AIBU to think that 'The Apprentice' is stupidly sexist?

[Masterpiece1]

I've only just got round to watching the first two episodes... And at the beginning of both Alan Sugar makes a big song and dance about how many males and females are in each team! And then, the people in the teams make a big song and dance about the sexes in their team?

In this day and age? Seriously? It is pathetic!

As much as you, an Mumsnet people, don't like it - there will ALWAYS be competition between the sexes. Just don't watch it if you don't like it.

You are so right, OP. Thank heavens you spotted it.

What bugs me is that all the women have girly hairdos, wear make up and skirts while all the men have short hair and wear suits.

I mean, it's almost as if men and women are different, isn't it? And as all good Mumsnetters know, men and women are IDENTICAL and any difference is all down to socialisation. Right?

But I am interested in the use of your word "sexist". Which gender is being disadvantaged here? Both? In which case, it's not actually "sexist", is it?

I think the whole men v women thing they do is rather reductive. Pointless in fact. Who cares.

Obviously men and women are different, but The Apprentice is, well claims to be, a show about business. If it's a show about business, then why do the sexes of the people involved get mentioned over and over?

If they separated the candidates by race or age, I could see there being more uproar, but because it's sex, everyone accepts it?

I don't think the competition is inherently any more sexist than shows like X-Factor are sexist for having singers divided by whether they are male/ female.

Sometimes teams are males vs females but sometimes the groups are mixed. It's just a way to easily split and group the contestants but as there is no advantage to either gender I don't think the premise is 'sexist.' Very gender aware yes, but not sexist.

That said I would say some of the contestants may be sexist or at least hold some sexist views (eg: a male contestant not wanting to have females in his team as he thought they'd all be squeamish as it involved fish) but I think that's different to the show itself being sexist.

It's fine in a competition to group teams by gender or any other defining feature (age, religion, home country etc) so long as no group is given an unfair advantage over the other.

Erm...

It's not really sexist to mention something. Unfortunately, people on The Apprentice tend to be walking stereotypes, so there is always the bitchy women and the sulker and the egotistical man who is actually no good at anything and the person who enters but can't sell.

This series was the first time that the first episode split the candidates into mixed gender groups, and then they were put back into boys v girls for the second challenge, so it's fair enough that on both occasions, the candidates talked about what they thought of the change.

To be honest, though, in real-life everyday business, gender is a feature. It's mentioned. We don't all ignore it.

The point about The Apprentice is that they're all idiots. I find it reassuring that they remind us every week that this is not a sex-linked characteristic.

Ha ha apricot I totally agree. It is not sexist / racist /ageist to point out a difference or to look different as long as no one group is being disadvantaged because of their difference. The women on the show dress and look the way they do because they have chosen to look that way. There have been women on the show that are not glamorous in a stereotypical way, there have been sensitive, quiet men too.
What's the problem? It's a good laugh as far as i'm concerned. How people can be so arrogant and then fail is great entertainment. Oh am I being arrogantist?

The fact that they divide the teams into "boys" and "girls" rather than "men" and "women" says a lot about the calibre of this TV show, and how relevant it actually is to business.

Andre I think you have put it in a nutshell

What Andre said.

YABU

That's not what sexist means.

I watched this but didn't notice anything - maybe after zillions of series of it I have become immune.

Women do fine on that show and have won it in the past. They always make sure to have a woman as one of Sugar's assistants, and before the relatively youthful Ms Brady, it was Margaret Mountford, which I continue to think is incredible - representing older women in a strong, positive manner.

Dislike it if you wish, but one of the things that keeps me hooked on that show is knowing that women of all ages are being represented.

I noticed sexist comments from some of the candidates, but I don't think the set-up of the show itself is particularly sexist.

There will have been more comments than usual about the sexes in the teams because this is the first time they've not had the teams in a boy / girl split in the first task, and then gone back to the Apprentice norm of boy / girl teams for the second task.
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