ignored Lucy!!! lol.

Also, UGH, Lucy was on an allowance...but it was a pretty BIG allowance considering the amount of clothes she bought!! lol.

But, hey, its was the 50's when this was the norm, so I dont get too offended watching Job Switching...although Lucy's Schedule kinda P's me off, but I still love it!:D

Even though some of the ideas on the show are a little dated, i think many other shows are worse, when you consider that the show was made fifty years ago, it's amazing it isn't more dated than that! I even got a kick out of the alarm clock being so modern looking, considering, it was the 50's!