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In what will assuredly come as a shock to all of you, it turns out that Lee Aronsohn, co-creator of “Two and a Half Men,” has some less than enlightened views on women, and he expresses those views like a total goon. While attending the Toronto Screenwriting Conference, Aronnsohn sat down with The Hollywood Reporter and offered his opinion about shows like “Whitney” and “2 Broke Girls.” Presumably out loud.
[Aronsohn] isn’t a fan of the current crop of female-centered comedies like Whitney and Two Broke Girls.
“Enough ladies. I get it. You have periods,” Aronsohn commented.
He applauded women like Whitney Cummings, Chelsea Handler and Tina Fey securing a voice to discuss formerly taboo subjects on TV.
“But we’re approaching peak vagina on television, the point of labia saturation,” he added.
HAHAHA GET IT “***LABIA SATURATION***” THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID BECAUSE SHE TOTALLY WANTS TO BONE, RIGHT BROS? I mean, if she’s not being a total bitch because she’s on her period. Which, like, ew.
Now, look, I know I need to tread lightly here. I too have ripped on shows like “2 Broke Girls” and “Whitney” for their reliance on “… because of my vagina, amirite ladies?” comedy. It’s not my particular cup of tea. But, in my defense, that’s not because girls talking about ladystuff is “gross” or “weird” to me, it’s because I rip on everything that relies on super lowbrow jokes to get laughs. Peepee and poopoo and farts and boobies and ding dongs are perfectly acceptable devices you can use to mine laughs, when they are used in moderation. But going to that well repeatedly doesn’t so much strike a blow for equality in comedy as it makes you the female version of Adam Sandler. And as anyone who has seen Jack & Jill can attest, nothing good can come from a female version of Adam Sandler.
OH, AND ALSO, JESUS CHRIST LEE ARONSOHN, YOU ARE THE “TWO AND A HALF MEN” GUY. Like 90% of your show is jokes about things people’s private parts do and places they go and/or do not go. You don’t get to make this criticism. As pointed out on Tumblr by noted TV aficionado Pilot, “Two and a Half Men’s” ENTIRE VALENTINE’S DAY EPISODE was about periods and how ugh they just ruin everything and make women terrible and unreasonable and men can’t talk sense into them no matter how hard they try. You calling out other shows for relying on this kind of humor is like the pot calling the kettle a vagina.
I suppose the biggest issue here isn’t that the guy responsible for a show featuring dumb guys has an issue with shows about female characters, it’s that he felt justified to discuss it at a screenwriting conference, in front of people. Like, lots of them. In another takedown of the whole thing, Alyssa Rosenberg of Think Progress had this to say:
But that Aronsohn is dumb and woman-fearing enough not just to believe this, to blithely admit he believes it to a major publication tells you everything about how cosseted Hollywood’s disgusting sexists are. You want to know why we get what we get on movie and television screens? Why, as Vulture asked after their drama derby assessing the last 25 years of television honored almost no performances by or stories about women, there are a dearth of great women’s dramas? Because there are, apparently, no consequences in Hollywood for being perfectly open about how much you despise women’s bodies and the contours of women’s lives.
In conclusion, Lee Aronsohn may be sick of vaginas, but the bigger problem with television is penises like Lee Aronsohn.
