Dollhouse‘s ratings are down, and Entertainment Weekly asks where the show went wrong. I have no definitive answer, but after watching the first two episodes of season two, I’ve decided to cut myself out of Dollhouse‘s already tiny viewership because I’m increasingly disturbed by its portrayal of women. I feel that it’s crossed the line between portraying how the Dollhouse’s customers–and therefore society–demean women and actually, as a show, demeaning them. I’ve always been troubled by the show’s insistence on putting its star in skimpy clothing, but the season 2 opener, in which former FBI agent Paul Ballard slaps Echo repeatedly to try to get her to go into ninja mode, sickened me. And then there’s the second episode, in which we learn that women’s hormones are apparently stronger than any other identity component (to be fair, the show already did suggest that hormones trump all for a male character last season). I doubt that’s why other people are tuning out, but that’s why I’m done.
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Carissa Turner Smith is a compulsive reader, writer, and Irish dancer. She earned her Ph.D. in English at Penn State and currently teaches literature and composition courses there. At age three, she announced that all she wanted to do was “sit at a desk and read and write,” and she has been trying to make good on that promise ever since. Fortunately, she is occasionally distracted from this mission by her husband Stephen and their cheese-obsessed cat. A loyal native of Arkansas, she has always loved the fact that Jesus dwelt in an underappreciated corner of Galilee (see John 1:46). 
