"Butch" Woman

I watched the series premiere of Prime Suspect and I was very surprised. In the beginning I wondered why this show was different from all the other cop shows that have female leads but it is different. In cop shows such as Castle, Cold Case and SVU, the women are generally respected by their peers and co workers. Not in the case of this show. Almost instantly you can tell that Detective Jane Timoney has a hard time with males period. In the first few minutes of the show she gets into a cab and the cab driver has his music blasting while she is trying to have a conversation on the phone. He then lights up and she tells him to stop when he starts talking on the phone she again tells him to stop and he only does when she slams her gun and badge against the glass. That scene sets the audience up for the rest of the episode because she is constantly trying to prove herself to her team and they dont respond. She also realizes that she isnt getting cases and when she talks to her male peers about this one of the Detectives talks to her like she is a kid when he tries to explain why she isnt getting the cases she is assigned to. I also noticed that in this show there are almost no women. The victim is female and Timoney's boyfriend's Ex Wife is obviously female but one has no voice and the other also puts Timoney down just like the men in her department. I thought it was interesting how they chose to kill a Detective off after he said " Women Detectives wait and lurk to blow up the careers of good cops". I dont know what there point was by killing him off right after he said that. This show is obviously centered around Timoney but she has to deal with Masculinity and agressiveness all the time. Although they are never physical with her she puts up with it until the proves them wrong and even after that there is still a Detective that resists her. He thinks she only got the job because she used to go out with a Detective. It seems like men are never questioned when they get a higher ranking position. When it happens people respect them and they contribute it to hard work. In this case that thought never crossed their minds and they all think she only got the job because she slept with a powerful man. This show was also the first time I saw a suspect being in pursuit and then decides to turn around and run toward Timoney, tackle her and then beat the crap out of her. This program shows the gritty reality of females in any workforce and put it out for people to digest.
My favorite scene is when she talks to the victims son about killing his mothers murderer. The scene starts at 2:25 in the 5 minute behind the scenes video.

Working Wives

"Everybody Loves Raymond" is the typical show where the wives dont work. Debra (Ray's wife) gave up her job in PR when she married Ray. Her job is to take care of the house. They do have a lot of fights about which job is more important. Ray is the typical husband who expects food on the table and doesnt help out around the house and that really bothers me. I remember one episode where Debra was having company over and asked Ray to help her but he wouldnt. She told him she had been cleaning all day and was exhausted but that she wasnt complaining and he shouldnt either. Ray tells her that cleaning the house isnt a real job and that is when Debra gets upset. In the end he didnt help and Debra was stuck doing the cleaning. Ray thinks that if you arent getting paid to do work then you arent working and that is not the right mentality to have especially when his wife is working so hard to see him happy when he gets home. I remember another episode where Debra wanted to help Frank (Ray's father) at the lodge because she didnt feel worthy at home and was looking for a little more meaning. She didnt have to work because Ray's salary was more than enough but she was bored and was looking for fulfillment. I wish they had had her go back to her old job. If she was satisfied just being a housewife that is one thing but if she really wanted to do more with her life she should have tried looking for a job that lasted more than a couple of episodes. She missed her old life but everytime she tried to venture off on her own something happened that caused her to go back to Ray.