To entertain and attract audiences, Taiwanese variety shows in recent years have come to rely heavily on dirty jokes and mocking people. Most notorious are the weekend prime time shows. They are so bad they are almost unbearable to watch.
In order to increase viewer ratings, some male hosts repeatedly make fun of the well-developed young girls featured on their shows by trying to embarress them with dirty jokes -- all in the name of entertainment.
Women's rights organizations and scholars of mass communication have repeatedly called for a crackdown on such performances. They believe the shows objectify women and encourage sexual discrimination.
They also criticize the commercial TV programs for feeding the public's desire to ogle young girls' bodies. Some also believe that the indecent behavior and language of male show hosts constitute a kind of "collective worship of young bodies" -- and reflects the fear of impotence among Taiwanese men that trig-gers such extreme behavior.
A few years ago, three 14-year-old boys at a Taipei junior high were punished with demerits and school transfers for sexually harassing girls in their class. What was impressive about the incident was that these boys denied they had done anything wrong. They said they had only copied the behavior of male show hosts towards their young female guests.
Besides variety shows, the obsession with youth and sex among adult Taiwan males is best demonstrated by the use of beautiful, sexy sales girls at betel-nut stands, scantily-clad young women working in tea houses,pretty waitresses at KTVs and on-line child pornography.
The consciousness underlying this phenomena is not only the male fear of impotence but their worship of authority. Young women are economically disadvantaged, less experienced and lower in social status than men because of their gender. This makes them vulnerable to control, manipulation and exploitation by adult males trying to compensate for the frustration and failure in their lives. These men lack confidence and therefore feel the need to exploit others in order to feel superior. They are pathetic.
Not only should daily TV programs be better supervised, but we should also have all relevant parties including the program hosts, producers, TV stations and advertisers shoulder the responsibility. We should also ask these people to study "gender equality," to help them start thinking with their brains and hearts, not just their sexual organs.
The "collective worship of young bodies" has almost become a religion in our society. Of course, the problem cannot simply be resolved by a few new policies or regulations. We need to identify the origin of this social sickness and repeatedly remind ourselves to alter our behavior and change our values.
We should continue discussing the problem and encourage people from all walks of life to pay attention to questionable cultural phenomena. In this way we can figure out the problems and seek new solutions.
Hsu Chia-ching is the secretary-general of Taiwan Women's Alliance
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