I am so not buying the shit being shoveled out about how the new NBC show The Playboy Club is about women’s empowerment. I wish I were a good enough writer at this moment to pen one of the “really” segments that Amy Poehler and Seth Myers did on SNL’s Weekend Update, because that is how I feel about this.

I know that they have to get women interested in watching the show because women are a prime TV demographic, but really, the Playboy Club about women’s empowerment? Not in my universe. There are many things that I can buy as women’s empowerment — a sports show (like we’ll ever see that), a show about lawyers, a show about doctors, etc. But a show about play bunnies? That’s pushing it.

From reading about the show’s panel at TCA this week, the women on the show were on the defensive from the get go trying to save the show from accomplishing something that not too many shows can do — being hated by the right — the Parent’s Television Council — and being hated by feminists on the left. (oh the irony.)

I just don’t see how a show that shows women being groped and working as bunnies — even if some amazing women did it in their time including Gloria Steinem (who went undercover as a journalist) — is about women’s empowerment. The way they have framed it, I’m not buying it. And that’s the key here. How you frame it. It’s a show about a certain time in this country.

Clearly, they are really nervous and the talking points need to be seriously refined because all the write-ups from the panel have slammed that show and the actresses for being disingenuous. Learn your fucking history. The actors on the show especially the star Amber Heard are upset about and criticizing her show before seeing it. Give me a break. The network rolled out clips in May, has been teasing advertising all summer and has now brought the cast to TCA to meet all the TV writers. Each year TCA generates good and bad publicity for shows and gives info to us regular folks so we can decide what we want to watch. That’s how it goes. Maybe this controversy will make some people want to see the show more. Maybe it will make others run and hide. There are many different kinds of shows on TV and people have to pick and choose what appeals to them.

But you gotta own the show that you are working on. And the star Amber Heard put her foot in her mouth when she criticized an entire generation of feminists for having an issue with her show including Gloria Steinem. Amber- don’t you know that older women watch even more TV? And really don’t lump the Parent’s Television Council together with feminists. While there may be some common ground, the PTC and the feminists are more different than alike.

The groups that create the controversy have not seen our show. They have no idea what the show is about…They are responding to the Playboy stigma, the word. And you don’t watch a show for a word. You watch it for the characters, and that’s what this show has. Our generation, it takes us by surprise when the Steinems of the world criticize us, I think because we are part of a generation of women who don’t have to choose between combat boots and an apron. We can do it in heels.

I’m so glad she can do “it” (whatever the hell it is) in heels.

Me thinks this young woman better have a damn good show or she should just shut the fuck up and admit she’s on a show that’s about women wearing bunny costumes trying to get by in the world where it was really difficult for single women to get jobs that would pay a decent wage. You see if they framed it that way, I could potentially be interested. As of right now, this show has no shot with me.

The Playboy Club’s Amber Heard Makes a Case Against All the Controversy (EW)

Summer TV Press Tour 2011: NBC’s ‘Playboy Club’ shows bunnies as feminists — with tails (WP)

NBC’s ‘The Playboy Club’ Argues It’s All About Women’s Empowerment (HW)