This week, a new ABC show called Wicked City debuted to wide criticism and mockery. After reading an article by Lauren Le Vine about the show on Refinery29, it was impossible not to reflect on Le Vine’s points and the effect of media portrayals of women on our culture as a whole. The ABC show’s subject is a Los Angeles serial killer who seeks out women to kill and defile after murder. The show has garnered criticism for its portrayal of women and attempt to make its main character an essentially noble protagonist. While serial killers do exist, and the American public is fascinated with them, the show’s depiction of women as usable and willing to believe in the goodness of a homicidal maniac is troubling. The fact that a show about adulterating women can be marketed as good fun is a symptom of popular culture’s extremely low respect for women. The myriad of other insubstantial female characters in television and film make the disenfranchisement of women into entertainment and equality for women seem like an ever more unattainable goal.

In this “golden age” of television, many popular shows include frequent violent and sexual content. Many of these programs such as Dexter and The Walking Dead are given accolades and praise for their content despite gratuitous violence. Their emphasis on plot, character development, and quality writing make them celebrated rather than reviled. While these shows include graphic violence and characters lacking positive moral values, they do not run solely on the fuel of blood and sex. Wicked City does, and it uses countless -nameless women to do it. The women targeted by the killer are not people; rather they are objects useful for developing male characters and advancing the plot of the show. This show fails to depict women with complex personalities, and the R29 article points out that the women characters serve only the protagonist’s needs. Several women on the show put themselves in danger or allow themselves to be used sexually in order to further their careers. Though this is an extreme example, its believability in the show points out the commonplace self-objectification and self-deprecation many women use to be accepted and advance in the workplace.

While these points in the online article address a specific show, there are a multitude of other shows that convey messages devaluing women. Competitions pitting women against one another for the title of prettiest, sexiest and most deviously cunning are in no short supply. Shows about women living as housewives, prospective wives and women simply thrown in a house in hopes that they fight are unavoidable. By contrast, the chances of turning on the TV to find a group of smart women with gainful employment living their daily lives are slim to none. The popular Real Housewives franchise thrives on its subjects’ petty gossip, obsession with traditional beauty and meaningless activities. Even the name of the show is a stereotype, and the women on camera exemplify the worst qualities attributed to the female sex. None of these women apply themselves in a meaningful way or are independent, and the show’s main appeal lies in interviews where housewives degrade each other. A show about a woman achieving success on her own and without pushing down others would not only send a clear message to the general public, but also act as a tangible goal to which young women could aspire.

Wicked City, and in a different way, reality television, depicts women as shallow and without worth. These messages are found everywhere in our society and help reinforce that belief in the population as a whole. Overcoming the ancient inequalities between men and women is made so much more difficult by our culture and media’s insistence on defining women as things rather than people. While sites like Refinery29 can attempt to critique these blatant oversimplifications and objectifications, there cannot be meaningful progress when shows that portray women as objects have mass appeal.