A Year's Worth of Real Time with Bill Maher Tallies
I’ve been keeping tally of the manels on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher with the GA Tally app for the past year or so. The percentage of women represented is critically low. If I could talk to Bill Maher directly, I would say this:
Bill,
I agree with you 95% of the time, even with the Stan Lee thing, but the point is that I am a woman who likes your show, and you’re making it hard for me.
You and/or your bookers have not included enough women, 51% of the population, on your show. Show after show, I hope (not pray, I'm with you there, too) that you will have equal representation on your panel, but every time I'm disappointed. The numbers a pretty appalling, Bill. You've even had shows with NO women. Could you imagine what people would say if you had NO men on your show? They’d call it The View. You even called your November 8, 2019 show, one with NO women on your panel, a “sausage party.”
It’s sad that I get excited when you have two women on your panel, or the ever scarce opening interview with a woman and then two women on the panel. What a treat! It’s like winning the lottery. So why is it sad? Because it’s so rare, and it shouldn’t be. I’m lapping up the equal representation crumbs you put out. Please, give us more.
Don’t tell us it’s hard to find women to participate because we’re #NotBuyingIt. If you want intelligent and experienced women who can speak politics, you can look to PBS for starters. There are also a ton on the 24-hour cable news shows, not to mention journalists for the major newspapers and magazines and online outlets. You can even try Geena Davis, who can talk about her Institute on Gender in Media, or Gloria Steinem again for big audience pull, or Jennifer Siebel Newsom of The Representation Project (you already had her husband on). You’re welcome.
Look, I know you don’t like to be politically correct, but this is different. Try to put yourself in my position. It’s nice to hear women who can speak up about what’s happening now with this administration, especially since a lot of it affects women — like sexual assault, rollbacks on abortion rights, and the lack of women’s representation in the government (and everywhere else, really). So let me watch your show with the happiness I deserve, to sit there and say “Yeah, Bill! You’re right!” without cringing at the sight of all those men.
Remember, it’s important to see equal representation on the screen, even in comedy. Who we see on TV influences how women see themselves and how men see women, which has a big impact on social issues and values. Geena Davis herself connected how women are represented in the media to domestic violence. It’s that powerful. One study even shows that women will turn off a TV show that lacks females. I haven’t yet, but please don’t push me. The show is currently on hiatus, meaning there is ample time to line up an equal number of women and men to appear on the show in 2020 and beyond.
Do us right, Bill. Thanks.
Cat Del Buono
Cat Del Buono is a Brooklyn artist whose work focuses on social issues. She received a BA from Boston College, an MFA from School of Visual Arts, attended NYU’s Tisch graduate film program and spent 25 years in television production. Her videos and installations have shown at the Bronx Museum, Bass Museum, MoCA Miami, Vetlanda Museum Sweden, and Fountain Art Fair to name a few. “Voices," her ongoing collaboration with domestic violence shelters, continues to show in a number of cities across the USA and will show in Italy for the first time next year. Awards include Visiting Artist at American Academy in Rome, Bronx Museum AIM Program, ISE Cultural Foundation Grant, Awesome Foundation Grant, School of Visual Arts Alumni Award, and a NYFA Stipend. Her work has been featured in Jezebel, Huffington Post, Art Newspaper, Miami Herald, and PBS. Del Buono also just started a nonprofit organization in her CT hometown that provides free after-school art classes to underprivileged children.