Female Football Fans and Football Widows Unite!

by Ivette Ricco

Female football fans and football widows unite.

Football Widows, the good news is that NFL season is at its halfway point.
Female Football Fans and Football Widows, the good news is that the cute little gardener on “Desperate Housewives” is trimming more than the rosebushes.

News Flash!
The Monday Night Football Desperate Wives Flap is ragin'
Check it out at the end of the article....

Sunday has restored my faith in America . Not only can we enjoy the aggression on the football field but we can chase all that game day testosterone with a strong shot of soap opera estrogen.

Yes the ladies on the ABC hit "Desperate Housewives" are hot mamas who put life in perspective for us.

The fantasy lift I receive from this show is enhanced by the way the female roles have been filled by women who are past puberty. No Bittney, no Jessica , no Paris . Thank gawd!! Real women with not so real lives.

Surprise! Women are still hot even if they've passed the 18-34 demographic. Not just in terms of sex appeal, either. Their TV “revival” is due to advertisers realization that teenagers may not be their saviors after all but that “mature” women have the money to make their cash registers go Ka-Ching.
The success and power of Sex and the City, has made advertisers take notice of real women, finally!

But progress and new ideas don’t come without some problems.
There is still some risk in marketing sexy women to America’s mainstream, particularly with the “moral majority” making its voice heard during the Bush administration.
Five companies pulled advertising from "Desperate Housewives" after a conservative group complained that the show wasn’t promoting traditional family values. Ya think?

But advertisers and marketing companies don’t seem to care; they are still lining up for a spot on this edgy show. Money still talks.
Marketers say women-centered shows are an easy sell, as companies aim at an untapped female market. It's about time.

Kathleen Seiders, a marketing professor at Boston College, says “"As women increasingly earn professional degrees and rise in the workplace, their spending ability grows, and so does their influence over household purchases. Moms still tend to take charge of the grocery shopping, but they also have a larger role in choosing a family car. They're also developing a taste for luxury. The spa weekend has become the female answer to the male golf getaway.”

Marshal Cohen, chief analyst at the NPD group, a market research firm based in Port Washington, N.Y. says, "For a long period of time, the retailers were really focused on the youth of America," he says. "They were the golden ticket."

And so everyone fell in step with the youth culture and their desire to target the lucrative teen market.
Cohen says that the teen market is now over saturated. But the thirty- and forty something women have pent-up demand, business is tapping in, and TV, once again, is catching up. Pent up demand is just the tip of the iceberg!

The ads on "Desperate Housewives," are a interesting mix, there are products aimed at staying young, trim and fit. The ads include: pore cleansers, hair dyes, teeth whiteners and Xenadrine for weight loss.
Xenadrine's commercial touts the housewife as the hot ticket.
Using the punchline, "Dude, that's my mom."

But Tyson, Lowe's, Kellogg and two frozen-meal companies have pulled their ads from future episodes, in response to pressure from the conservative American Family Association. The group apparently has discovered that a show titled "Desperate Housewives" isn’t the World of Disney.

On the other side the feminist quarter also has an opinion.

“Desperate Housewives' features every bad stereotype that I can think of about women," says Martha Lauzen, a communications professor at San Diego State University who compiles an annual study of women's employment in the TV industry. "It pits women against women, competing for what else? Men. It shows women as petty, self-centered, scheming."

Yes, I agree, these ladies do have their problems, and aren’t particularly attractive role models.
For example Teri Hatcher, (Lois Lane in her previous life) was abandoned by her husband; Marcia Cross, (previously on Melrose Place) is driving hers away; and Felicity Huffman, (who once played a tough producer on Sports Night) traded in her career for a stay at home life with some pretty bratty kids. And Nicollette Sheridan, (previously on Knots Landing) is the neighborhood tart. She’s blonde, naturally (or not).

Fine, but this is TV, this is a fantasy world. Do women (or men) really believe these are real people? It’s fun, it’s campy, it’s trash, and it’s soap. They make fun of every burb stereotype and feed our hungry souls after a long day of football frenzy and futility.
Let’s have fun with this, and if you don’t like it well, get over it. This is simply a good time on Sunday.

“Desperate Housewives” has its share of "closet" fans. Men are also tuning into this spicy Sunday show.
Nearly 40 percent of the show's viewers are men . Of the show's 22 million viewers, 8.2 million are men, making "Desperate Housewives" the No. 3 show this season among men ages 18 to 34 and 18 to 49. Only "Monday Night Football" and " CSI " and the "The Simpsons" are proving stronger draws. Thereby poking a finger in the eye of every advertiser and network executive that predicted men would ignore a prime-time soap with four female leading characters.

Wherever you find good looking babes, you are bound to find men!

"How can it come as a surprise given what's on that show?" said Stuart Fischoff , a media psychologist at California State University , Los Angeles . "It's a babe show. A bunch of attractive women in various stages of desperation and looking for love in all the right and wrong places. This is a show for men of all seasons."

Football Widows, next Sunday sit your man down and give him a news bulletin.

Sunday is not only football day, it’s “Desperate Housewives” day, and you – my man - need to get a clue or at the very least, hire me a cute gardener.

News Flash!
Desperate Housewives Meets T.O. on MNF.
No this time it wasn't Janet's boob, it was the NFL's showman, T.O. with sexy Nicolette Sheridan of Desperate Housewives in a steamy opening intro to the Monday Night Game.
The NFL is up in arms. The idea that T.O. and Nicolette Sheridan played "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" on MNF is simply too much for Tagliabue to take.

From ESPN Page 2:
Shocked? Stunned? Jealous?
Check it out
From The SportsCritics.com
Are you ready for some..FCC?

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