The Feminist Eye: Women are better at...

Having babies. This is the statement I heard on a season 1 episode of Quantum Leap (the 1989 version).

Every once in a while, I like to revisit old shows I watched as a kid. It's nostalgic, and as an adult, I take the time to analyze them and perhaps see them for what they are. I'm currently doing that with Quantum Leap. I was 10 when it came out.

I'm on Episode 5: How the Tess was one. Let's set the scene for this annoying statement: Tess is an accomplished cowgirl whose father, Chance, pushes her to marry a cowboy and inherit his 50,000-acre ranch. Tess is adamantly opposed to marriage but agrees to marry any man who can beat her in a cowboy contest. She picks Sam. The challenges are roping and wrangling cattle, poker, and pole digging. 

While pole-digging in the hot sun, Tess clearly struggles. She lacks Sam's strength, so she has to use more energy to dig, dehydrating her. Sam tries to get her to drink water, but she refuses to seem weak. Then Sam says this:

"Look, there are some things a Man can do better than a Woman and there are some things a Woman can do better than a Man, like having babies."

​Really!?

​As far as I am concerned, this is lazy writing, and the fact that one of the writers of this episode was a woman meant that she should have done better.

​This statement implies that having babies is a skill both men and women can acquire instead of it being a natural biological function. It's like saying that men are better at producing sperm than women. It felt like the writers didn't want to upset their "presumed" male audience by implying that women are better than them at something. The truth is, depending on the woman and her strength, she may have been able to dig the holes faster than Sam. 

When I watch older shows/movies, my husband likes to remind me of the time. It was 1989 or the 90s or 70s, and the perception of women was what they were back then. The thing is, the entertainment industry has an influence on how things are perceived. It's not a good truth, but it's the truth. An impressionable young girl or boy might hear a statement like that and think that is all that women are good at, having babies. 

It's not like the entertainment industry is so much better now. When I watch modern stuff, I still hear statements or see scenes that could be better. Yes, it's improved some since 1989, but there are still miles to go before it's good.