The Playboy Club and stiletto feminism

This new show, The Playboy Club, is really beginning to invade my space. Anytime I try to watch something online, an ad for either this show or that new Zooey Deschanel monstrosity plays for what feels like eternity. Since I have some personal issues with Ms. Deschanel that prevent me from watching her in almost anything besides (500) Days of Summer, I felt more inclined to research the Amber Heard/Eddie Cibrian vehicle instead. (I still don't know why I'm compelled to investigate things I strongly suspect I won't like, but here we are.)


Now, I hate to accuse anyone of a lack of originality (I don't), but there are a lot of similarities between this Playboy Club show and a certain critically acclaimed drama series on AMC. There's the 1960s setting, the lead characters with dark secrets that bind them together, and an aggressively appealing male lead with a shellacked head suit and skinny tie. 

I'm not complaining about that last thing.

And in case you thought that wasn't enough banality, we also have the sassiest black friend who ever sassed, the listing of aesthetic criticisms, and the leering adulation of the camera. But what I find most irritating about this show - or at least, its marketing - is its portrayal of and conversations about women. 


It is utterly disheartening to hear these women talk about the Playboy Bunnies of yore, saying "these were really feminists" and, even more stupefying, "these are powerful women that were able to change the world." How were they powerful? How did they change the world? As far as I can tell, they dragged the explicit objectification of women into the mainstream and put a crude feminist wig on it. Amber Heard has already defended her show's position, saying that women shouldn't be denied their sexuality(more on that here), which deftly boxes detractors in as Puritans. But I'm not talking about denying sexuality. I'm talking about demanding that women be appreciated for and expected to have more in their arsenal than their sexuality. And about hearing these actresses talk about empowerment and living life on their own terms, then in the next breath giggle about the time and effort it takes to zip into their costumes. Costumes specifically designed to appeal to men. 

Liberated from the need to breathe!

This may sound like an overreaction, but I think it's impossible to separate the rampant glamorization of Playboy Bunnies (and their costumes) from the growing wave of anti-feminism in America. TV shows like The Playboy Club and books like The Power of Erotic Capital may seem innocuous, but when you look at them in conjunction with the rollbacks of abortion rights happening all over the country, or the ever-current "are women funny?" conversations, or the inclusion of 1 (one!) woman on a twelve-person Congressional committee about debt reduction...it's hard not to see a narrative there. A narrative that seeks to reduce women's real power and influence and supplant it with sexual power and influence. 


Maybe The Playboy Club will turn out to be a better show than it seems. After all, Mad Men was guilty of lingering camera shots on various women, especially Christine Hendricks, before revealing itself as one of the most feminist shows on television. But somehow I doubt that this show, with its cheerful collaboration with Hugh Hefner and determination to treat sexual objectification as a fun and liberating choice, will exceed my expectations.