Inequality on Broadway

So I saw “Catch me if you can” on Broadway last night. I love Broadway shows, and although this one wasn’t my favorite, it was still good. There was tons of dancing and glitz and the occasional slapstick humor- what I would call a typical Broadway show.

There was one thing that really bothered me though- the sexualization of the women. There were plenty of costume changes for everyone, but it seemed that in every scene the women background dancers/ singers were wearing a bikini or a tight shirt and underwear, while the men were wearing pants and shirts in every scene. In one scene where the theme was business casual, the men were wearing dresspants and a suit jacket with a white button down under, while the women were wearing a suit jacket without anything under (boobs pushed up and all)and black bikini panties. First of all, that is entirely ridiculous! Imagine walking to an office like that, you would get fired then and there I bet. It’s one thing if they were trying to play off of the office idea but make it more fun, but the men were wearing entirely acceptable business attire. This continued in every scene, and I found myself getting more disgusted by the minute.

Why is it that women constantly have to be sexualized in order to keep someone’s attention? As if their Broadway-worthy dancing and singing isn’t enough? This is sending a really bad message to any young girls in the audience. And men should be bothered as well; our culture is really portraying men as not being able to look past a woman’s body, apparently women can’t be entertaining unless they are good looking and flaunting it.

A photo from the show (credit to http://www.playbill.com;click photo for link): Notice the women’s costumes compared to those of the men.