What are "Better Jeopardy categories?"
It must be a tough racket, slaving away in the Jeopardy! writers' room, coming up with category after category after category, day in and day out. I'd be surprised if the show's obviously hyper-intelligent writers didn't come up with some real clunkers every now and again. But I'd also expect someone else in the room to respond to that junk category with the appropriate fart noise and down-turned thumb. That's generally how writers' rooms work.
So, how in the world did "What Women Want" end up on yesterday's show? How did somebody—like, perhaps, the one-third of the writing staff with female sex organs—not point out its weird sexist overtones.
And, lest you think this was chosen as a means of skewering an outmoded gender-identity trope, here's a few of the questions/answers from the category:
The correct response was "What is a crossword puzzle?" Because you know—ladies and their crossword puzzles! It's the only thing that takes the edge off their raging menstrual flare-ups.
First of all, "What is a vacuum cleaner" was the correct response. Second of all, yes! Because vacuuming is ladies work. I didn't make the rules. It's what it says in the Bible. Now, if you don't mind, please mix me up a Manhattan and bring it down to me in the basement, where I'll be working on my model train set and smoking a pipe.
The correct response was "What is Levi's?" Granted there's nothing sexist about accusing women of wearing Levi's, per se. Just like there's nothing particularly sexist about saying that they vacuum or that they enjoy filling out a crossword puzzle. The sexist part comes when you ascribe any of those things to women in particular. What the hell does any of that have to do with having or not having a vagina?
A couple dumb-headed Jeopardy! questions are hardly a Taliban-level atrocity, but I'd just expect better from a show created by so many smart people. If this kind of thing came out of Pat Sajak's mouth on Wheel of Fortune, I'd be like, "Okay, this makes sense." But this is Alex Trebek we're dealing with here. He's a national treasure. We want more from him.
(by Dennis DiClaudio)
