Women & Hollywood: Tween TV Skewed to Girls

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In 2008, it was named by More Magazine as one of the "blog to watch," and in 2009, it was named "Best Hollywood blog" by totalfilm.com. Featured posts from Silverstein's blogs will appear here on TalkTVWorld.com. Visit WomenandHollywood.com for more from Silverstein.

Why is it always two steps forward one step back?

Remember the NY Times article about a month ago about how there were so few men at colleges nowadays that women can’t get dates? Then last week, Nick Kristof the man who has devoted himself to unearthing gender genocides across the world, wrote a column about how boys have fallen behind in reading. People are so concerned that boys are doing so poorly in reading that folks are encouraged to engage them in books that have explosions or monsters and ghosts in order to engage their interests.

I’m not happy that boys aren’t reading but is that the fault of girls? Why is it that everytime people see a crisis for boys it is always the girls fault.

Here’s an example.

It turns out the tween TV is skewing the girls way, and some are concerned that boys are being left out. Tween TV seems to be ruled by Miley, Selena and Carly and the boys on TV like the Jonas Brothers seem to interest girls more than boys.

TV executives think that having shows with female leads is progress because boys are watching these shows too. This should be good news to everyone. Boys who are growing up today have no problems watching shows with female leads. We can only hope that could transfer to films as they age.

Marjorie Cohn executive vice president, original programming and development for Nickelodeon said:

“In the same way we should celebrate Hillary Clinton we should celebrate boys being able to talk about relationships.”

It is great that boys don’t care who stars in the show they like. Girls have always watched shows with male leads and it has never been a problem — it’s just life.

I just don’t see the fact that there are a couple of shows that appeal to girls that boys are watching to be that big a deal. There are plenty of shows out there that appeal to boys.

Is Tween TV Skewed Towards Girls? (LA Times)

Image of Selena Gomez by Sarah DeBoer/Retna Ltd.