tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264581077330970620.post3567033193016369687..comments2023-09-26T05:14:02.611-04:00Comments on o filthy grandeur!: "Monk": Slut-shaming, and female bodies are just ickyFilthyGrandeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939478425921080818noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264581077330970620.post-77542034424269413612010-10-20T17:56:24.044-04:002010-10-20T17:56:24.044-04:00i watched it again just a few days ago--at the end...i watched it again just a few days ago--at the end where he returns the book "because she's a whore." jaw drop.FilthyGrandeurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08939478425921080818noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264581077330970620.post-6736904110909911292010-10-20T16:27:53.515-04:002010-10-20T16:27:53.515-04:00I just watched this episode on netflix instant, an...I just watched this episode on netflix instant, and I couldn't believe it. I'm glad I found this blog post after googling "slut-shaming monk", I didn't want to be the only one who thought this lol.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264581077330970620.post-17781868355373381082009-08-15T08:32:20.450-04:002009-08-15T08:32:20.450-04:00@Maud--
excellent points, and you're right: i...@Maud--<br /><br />excellent points, and you're right: it doesn't excuse the slut-shaming (but it was Sharona in the sarah silverman episode--natalie wasn't in the series until the Red Herring episode--omg i need a life!)FilthyGrandeurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08939478425921080818noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264581077330970620.post-1804629949481645952009-08-15T03:56:12.720-04:002009-08-15T03:56:12.720-04:00Rose, I think that was part of the joke for the Mo...Rose, I think that was part of the joke for the Monk writers, the kinds of expectations that fans have about TV shows they get emotionally invested in. Obviously I don't really know, but they've played around with that idea before. Do you remember the first episode Sarah Silverman was in, when she was an obsessive fan of some TV actor who killed his wife (then transferred her obsession to Monk when he solved the crime)? Her character was introduced when she gave Natalie a note to give to the actor. She complained that they had changed the theme song to the show, and Natalie agreed that had been a terrible idea. This was pretty obviously a joke about complaints they'd gotten after they changed the Monk theme to the Randy Newman song from the original. The writers for this show have more than once incorporated a little mockery of both actors and fans into the scripts, and I think that's what the plot of this season's first show was based on. Which doesn't excuse playing into society's slut-shaming of women. Even when you do it only for a kind of exaggerated comic effect, you are still perpetuating it.Maudnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264581077330970620.post-33329351474980384702009-08-13T12:35:15.366-04:002009-08-13T12:35:15.366-04:00Hi, FG, here by way of Shakesville. I, too, love M...Hi, FG, here by way of Shakesville. I, too, love Monk. I think there are two somewhat different things going on here. Monk's phobia about nudity, I think, is intended to be <i>his</i> problem, not a comment on women's bodies. I think we see it presented with women more often partly because women are a lot more likely to be shown half-naked on TV anyway, for the usual reasons, and also because they think it's funnier to see him react this way to women precisely because he is heterosexual. It plays off the contrast with the way most heterosexual men react to an opportunity to see unclothed female flesh.<br /><br />In the season's first episode, I agree that there was real slut-shaming going on. Again, Monk's exaggerated reaction is a function of his own naivete and fears about sex, and I think the slut-shaming was used casually because it provides "comic" possibilities for contrasting the TV version of the characters that Monk invested in so much with the reality of the lives of the "actors" who played them. It may have been suggested to the writers in part by the Danny Bonaduce/Partridge family divergence, because he has been on TV a lot in recent years - he even did a cameo on an episode of Monk, the Playboy one you mentioned, I think. But I'm sure they went with a woman so they could make all the usual jokes about the shocking sex acts she supposedly engaged in which are never specified (i.e. whatever was on page 73 that Natalie wouldn't let Monk see.) So, yeah, in this episode it clearly was slut-shaming played for laughs, and the sad part is that the reason they <i>could</i> so easily play that for laughs is that it's such a routine part of our society that it's just assumed by the audience. That makes it easy to slip in a lot of jokes where the set-up is society's existing attitudes toward women; it makes for compact jokes for script-writing ease.Maudnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264581077330970620.post-49256665591587876702009-08-13T10:33:00.813-04:002009-08-13T10:33:00.813-04:00I watched this episode yesterday and was completel...I watched this episode yesterday and was completely disgusted. Not only by all the slut-shaming, including a gross scene where Natalie wipes her hands after touching something Christine touched. But also the strong implication that an actress has an obligation not to "betray" her fans by being different than a character she portrayed on some stupid 70s television show. Instead of making that type of fetishization of a television show and a fictional character a flaw of Monk's, instead, it's strongly implied that we should take at face value that he's right. If you play a wholesome character on television, you should be wholesome in your real life.<br /><br />Now I like Tony Shaloub and I too have harbored quite a crush on him, but I can't help but wonder how he feels about fans who expect him to have OCD and solve crimes because they think he's really Monk! I'm willing to bet that it really pisses him off.<br /><br />rose (came here via our discussion on Shakesville - only posting under Anonymous because I'm too lazy to start an accout right now.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com