What’s the message these Good Christian Bitches are sending out?
Yep, you read that right. The new TV-show on CTV is called Good Christian Bitches, it was changed to Good Christian Belles because of controversy, but either way it’s GCB for short. The show comes to us from the United States on the ABC network and is based off a book by Kim Gatlin.
The premise of this new series is young widow Amanda Vaughn, played by Leslie Bibb, returns to Texas after her husband’s scandal-filled death. Amanda was once the uber mean girl of her high school, but has matured and grown up. She returns home to find that the girls she used to terrorize still live in the neighbourhood, still act like they’re in high school, and are not happy she’s back. It’s like mean girls Christian-Texan style.
Not something I’d normally watch. So why did I?
After seeing endless previews for this show I had no intention of watching it until one night I was listening to the evening episode of Q, a daily CBC radio program hosted by the lovely Jian Ghomeshi, in which he was interviewing the show’s creator Robert Harling and actress Annie Potts. What stood out to me from the interview was a discussion on whether continuing to portray negative stereotypes in the media, even if they are through caricature and humour, is damaging or if it helps people challenge those stereotypes.
I would say it is damaging. The show had some legitimately humorous moments, but seeing women behave the way they do on GCB is one more step in normalizing that behaviour in our minds. Yes there is a stereotype of women being catty, shallow, ditzy, and materialistic, but do we really need to make another show about it?
Don’t get me wrong, I understand the point of the show. I actually like the point of the show. It’s about people who go around claiming to be one thing, in this case good Christians, but behave in ways that are completely inconsistent with what they believe. I know people like this and I don’t live in Texas. We all can probably think of someone who is like this. I like that GCB does question that.
After seeing the first episode I’ve decided this is a watch but be critical type of show. Either don’t watch it because you really do disagree with the whole show or watch it and be aware of what’s going on.
Approve/Disapprove: I don’t like the format but I like the message. Maybe I’ll watch another episode and see what happens.
You can listen to the Q interview here: Past Episodes Feb 29, 2012.
I have been so morbidly curious about this show! Good to hear it at least takes a halfway-critical look at the behaviour portrayed in each episode, but I still don’t think I’m gonna watch it
I was surprised because I thought it would be more along the lines of Desperate Housewives type of drama. The show actually has some heart to it which is why I’ve kept watching.