"Women, Women" Catches On

"Women, Women," a new-format variety show centered on relations between the sexes, has not only captured two Golden Bell Awards since its debut last October 17--for best variety show and best variety show host/hostess--while setting off heated discussions among viewers and attracting the concerned attention of experts and scholars, it has also given rise to a slew of new talk shows on the same subject. All of a sudden, sexual topics that were rarely discussed openly in the past are turning up in droves on the TV screen.

On a Saturday afternoon a group of forty or fifty men have gathered at the recording studios of China Television Company. Stagehands are busily adjusting the lights and readying the props, while the guests are straightening their ties and waiting anxiously for the taping to begin.

The producer, Huang Chien-fu, hands out prepared questions to the guests and asks them to think them over and choose which of the four answers for each question they think is best. "Remember, we're looking for trends on this program, not correct answers," he repeats. A buzzer sounds and the program begins, without any rehearsal.

"What role would you like your wife to play in the bedroom?" Twenty-three of the 48 male participants pick, "a licentious tropical girl who makes me deliriously happy." "What kind of a disease is falling in love like?" "It's like the flu," most of the men say. "It comes and it goes, and there's no immunization for it." "What would your reaction be if your husband bought you some sexy underwear?" "I'd accept them with pleasure," most of the women choose.

"Real people saying real things" is one of the program's chief characteristics. As the above questions and answers clearly show, people aren't as reserved and conservative as they used to be. They're not afraid to talk about sexual topics any more or to express the way they feel. Program co-host Chao Ning has been particularly struck in that regard: "Women aren't afraid to talk about sexual relations now. Some of the things they say I hem and haw over and have a hard time spitting out myself." And men, who have never been accustomed to talking about matters of emotion or personal life, have gradually started to open up and talk. Chao Ning believes that the program is having a salutary effect on the family and society as a whole.

Besides presenting the views of the general public, "Women, Women" often invites outstanding figures in various fields to talk about their personal lives outside their careers. It even broke precedent for a variety show by hosting noted political figures, such as General Chiang Wei-kuo and legislator Ju Gao-jeng.

Another breakthrough for the show is its sex education section--the most popular part of the program according to viewer surveys--in which a different doctor is invited each week to answer questions on sex, medicine and hygiene. A Mr. T'ang of Taipei who watches the program with his children used to leave the room in embarrassment each time they came to that part of the show, but he couldn't help praising it after he watched it once all the way through: "It's a really good program. It says a lot of things that parents have never been able to tell their children!"

Most people have a positive attitude about programs that increase dialogue and communication between the sexes. But now that the issues have been put up for discussion, have there been any negative effects on harmony between the sexes?

Wang Pang-hsiung, director of the graduate school of philosophy of National Chungyang University and once a guest on the program, describes the experience this way: "It's a little like going to see the doctor." How is that? "When the questions are laid out on the table, there's no escape. You've got to face them." If there's good communication, relations will naturally improve. If not, things will get worse.

A separated couple who were getting ready to divorce last year were given a subject of common interest when the wife saw the program last year and telephoned her husband about it. He watched it too, and ever since then they have telephoned each other every Tuesday after the show to talk about it.

On the other side, the program has also led to instances of "family revolutions."

A male viewer in Changhua called the station once and hollered, "Your program is ruining women!" He said that his wife used to come home from work every day and wash the clothes and cook dinner without a word of complaint. But after watching "Women, Women" she started demanding that he talk things over with her and share the housework. They had quarreled several times and he had never paid any attention to her. Finally she said she couldn't take any more and moved out, and now she was calling for a divorce.

"Television enters right into the home," avers Chang Tzu-ning, deputy director of Family Wellness Center at National Tunghai University. "The show appeals to a rather broad audience, so it should be more constructive and positive in direction." Its in-depth discussions of marital problems have been quite informative, but its "cynical attitude" in "talking about highly sensitive issues in a peripheral, equivocal manner" is liable to misguide people and have a negative effect, he says.

"We never expected to hit the social pulse and set off a heated reaction among the public and scholars when we started out," the program's planner, Yang Ch'ing-ling, frankly admits. The network didn't look highly on the program's chances for success before it came out, and even she herself "had no confidence."

The 9:30 to 11:00 P.M. time slot was thought to be suited exclusively for drama serials and comic variety shows. But Yang Ch'in-ling, who has more than a decade of experience in television, and producer Huang Chien-fu spent three months studying and reevaluating that impression. "Sixty percent of the audience in the evening are women," she says, "and over the past ten years they have grown a lot. We designed a thinking program aimed at women between the ages of 20 and 45 with a high school education or higher."

When it first came out "Women, Women" had ratings of just 20 to 30, but it has gradually come into its own, and rates 45 out of a hundred.

Faced with the warm response and heated criticisms the show has received, Yang Ch'in-ling has been impressed by the influence and power of television on the public: "We've come to feel we have a responsibility toward society, and we're going to be more careful from now on."

[Picture Caption]

In the sex education portion of the program, problems of the bedroom are discussed in a living room setting.

(Above) Most of the male guests hope that their wives will act like "tropical girls" in the bedroom.

(Below) A sample question: What would your reaction be if your boyfriend spoke ill of an unmarried woman who was beautiful and successful but had no boyfriend?

In the sex education portion of the program, problems of the bedroom are discussed in a living room setting.

（Above） Most of the male guests hope that their wives will act like "tropical girls" in the bedroom.

（Below） A sample question: What would your reaction be if your boyfriend spoke ill of an unmarried woman who was beautiful and successful but had no boyfriend?