...This disappointing lack of progressiveness gets less surprising when you consider that the percentage of women working in writers’ rooms has dropped from 35% (in ’06-’07) to just 15%. (The percentage of racial minorities is even worse, and a topic for a whole other essay.) The easy slide into sexist jokes gets a whole lot easier when there are few women around. And as for the shows’ quality, it’s not like King Of Queens or Two and a Half Men is any funnier than Whitney or 2 Broke Girls, but the success of shows like The Office, Parks and Recreation, and 30 Rock shows that it’s possible for a show to be smart and hilarious and remain on the air. It’s great that women are gaining more visibility in TV, but we still have a ways left to go. With quantity must come quality; just because you have a vagina doesn’t automatically make your material a step forward for women, or for comedy.
[For the record, I really, really wanted to like 2 Broke Girls. Maybe they can still salvage it?]
