We watched several segments that attempted to educate women about their bodies and their options pertaining to reproductive health. While these segments were certainly a step in the right direciton, we feel as though women and the issues surrounding reproductive health were misrepresented. Many of the segments ignored women's larger needs.
For Women Only: Birth Control is a 1968 30-minute episode of the NBC series dedicated to tackling women’s issues. To discuss reproductive health, the network assembled a panel of six experts, made up of five men and only one woman, ranging from medial doctors to leading university researchers. The all-female crowd featured few women below the age of 30, some even appearing to be elderly, and very few women of color. As seen in the clip, the single female panelist presents birth control as not only a primarily female responsibility and duty, but as a means to maintain a stable relationship with a husband by preventing pregnancy. In this clip and throughout the entirety of the program, sexually transmitted diseases are ignored. Sex functions as merely a tool for reproduction, and female sexuality is seemingly non-existent or shameful. While educational, the doctor’s discussion of birth control is somewhat exclusionary and reflects largely conservative attitudes. Single women are not in the audience nor are they considered, and LGBT women are not referenced at all. While confronting birth control, the program often approaches women’s health as a whole in the context of a partner’s or societal concerns. As we see often in media today, the discourse about women’s health is then diverted away from women themselves, and a program that was made “for women only,” ignores their overarching needs. The clip I chose is from a special called; For Women Only: Abortion. The special features a panel of people ranging in careers, and each offers a unique viewpoint on the issues surrounding abortion. The panel members are: Dr. Kleegman, a professor, Father Granfield, a professor of criminal law at a Catholic university, Harriet Pilpel, an attorney, and Dr. Nathan Rappaport, an abortionist. I chose to use a clip from this special because I think it adequately demonstrates the viewpoint towards women’s health issues during this time period: it looks at the issue through the perspective of everyone except the woman herself.
In the clip, Dr. Rappaport insinuates deserving the audience’s pity, as opposed to the woman who has to undergo the abortion herself and deal with both the physical and mental effects afterwards. Not only that, but he insinuates that a pregnancy is a negative “situation”, which creates a sense of fear, and negative stigma that prevents people from talking openly about the issue. Throughout the entire segment, many opinions were given on the matter of abortion. But none seemed to be directed towards the average woman: the person who actually undergoes an abortion.
Furthermore, this could have been a great opportunity to open the floor and discuss the legislation surrounding abortion. There were many educated people there who could've provided the audience great insight as to the pros and cons of legalizing abortion. However, it turned into a personal argument between two professionals.
I chose a roughly two minute clip from the program Unwed Mothers (Minneapolis, MN) for our project (from 8:18 to 10: 45). Released in 1960 as a public service program, it effectively captures both the public sentiment towards illegitimate childbirth as well as the desire to change the stigma that surrounds it. The program looks at the issue and the women involved in a way that urges the public to sympathize and understand what they’re going through rather than judge or look down upon them. This clip starts out with the narrator saying that while the women are generally happy inside of the home, they don’t face the same reality outside of the home where they are met with stares and criticism. The program then follows three pregnant girls taking a trip to the park with the narrator describing how they deal with the judgments they receive. He says they put on fake wedding rings, and he even mirrors public sentiment by adding, “it’s embarrassing to have to buy your own wedding ring.” However, he is trying to evoke compassion in the audience as the explains the ring as “a bitter reminder of the boy who refused to marry the girl or of the parents who wouldn’t give their consent.” It’s interesting to note that he doesn’t mention the possibility of the girl having any say in her relationship. We continue to see clips of the girls at the park as the narrator notes how viewers would probably judge the girls by only seeing their pregnancy with the absence of wedding rings. He urges them to see the girl as a whole person who just made a mistake and is “unable to hide her wrong.” This clip shows how the program as a whole represents the issue of illegitimate pregnancy and addresses the negative stigma around it, all while looking through the lens of a conservative 1960’s America.
You Can Get an Abortion, Even If You Don't Need To! (1975)
This was an expository news program, in which female journalists in Florida go into aboriton clinics and claim that they need an abortion. What they discovered was startling. Five out of the eight abortion clinics were doing abortions, even when the women weren't pregnant. There was an influx of people commending the show, and the show even spurred legislation in Florida that regulated the abortion clinics. A few were even shut down. This piece demonstrates the true power of television, and it contains what the previous segments were lacking: total representation of the truth. This representation caused progression, which ensued throughout both the media and legislation.
A Woman And Her Gynecologist.
This was a segment that came out in 1975, which served to empower woman to educate themselves about their bodies and their options when it comes to reproductive health. Many of the women in this show described their previous experiences with male gynecologists as unsettling and uneducational. The gynecologist, Dr. Maureen Chua, in this special was a female, and there was footage of the women interacting with her during their appointment. Dr. Chua takes the time to educate women about their bodies and options, and after their appointment each of the patients are interviewed. Across the board, each woman said they preferred their experience with Dr. Chua over their previous experiences with male gynecologists. This program was extremely educational, and certainly empowered women to not be ashamed to simply ask questions and take care of themselves. We think this was such an effective piece for this time period because it was produced by only women, and was funded by a women's rights group.
OVERALL TAKE: The medium of television has a unique power in making issues relevant and creating a forum for society to discuss those issues. It is important that women and women's health issues are represented on television, however, there is a long road ahead in fairly and accurately representing women's health.
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