Late Night Talk Shows: A Boys Club

TV has been a staple of American lives for many decades and shows us how we portray gender in our society. One show in particular is highly steeped in gender stereotypes and the so called "boys club". This was recently highlighted when the host of the show, David Letterman admitted to having several sexual relationships with female staffers on his show, The Late Show with David Letterman. The late night talk shows have always been a classic mirror on our societies norms. The fact that, there has never been a female mainstream late night talk show host is obvious gender inequality and helps to define an industry.

Letterman's show truly highlights what it means to be in the "boys club". The woman that have come forward accused him of making the environment unbearable to work in especially for the writers. He has hired very few female writers to begin with and the ones he has were token. The woman were never taken seriously and only the men writers would get a majority of the jokes. This "boys club" is very common as we highlighted in our class discussion, when we asked the opposite sex questions, it came out that guys protect each other out in the business world. This fraternity is very detrimental to female employees. This is compounded when male bosses take advantage of their positions and have sexual encounters with woman in the workplace, which further reinforces the hierarchies. The entertainment industry is notorious for being this way as woman have less then 5% of the directing jobs in the industry. This makes it very hard for new woman to come into the leadership roles in TV, especially the bastion of male dominance the late night talk shows. The female stereotype that is reinforced constantly in the entertainment industry is that if your not selling your movie or show, then you must be very attractive or both.

Stereotypes in TV especially in the case of The Late Show with David Letterman really emphasize a male dominated culture. The media is a voice that reaches most Americans and helps set cultural norms. When that media is constantly showing that the "boys club" is in charge and woman just need to look pretty, and the guys take care of the rest; we lose the great brilliance on the other end. Woman such as Oprah, who have dominated their sector of TV, can branch out to even late night talk shows. I would love to see Oprah take on that challenge. The creative side of TV we are missing by having the "boys club" is a shame for all of our culture, as we are being denied some very creative, and intelligent minds from entertaining us in new and fascinating ways. Theses stereotypes can only change if we demand them to change by supporting woman say like Oprah would might branch out into other areas of TV. She has the power to break norms alone, but supporting local writers and directors will also show Hollywood that they can make a lot of money too, and in the end that is all that really matters to them.