MTV Sexist? What a Shock!

MTV executives failed to nominate a single female character for “Best Hero” in the upcoming MTV Movie Awards. But given the network’s treatment of women in the past, the only surprise is that anyone’s surprised. MTV’s bosses failed to nominate a single female character for “Best Hero” in the upcoming awards show – thus overlooking the character of Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of the wildly popular Hunger Games series. Fans have launched an online petition demanding Katniss be included. “Young women already have too few female heroes represented in film and television,” petition author Sophie Azran says. “It's important that women and girls know there's a hero out there representing them.” While Azran’s point is entirely valid, the fact that MTV’s executives are sexist should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone familiar with the network’s attitude toward women, as shown in its other programming. From portraying women as trashy, lowbrow alcoholics on Snooki & JWoww, to Playboy employees and “Maxim hotties” endlessly sending girls the message that they only exist to service men’s sexual desires on Girl Code, MTV has done more to degrade the image of women and girls and destroy their self-esteem than nearly any other network – as the PTC proved in its study of the portrayal of women on MTV’s “reality” shows. But not to worry. If MTV’s sex-obsessed bosses haven’t nominated a female in the “Best Hero” category, they’ve made certain to nominate one in another category – “Best Shirtless Performance.”