Saturday, September 26, 2009

Another Cougar Rant

So a couple of nights ago, with the kids tucked quietly in bed, me and hubby sat in our room and watched the new Leno Show, and his main celebrity guest was Courtney Cox, who was promoting her new show, Cougar Town.

Ahem.

So yeah, I was sitting there, half dozing off, while she said, "somethin' somethin' somethin', that's really my body, blah blah blah, no one believes me, yadda yadda yadda, that's REALLY me!"

OK when they went to the clip, they showed her in front of the mirror after a shower, lamenting over and batting around the old, flabby skin that covers her entire body. And her stomach, oh yeah, it was a gooey mess of hairy, stretch-marked flab.

Apparently, that was supposed to be funny and easy to relate to as a 40-something, see because, this is the body she thinks is old and gross...


AAAAAAAAAAAACK! BANGING HEAD AGAINST THE WALL! DIGGING AT MY EYEBALLS! EXPLODING INTO A MILLION PIECES ALL OVER THE KEYBOARD!!!

So really? Really? What demographic is this show meant for? Who was their test audience? Why would someone, who looks like her, stand in front of a mirror and pretend she has serious flaws? I decided to watch the little premiere trailer on youtube for the show to get an idea.

Now, if you all remember, I did a little post on some of the urban definitions for Cougar (and us younger old women, called Pumas, which again, is just another name for a Cougar) so I wasn't too surprised that the show is basically about a divorcee, who feels like she is gonna shrivel up and die, so she finds the purpose that has been lacking in her life by scouring bars for young men to shack up with. Sigh.

Again, who is this for?

Am I supposed to laugh when the barely 20-something sees her c-section scar and doesn't know what it is?

Am I supposed to laugh when her son asks her if she is hitting on him when she asks him to stay in and watch a movie?

Am I supposed to laugh when she makes a peanut-butter cracker snack, after their post-coital tristesse, for her new sex toy, the same snack she makes for her son's friends when they come over?

I don't know. It's just, isn't there any better purpose to glorify in Hollywood than this?

I mean, sit-coms tend to parallel the lives of the people they are supposed to entertain. Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, Seinfeld and the like all dealt with issues that were somewhat embarassing yet funny, really, and you could pick and choose what you identified with, like a buffet, ya know? Ya take what you like, laugh at what's funny to you, and leave the rest.

But this show appears to have one premise only, or at least it is the main premise explored, which is women need to throw themselves into the partying dating scene to be relevant and have a good time while they move into "middle age". Really, it doesn't seem like it will delve much deeper than the three minutes I watched. The character has it made! She is beautiful, truly does have a rockin' body, is successful, claims to have a well-adjusted son and she apparently made some choices in life that have opened up ample opportunities for her to explore a purpose. Yet instead of going outside of herself, she completely implodes, attacks inward, and leaves us with a message that her body is less than acceptable, and romps in the sack with young men she doesn't know is what she is missing to make her life complete. And this is all frosted heavily with brilliantly delivered one-liners, gaffes and physical comedy that makes it sweeter as we choke it all down, while the theme of "40 is the new 20" pounds us every day from the covers of magazines to the talk shows we blindly follow. Come on, would we watch a show like this if the main character were a 40-year-old man?? If he were at a high school football game, telling his friends he wanted to lick the hot cheerleader's body, would we laugh? Well, would we?

OK OK I know it's a sitcom and I KNOW it's all fake and inflammatory, and I KNOW I make fun of my own flab and I KNOW I shouldn't be taking it all so seriously, but right now I am. It's just the message of a shallow, severely introspective, sex-focused life that gets me, and how that is supposed to be funny. It's that I am raising a daughter, AND a son, and I don't want these kind of influences to be a part of their cultural up-brining. Not having TV for the family really helps, but even if we did have TV, I can guarantee that dribble wouldn't be lighting up my living room for the evening.

Man, am I crabby today or what?



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7 comments:

Jennifer said...

You do realize that I am crumpled in a ball on the floor, crying my eyes out, right? THAT'S HER BODY?! What. Ever.

Dee C. said...

Ahahhahhahahaa I just spit my coffee all over...you wrote exactly what I was thinking. Heck, if I had half the body she's flaunting all over the screen, I'd be strappin on the thongs and hot pants and you know it girl, I'd be purring like a kitten...but no way in hell is this 40 year old woman going on a sex rampage should her husband suddenly be out of the picture!

T.V. has truly degraded to this. I'll stick to Bravo's Flipped Out...

Insanitykim said...

Amen Dee!!!! AMEN!!!!

w said...

word.

also. maybe i shouldn't commayernt at night either.

Kearsie said...

My stomach looks like a deflated balloon. I shall not be watching this show.

The Retired One said...

Right on Sista!!

hawkbrwn said...

i'm comfortable with imagining myself as hot as her (ha!). cause she IS hot, dang it. making fun of herself is just silly. but clearly that is NOT the (only) point. married or not what happened to feeling good about ourselves through our own good powers of goodly self-love, self-esteem, etc.?

thanks for your comments, dear one. hugs to you, kim. you're excellent. just wanted to make sure you know i'm reading regularly and happy to do it.

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