This American Life - Girls in Need of a Safer Time

[nerfmyaccount]

If you know anything about Bob Dole then I consider you to be a stupid person.

[enderkrum]

@jfuzzdog21 thanks jfd21 for speaking for me...good catch, though perhaps you have identity issues

@JLoveBomb it is true idealism is a dying art...because reality is our mother...

peace all!

[jfuzzdog21]

@enderkrum "I"..."it" blame swype (or canada)

[323guiltyspark]

I don't know. It just sounds like the people they got on this show are idiots. Isn't there like an auditioning process to weed out these types?

[megNLV]

I asked a mid-30 year-old, MALE, computer programmer the three questions that I could gather from the audio and he got 1 right answer. I guess he's dumb.

[MudderWaY]

young teenagers are just not that interested in knowledge at that age, especially in this kind of quiz format(in general), it has nothing to do with intellect. I doubt that boys that age would do better. A much better show might have been to have them do problemsolving things, that are complex, but don't require learning random facts.

[enderkrum]

so this clip has had some random comments over the years...very interesting.

overall, the point of posting this years ago was, of course, to show the ridiculousness of looking to television...and the people who work in it who think their interaction with the self-selecting population who want to be on tv...to prove/not prove a (any) stereotype.

[JLoveBomb]

@enderkrum What is this self-reflecting populace you speak of and where can I find it?

[jfuzzdog21]

@JLoveBomb I think I said "self-selecting", i.e. attention seeking people (who are seeking their 15 min of fame) may not be so concerned with depth so much as making a splash. Though I have been guilty of thinking there was a "self-reflecting populace" in the past...

[JLoveBomb]

@jfuzzdog21 Oops, my bad (eyesight). I've been guilty of the same. It's ok. Idealism is a dying art. :-)

[sexykatie90]

thumbs up if you like This American Life - Girls in Need of a Safer Time

[calbdavid]

@sexykatie90 why fish for thumbs up?

[MiamiPush2theLimit]

boys would have been just as dumb. come on, this is America. We all know how much the education system sucks.

[MiamiPush2theLimit]

This woman is ridiculous.

[truthsmiles]

Let's be honest here: The message young boys get growing up is that to be successful they have to out-think their peers. The message young girls get is that to be successful they have to be pretty enough to marry a successful man.

Thankfully, there are many exceptions to this "rule", but it's the rule nonetheless. I don't like it any more than anyone else, but stop blaming the show or the producer. Instead, blame yourselves. It's our society that constantly tells women that to get ahead they

[WMsandKFCisBackMOFOs]

The revised questions are Amazing, it shows the truth about females. And so does this segment.

[JLoveBomb]

@WMsandKFCisBackMOFOs Right. And all the dolts smashing their brains out on Tosh.0 represent the truth about males. For such a broad brush, you sure wield it well. Do men who rape tell the truth about all males?

This show doesn't tell the truth about me. I'm female. Cheesewhiz doesn't tell the truth about all cheese. Pit-bulls don't tell the truth about all animals. Bret Easton Ellis doesn't tell the truth about all books. A hurricane doesn't tell the truth about all weather. You get the point.

[nachnirgendwo]

That was pathetic.

[allforass69]

ugh.... the comments on here are written by annoying femi-nazi's looking to argue a real (and troubling) phenomenon in social psychology...

This intelligent, thoughtful woman was brave enough to realize a failing in her aspirations and point out what she saw first hand as a failure by modern girls either display or be intellectually engaged. Its about time we stop making excuses using baseless empirical theories and realize the reality of the situation and begin addressing it head-on.

[JLoveBomb]

@allforass69 Using a base of barely a few girls, who were on television for like a minute, with those asinine questions being horked at them, and the results are enough proof for you to conclude that we have a societal problem with ALL girls not being intellectually engaged?

What?

This was a fluke, that's why it's a story. This TV show was over a decade ago. Young women are doing just fine in their intellectual pursuits in that time. What exactly is there to address head-on?

[JLoveBomb]

@allforass69 Also, I am sure there are plenty of people here who don't like sexism, and are about to invade Poland. Rush Limbaugh terminology is always part of the problem, never part of the solution.

[1991stacy]

She should know how to balance the questions, instead of just making them either really difficult or incredibly simple.

[enderkrum]

@1991stacy true stacy...I think you hit the nail on the head. This program is more about the failings of television production (esp this program) than the intelligence (or lack there of) of women. I thought this was obvious...but several of the comments have made me think otherwise...

[fosterslover]

It sounds like the show didn't even give the girls a chance. Why not ask questions about things actually covered in school rather than obscure trivia that even many adults wouldn't know?

[mella1970]

Try asking the girls about the meaning of the lyrics from their favorite music band.

[roadsideflowers]

Knowing trivia = Intelligence

Right. Ok. That makes fucking sense.

[maryamtaheri]

teenage girl show fail

[amyeruse]

This is really sad - this woman is pathetic!!!!

[hawanja]

This sounds like a Saturday night live skit. 

[AkiraChan24]

Its one thing to teach students by throwing a book at them and saying "write this down and remember it for next week's test" and another thing to teach them to use that information in the future. It's very possible that this woman went to a very nice school with a lot of money. I'm not saying that people that aren't rich are dumb, what I'm saying is that schools aren't all the same, and the teachers aren't either. Also, I'm betting boys couldn't answer these questions either. Too unlikely.

[Starrlabb]

Why does it make you smart to know what presidential candidate lost the use of his hand in world war II? Who the fuck cares?? How is knowing that bit of information going to help you in life? it's not.

[ultimatejoeshmo]

@Starrlabb It's called remembering current events and making some educated guesses.

[jojomojojones]

@Starrlabb

Smart people pick up these kind of facts without even trying. It just sticks if you're smart. Smart people don't have to "learn" the way average people do.

[TheOneThatYouLoathe]

I think, instead of choosing smart girls, they chose pretty air-heads for the show. I mean, not ALL teenage girls are dumb.

[JcdJulz]

What episode is this?

[JLoveBomb]

@JcdJulz "I Enjoy Being a Girl (Sometimes)", is the name of the episode, I think.

[kaao123]

I don't think shows like these are ever indicative of the presence or absence of intelligence in a particular group of people but rather the inherent idiocy of the idea that creates them. They could have made these girls look like geniuses but still perpetuated the frivolous notion that girls might be less intelligent or stupid.

[rob3223]

Why dont they go into the selection process of this so called game show? Or does somebody know?

[bobbyu21]

ok, now I'm really wondering what's going on. Epstein's statements bothered me so much that I've googled her and the show. And miraculously NOTHING shows up anywhere about Oxygen's 'Clued In'. Hmmm... Imdb maybe? Nope, nothing. Robin Epstein was producer and writer of this show? Nothing on Imdb... It is as if this show and Epstein never existed. Hmm, now I'm very suspicious. Something's fishy here. No track about this anywhere? It looks as if the show was very damaging to Epstein's career. Good.

[bobbyu21]

And: If you look at Epstein's career track in television after her infamous show it looks like many actually believe that it was probably her show that was the problem and not the girls, since she didn't do anything ever again on tv. Maybe the male execs now think she's too dumb to write a show? Don't know, possibly she is.

[bobbyu21]

c'mon girls Robin Epstein is a stupid bitch. Give me a break, she really wants us to believe that they haven't been able to find a smart pretty girl to host this show? Really? No? Not one smart face in the whole US? How stupid does she think the audience? Does she think we're going to believe this? And besides, who cares what the animal symbol for a declining market is? 'Chicken' is actually a pretty funny answer to such a redundant question.

[stablejelly]

As a teenager I might've considered girls/women dumb, but these days I would accuse women, generally, of being superficial. Women are much more into looks than guys. Just walk around a mall sometime. But, wow, what great qualities to work in a corporate enviorment, where all is quite shallow. Leadership and money is coming girls! I had many days to read and learn in my younger years because of rejection. One thing I learned was to hide what I knew from women. I can assure you, dates followed..

[watchful03eye]

I completely agree with the message being presented. Even though I am a teen & female, I feel that the majority of teenagers choose to stay in that ignorant phase. Making decisions in order to make them cooler opposed to smarter. It seems that even the English language is changing in order to adhere to their new accents. For instance saying LOL or WTF in an actual auditory conversation. It makes the majority of teenagers look dumb & immature when really its only the minority. I'm blaming bad tv!

[carolin988]

what if the show would have been with boys in it,would they really have been "smarter"than those girls?,

"probably not many girls spend their weekends playing trivial pursuit with there friends" how many boys do that anyway,they shouldnt be separating it by gender

(sorry for my english)

[ERROLCUSTERFLYNN4EVR]

ira is percy dovetonsils.

[1C7Z3H5X]

npr has offically proved it,teen girls are retarded twits...what a shocker

[happygilmor15]

Ira Glass is my uncle

[sillymrgiggles]

very sad, but unfortunatly very true what happens to girls over the years on their perception of intellegence. it is not all their fault, its in the enviorment around them. from their friends to strangers who care more about their attractiveness rather than their knowledge.

[creativeslacker]

Sigh, what a bummer. Girls portray what they believe will make them popular. When the Victoria's Secret videos are more popular than say a NPR broadcast, it's no wonder why they become lip gloss wearing bubble heads. How depressing we're becoming a society without a soul.

[ToolFan68]

Ira rocks. Truth hurts.

[emmetgirl]

how were they choosing the girls to go on this show? i feel like they could have targeted nerdier girls in recruiting. the fact that they rejected a female host based on looks makes me suspicious of how they went about finding contestants.

[Blissinflux]

Ask them questions about subjects that are relevant to them. Off the top of my head- "Name one of the two women on US dollar coins." "Which aviator disappeared while attempting to fly around the world?" "What redheaded children's book character was best known for her cleverness and physical strength?" "What famous author succeeded despite being both deaf and blind." Girls can answer those questions because, well, that's what they care about. Not freakin' Bob Dole.

[philaphobic]

@Blissinflux and not the constitution? writing female biased questions would be pointless. Bob Dole was running for President close to this time... you don't think girls need to be informed about this? maybe we should ask them what iron setting to use on a silk blouse. its stupid to have a show that pits girls against girls. just represent girls equally in regular shows. that way they can answer question the same as the boys instead of giving them their own show with their own biased questions.

[JLoveBomb]

@philaphobic How is asking about authors and aviators and historical figures on coins "writing female-based questions", may I ask? Not being snarky. I am genuinely curious as to how those are biased towards females, when any boy of similar age and education could answer them, and likewise any girl would answer equivalent questions about male figures. Would one consider questions about male figures be "male-based" :-?

[Blissinflux]

This is sad. Even Ira is aghast. This woman sees the world as defined by the male point of view. The first question is about Wall Street, a subjet barely touched upon is high school unless you take an actual Economics class, which at my school was offered only to seniors. The second question is about...Bob Dole? Teenage girls don't care about Bob Dole! Hardly anyone cared about Bob Dole in 1996, and they certainly don't now, regardless of gender or intelligence level. He's just not remarkable.

[ultimatejoeshmo]

@Blissinflux Yah but she should have known that Teddy Roosevelt died way before WWII! Dumbass...

[chervacho]

I'd like to see this opinion peer reviewed...I don't think it would stand up...

[stevely]

She too is focusing on how the girls (and women) "present". That is not because that is what the feminine sex is about, that's just because that's what the culture that she and all those girls live in, think should be focusing on.

She uses a tool of that specific culture to try to prove how that belief is wrong. If you measure something by the culture in which this something exists, you are bound to make the same findings that the culture find valid and relevant. It's not rocket science,

[moegolden]

I just think she overestimated the number of younger girls that are like her, let alone the percentage that would feel confident to appear on a game show.

[AkiraChan24]

@moegolden I agree entirely. Also, throw Anderson Cooper in front of teenaged girls and you're offering way too much of a distraction. However, place Barbera Walters in front of them and I'm sure the atmosphere is completely different.

[CantoErgoSum]

WHAT THE FUCK ARE THESE QUESTIONS?!?!?!

This makes me sick.

[grandblan]

They do not watch it!

[CantoErgoSum]

Do you mean "then?"

Who's "they?"

[grandblan]

what

[bapyou]

Huh?

[blindaurora]

I didn't know the Bob Dole question. Also, the host really acts in a flirty/patronizing way with the girls.

[allowme2correctU]

agreed

[54spiritedwill54]

This was interesting, I enjoyed it

[cantsleep73]

The show's producer set these girls up for failure, then left them without a safety net--not because the girls are dumb, but because the show wasn't designed properly. For example, even Jeopardy contestants get an opportunity to "study" the kinds of questions they will be asked. Maybe the expectations for the kinds of questions to be asked were not really set forth properly. And before the show even starts, she hires a hunky mc? Seems she cared more about her job than girls.

[VCBee042]

Most of those questions could be answered with a rudimentary grasp of history. We're talking "barely sentient cabbage" kind of knowledge required.

[fatkidindahouse]

i think i agree to a certain extent; they certainly must have interviewed these girls before they put them on the show, right? i mean, people have to compete just to get on jeopardy, for instance. there had to have been some breakdown in the system in terms of the review process for possible applicants.

[Ryan1m]

I totally agree with you, they were put on the spot with people cheering and some host staring them down they must have been too nervous to think the questions through.

[thatdrattedcat]

is there any footage of this?

[QuabbinGrown]

oh. my. gosh. this made me want to throw up a little. no, strike that, ALOT.

[Craydon]

What a disaster

[IhaveAspaceSuit]

the mistake that runs the world!!

[Sievr]

I think one of the biggest problems of her approach was her choice of medium. Who goes to a tv game show to look for--or to be--a role model?

The fact is that television, like radio, like politics, is an established playing field with its own flavor; you come to it expecting to be and to take part in what you've seen before. We associate television with spectacle, entertainment, and stupid people. The odds are stacked high against you if you want to find contestants who will challenge that.

[peajmac]

Why doesn't Ira challenge her on any of this? Her conclusion really does seem to be that girls are dumb--or they choose to seem dumb. There are plenty of teen girls for whom that is not true, why did this producer take part in a show that put girls on tv who were or played dumb? More of a Fox type of show for sure. Yuck.

[enderkrum]

except it was the O Network...not Fox...

[esprit15d]

Ira doesn't lead ppl to conclusions, he just tells ppl stories.

[CitizenJain666]

hilarious, i LOVE this story

[bittersweetblu]

This was interesting, I enjoyed it, I guess my thought is that maybe they should have asked a group of boys the same questions in the same setting with an attractive women hosting the show, to get a better feel for whether or not the questions were truly hard or if the girls just weren't up to par.

Also you would this that this women talking would have been clever (smart) enough to figure out a way to make these girls "look smart" without making them "look stupid"... just a thought.

[enderkrum]

exactly

[Sievr]

I am sure the boys would have turned in a similar performance as the girls, regardless of the gender of the host. /:|

But the fact is that these questions were NOT hard. It's clear that we have a big problem, but it is not just with girls, it is with education in general.

[esprit15d]

Yeah, its across the board that the emphasis of our culture is superficiality - regardless of gender. Aditionally, even smartish ppl get dumber on TV. That fact is pretty much fueling our current reality show boon.

[WhiteSoxTrav]

Thanks for the suggestion and I will. I think it is more depressing because the woman actually seems like she was trying to do something positive and you could tell that she was broken. At the point where they turned down the female host for not being pretty enough it became clear that this was a sad, sad story.

Go find the cutest boy in the audience? Really? Why not weed out the morons by doing something having a quiz to get on the show?

[jfuzzdog21]

I agree, though her take away wasn't "we did it wrong" but "girls are dumb." pretty arrogant...

[mooshenick]

No, there wasn't arrogance there. Try being perceptive or learning a little about vocabulary.

[enderkrum]

There was arrogance, but perhaps it wasn't intentional. The arrogance was she choose to believe most girls (other than herself and friends) are dumb instead of admitting their quiz show did a terrible job screening the contestants and setting up an intellectual atmosphere.

[WhiteSoxTrav]

hilarious in a very depressing way.

[enderkrum]

It would be very depressing if you think the O Network actually attempted to create a smart quiz show for girls. Come on...it is not that girls are dumb but that the O Network is dumb...check out the link in the "more info" section for this video....you might feel better after reading it.

[WhiteSoxTrav]

I didn't click on the link until after I responded to you. I must not be wrong in my opinion. haha Still sad though.

[bikenap]

hilarious in a depressing kind of way?

[theskidpad]

hilarious.