Germany: Open letter from Der Deutsche Frauenrat EWL German coordination denouncing the TV show "Who wants to fuck my girlfriend?"
[Brussels, 22 February 2013] The EWL welcomes and supports our national coordination in Germany, der Deutsche Frauenrat , that published an open letter concerning the so –called satirical gameshow ‘ Who wants to fuck my girlfriend?’ on the German channel Tele5. We provide you with a translation of the letter below.
Dear Mr. Blasberg,
Your show Who wants to Fuck my Girlfriend? was brought to our attention by our member associations as well as the European Women’s Lobby.
Until now, we never imagined that private television would sink to such levels of bad taste, especially when it comes to the current wave of public debate of sexism and sexual harassment. Sadly, we were proven wrong.
You claim that your show is a satire of other television shows (such as the Bachelor, or Bride Search Abroad) that overstep moral boundaries in serving what are misogynistic messages and a model of sexist practice. The only irony here is that you are relying on the same means to get viewer’s attention: the thigh slapping laughter of your male and female audience at the expense of women through demeaning sexist clichés that (even with a wink of acknowledgement) perpetuate these ideas resulting in the belief that this is appropriate for broadcast. Well done, that’s exactly how we envisioned so-called socially critical television programming!
Your game show Who wants to Fuck my Girlfriend is not satire. Instead, it points above all to the urge of the (small) man, to repeat an offensive “dirty” word ad nauseum in a pubescent display of self-reassurance in hopes of achieving “manliness”. In a private context, this would merely be embarrassing, but on a public platform which you provide with your television broadcast, it is a blatant transgression of a boundary and a considerable form of harassment and provocation.
For the above mentioned reasons, we call on you to end this game show.
Sincerely,
Mona Küppers
Co-Chair
