ABC Housewives Clip - What is the big deal? - I think I know.

[dr.strangelove]

I was talking about the ABC "Desperate Housewives" promo clip at the ole "water cooler" today.

If you don't know, ABC aired a "risqué" promo before Monday Night Football. During the promo, Nicolette Sheridan, of the network's "Desperate Housewives" program, flirted with the Philadelphia Eagle's Terrell Owens, mocking the drama of the program, and dropped the towel she was wearing. So nudity or any sexual contact was shown.

While the fundies object to any broadcast indicating non-marital sexual relationships are acceptable, I think there might be more to it. One of the right wingers in my office came right out and said his biggest problem was that Nicolette Sheridan is white and Terrell Owens is black. He thinks the promo was intended to spark a controversy with a bi-racial relationship. I told him he is nuts. The ABC program's most controversial character is played by Nicolette Sheridan and Philadelphia's most controversial player in Terrell Owens, race has nothing to do with it.

However, maybe it does. I don't think ABC had any intent to spark a racial issue, but I do think some fundies are deeply offended by bi-racial relationships. I wonder if the promo aired a white player with Nicolette Sheridan, would the fundies really get as fired up.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this. What do you think?

[Jack Schitt]

1. It makes sense.

But I don't see what the big deal was. Christ, they didn't show any nudity.

:shrug:

[Mike Daniels]

5. Agreed

I could see why people got upset over the Janet Jackson matter but I couldn't figure out the uproar over this.

Hell, you saw more skin on "Friends" on a weekly basis which aired at 8 p.m. than you did in this promo.

[miss_kitty]

39. I couldn't see the upset over Jackson's titty

since it was a split second thing and so far away. plus it's just a tit. Totally ridiculous. An unwarranted waste of time, punditry, blogging, ink and everything else. Including you and I just bringing it up.

I could definitely see the 'usual suspects' getting worked up over and attractive white woman coming on to an extremely virile black guy. And the suggestion of sex occurring. And the suggestion of nudity. It's OK to have him on their fantasy football team, but the thought of him having sex with their fantasy white woman-o the humanity!

And you are right about the skin on 'Friends' Still not a big deal. And the soap opera stuff-amazing what they get away with.

America-Land of the Prudes, Home of the Time Wasters. And Hypocrites.

[dr.strangelove]

6. Thats what makes me think its the racial makeup of the participants.

If the showed something, maybe I would understand the objection. Since there was nothing reasonably objectionable in the sexual content or nudity, it must something else. Latent (or patent) racism of right wingers seems like the answer.

[Huckebein the Raven]

2. No that is what I think the issue was about.

These were the same people who railed against blacks and whites getting marriaged 30 or so years ago.

[underpants]

3. Even before I saw the clip I thought the same thing

And TO isn't even one of those "nice blacks" either.

[Stephanie]

4. Interracial dating is forbidden at Bob Jones Univ.

They are bigots and they don't mind saying so.

[Bill McBlueState]

7. you could be right

Those of us who are more enlightened tend to forget that for a lot of backwater types, biracial relationships are still noteworthy and controversial.

[chelsea0011]

8. I think it is that whole "Mandingo" thing myself.

Remember that movie? Slave Ken Norton gets it on with slave owner Susan Geroge. What a piece of crap.

[dr.strangelove]

11. That piece of crap

does not even deserve to be talked about. I do remember all the stink about how "wrong" the relationship was. So much hatred in this country abotu race, and no solution appears possible.

[wryter2000]

9. I imagine that's part of it

Most of them will never admit it, though. They want to keep screaming we keep Miguel Estrada off the federal bench because he isn't white.

When I was a little child, T.O. would have been lynched in some parts of the country for that. For sure, he wouldn't be playing any football games in some places for fear of his life.

[Beware the Beast Man]

10. :pointsfingertonose:

I don't think you're overreacting at all. I hate it when people play the race card, but I really think it applies this time. Would there have been a similar stink if it was Brett Favre or Peyton Manning? I think not.

[DelawareValleyDem]

12. Well, it is a fundies worst nightmare

Attractive white woman showing a desire for a highly paid, athletic black man.

[bluedeminredstate]

13. Remember the OJ trial???

Do you think for a minute that if his wife wasn't white that CNN would have covered the trial everyday for months? No GD way.

[underpants]

16. DingDing Ding

Yep they wouldn't have paid it hardly any attention otherwise.

[bluedeminredstate]

23. Hello fellow Richmonder!

Doesn't it suck being in the reddest part of a red state? Where do you live? I live in beet red Bon Air. My neighbor put a freaking billboard on his lawn that said "God Bless W." It's a wonder i didn't gouge my eyes out during the six weeks it was up.
:hi:

[underpants]

24. TO and Nicolle? Hell look what CNN AND Fox showed the very next day

In the city. Very liberal Museum district area.

[dr.strangelove]

25. YOU HAVE TO WARN US BEFORE YOU POST THAT SHIT!

Now I'm blind. Thanks alot.

[underpants]

26. See here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x2024694

[dr.strangelove]

28. LOVE IT

[bluedeminredstate]

31. Yeah.

All you "Limosine Liberals" live down in the fan. Must be hell for the "elites" having to see all the dreadlocks and birkenstocks!
:)

I just realized that in your pic that you can't see her right hand. I bet I know where it is! Shocking. I hope Michael Powell and his sin police are all over this!

[DelawareValleyDem]

17. Amen

The Robert Blake and Phil Spector cases haven't drawn nearly as much coverage.

[Jack_Dawson]

33. Actually, Yes

He was OJ Freaking Simpson. It would've been covered.

[VTdem]

14. Theres also a double standard

in the NFL about sex. They can show Levitra and Viagara commercials about erectile dysfunction yet they get their panties in a fuss when something questionable happens involving a woman. I.E. Janet Jackson and Desperate Housewife lady.

[scarlett1]

40. Cialis Ads are worse

The Cialis ads talking about their 4 hour erections warnings are much worse than showing a woman whose back is bare with a man. (I never even "saw" them as of different races until my husband pointed out that was part of the uproar)

Mommy, what is an erection and why one lasting four hours be bad?


Unless you're into Tantric sex.:party:

[SemiCharmedQuark]

15. Bingo.

They're still living with an Emmett Till state of mind.

[tjwash]

18. Whereas, if she would have pulled out an AK-47 and unloaded...

...an entire clip into him, showing every impact of the bullets in super slow mo while letting the blood coat the walls, it probably would have been hunky-dory to them.

[Socialist Dem]

19. There wasn't anything objectionable about it.

NO nudity, NO "suggestive" content....just a white woman dropping her towel (shown from the back so all you see is the top of the towel and her shoulders) and jumping into a black man's arms. There is more skin shown at awards shows and on comercials.

There's nothing here for ABC to apologize for.

The "people" who razed a stink about this WERE enraged by what they saw.

It's totally racial.

[Lex]

20. The fundies wish they could outlaw interracial marriage just like

.
they are helping make sure gay marriage is outlawed.

The fundie mother of a friend of mine said both are equally offensive to her.

You're right--I sadly think the racial issue is a part of the controversy of the opening scene, whether people want to admit it or not.

[patcox2]

21. Fundies have deep fear of their women going to the dark side.

Hell, thats the deepest darkest fear of the racist rednecks, that they are in fact sexually inferior to the big, black bucks, and that their wives and daughters will discover this and run off with black men. All of the racist hate groups are very up-front about this, they talk about "mongrels" and "mongrelization" all the time. The reason they want segregated schools is so their daughters are kept away from temptation.

Its probably half the whole fascination with the OJ trial, too.

[dr.strangelove]

22. ESPN touched on the racial issue here

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=whitlock/041116

By Jason Whitlock
--------------
"Hmmm,'' he said. "I bet there are some Cowboys' fans who didn't appreciate seeing that."

Yeah, they got a little more than Hank Williams Jr.

Now, my friend Jimmy The Freak, a deputy sheriff and moonlighting comedian, saw the whole thing.

"It was classic buck in the big house!'' screamed The Freak. "It was a new-millennium remake of that old Ken Norton movie, 'Mandingo'."

-------------

I'm glad I'm not the only one to pick up on this. Fundies piss me off.

[Champ]

27. They should've pulled it because it was stupid

[dr.strangelove]

30. I'm not a fan of the show, but it worked

It generated hype and discussion in the mainstream media. That was the point of the promo.

[MadHound]

29. You are spot on friend

This is one of the red states conservative males' worst fears, that black men will have sex with white women. It is a deeply engrained sense of bigotry and inadequacy that drives this fear, and to violate it risks violence, and even death, even in this day and age.

Fifty years ago a black man dating, touching or even looking at a white women was courting instant death. While this attitude has died out in some areas across the country, in many areas this attitude is simply muted, refered to in code.

My father is a good example of this. In the late seventies, despite his protestations that he wasn't a racist, he damn near killed the young black man who was "uppity" enough to date his daughter.

I think that you have hit the nail on the head with your reasoning. It isn't that they actually showed anything risque' that is bothering most of these people, it is that ABC implied that something sexual was going on between a black man and a white woman. Pushes all kinds of buttons for many narrow minded bigotted folks.

[dr.strangelove]

32. I can't believe that shit happens.

I have only lived in Oregon, Vermont and New York City. Granted all three are blue states, but Oregon and Vermont (at least where I lived) were very rural. Oregon and Vermont are two of the whitiest states in the country (I think they are Nos. 1 and 2). I have never seen this level of bigotry. Scary

[JAbuchan08]

34. Far be it for me to disagree, but

it was a bit... um .... objectifying. But I assume that the freepers probably don't like the idea of a black man and a white woman.

[dr.strangelove]

35. Um - isn't that the point of the show

The title of the program is DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES. Please tell me how you can advertise from a program with objectifying woman, when the whole point to the program is five woman, fitting into five different roles as objects.

Personally, I don't have any problem with objectifying men, women, gays, straights, married life, single life or any other person or group in a television show. I gather from you post that you object to the very nature of the program. I respect that, but obviously the adverts for this show are going to objectify the cast members.

[dr.strangelove]

36. This is getting covered by some more mainstream media now

I just heard a local talk radio show discussing whether the outrage at the scene was b/c he is black and she is white.

Read this link.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/writers/jeffri_chadiha/11/18/chadiha.to/index.html?cnn=yes

[Champ]

37. Funny thing though, I didn't watch MNF so..

I've heard this for 3 days before I even found out what the score to the freakin' game was.

[Behind the Aegis]

38. The Puritans are coming! Oh wait, they're here!

I too believe the outrage is partly fueled by racism, but disguised as "moral outrage." Funny, they have no problem with all those "suggestive" Levitra commercials or the damn, bouncing titties of the cheerleaders! Another thing in play, misogyny. How could a WHITE woman make a CHOICE like that?!? If she had jumped into a white man's arms, it would have been great because he was white and she would be choosing someone who would love her and not treat her like a sexual conquest (what racists think about black men who date white women). Honestly, I think the whole Janet Jackson thing was racist! If that had been Britney Spears, men (str8) would have creamed their pants! But, instead, they were horrified by a black boobie! Janet Jackson is a beautiful woman, and her nipple was covered, what is the big deal?! Where was all the outrage at Justin Timberlake, as he is the one who RIPPED OPEN the costume? Oh, that's right...he's white...no reason to "hate" on him for causing the "wardrobe malfunction!"

Be prepared for racism to make a big comeback! People aren't even trying to hide it like they used to!