Fine Finny Fiends: Oh, the sexism!

[bat-rss]

In our latest To the Batpoles! podcast, we close out season one with "Fine Finny Fiends" and "Batman Makes the Scenes" -- an arc that's somewhat difficult to watch due to its sexist attitudes (a woman jumping out of a cake!) but delivers some good comedy lines:

http://tothebatpoles.libsyn.com/023-finny-not-feathered

[cammy85]

Not NEAR as bad as Nora Clavicle in terms of sexism. Maybe I'm just not sensitive enough, but I know this was one of my favorite S1 arcs because it was neat to see Batman and Robin trying, with Alfred's "help", to foil the Penguin and restore Alfred to normal.

[dell]

It was the 60's, so sexism (by today's standards anyway), was quite rampant on many shows. There are several Star Trek episodes that are far worse than anything you see on Batman.

What struck me about the woman jumping out of the cake scenes was that she told Bruce that she was quite nervous about it as she had never done it before. Hmmm... Jumping out of a cake isn't rocket science.

[Dr. Shimel]

All three of the S1 Penguin storylines have a tinge of sexism attached to them:

1: Dawn Robbins, the starlet who's so enraptured by Batman that she pushes away every other guy.

2: Sophia Starr, the socialite who's too dense to realize that Penguin is scamming her, and still wants him after she finds out.

3: Finella and the whole beauty queen backdrop is ripe for pushing sexist images.

[Mr.Freeze]

Example 1......well , the same thing happens in Bonds

[epaddon]

I don't find it difficult to watch, because after all, the episode can be seen as a tongue-in-cheek parody of beauty contests etc. And Julie Gregg IMO wins the award for best *acting* job by a moll in the series as her Marilyn Monroe imitation is anything but her usual range. She had me fooled so much for years that's why I didn't recognize her as the French nightclub singer (wearing the same gown no less) in the movie, which was filmed just after this episode.

A couple years after this episode, Julie won a Tony nomination for the Broadway musical "The Happy Time" and she used that to vault herself into serious TV guest roles in the early 70s (as well as a part in "The Godfather") that showed why as a pure actress, she was in a class by herself compared to the other moll actresses IMO.

[Pengy]

Sexism never crossed my mind watching this. It's not like she was jumping out of the cake to strip her clothes off or do a lurid dance while the men threw money at her. Finella just wanted to win a beauty contest. A bit of a shallow goal sure, but she was a young naive girl whom many in her position would like to win something like that. At least she had the decency and intelligence to see the way Penguin arranged it was dishonest and wrong, and the charity's money they robbed would suffer for it.

I think the only episode that really showed awful sexism, and I mean painfully bad even by the 60's standard, was the aforementioned Nora Clavicle episode where they portrayed women as nothing but shallow dizzy idiots more interested in shopping and swapping recipes than doing their jobs.

[Dr. Shimel]

she was a young naive girl .

Correction: a poor DELUDED girl.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

All three of the S1 Penguin storylines have a tinge of sexism attached to them:

1: Dawn Robbins, the starlet who's so enraptured by Batman that she pushes away every other guy.

Being attracted to one man while ignoring others is not a sexist portrayal. It happens. Its not uncommon for anyone to see that one man as "the one" for her.

2: Sophia Starr, the socialite who's too dense to realize that Penguin is scamming her, and still wants him after she finds out.

He's a professional, experienced criminal. She was not, and no intellectual match for him, hence the reason even Gordon and O'Hara seek the help of the Dynamic Duo to understand / uncover his schemes.

3: Finella and the whole beauty queen backdrop is ripe for pushing sexist images.

The culture still places high value on beauty contests, the celebration / use of image (and associated behavior) almost above everything else, and most will do anything to get it / be a part of it, so that scene was just a mirror of the world at the time--and in many ways, today's world.

[Frenchy1939]

C'mon! I just watched that episode and it wasn't sexist. Silly, maybe but there was no major put down to women thing going on!

[clavierankh]

Wanted to point out the the millionaire they called The Skipper was played by veteran character actor Bill Williams. Bill's wife was the lovely Barbara Hale, Della Street frim Perry Mason. There son, who many people say looks just like him, is William Katt. Katt was The Greatest American Hero, among other things.

[Dr. Shimel]

Katt was The Greatest American Hero, among other things.

Who had to undergo a character name change due to offscreen news: his original last name was Hinckley.

[clavierankh]

Katt was The Greatest American Hero, among other things.

Who had to undergo a character name change due to offscreen news: his original last name was Hinckley.

I thought that was silly and a matter of the producers hitting the panic button.

[Scott Sebring]

Katt was The Greatest American Hero, among other things.

Who had to undergo a character name change due to offscreen news: his original last name was Hinckley.

I thought that was silly and a matter of the producers hitting the panic button.

Let's get back to topic folks.

[Yellow Oval]

This is hilarious! We're talking about beauty contests and jumping out of cakes and yet, no one mentions the cliffhanger trap where the henchman are pushing on the blower fan and Julie is checking the thermometer!!!