COMMENT
Mere weeks after the extensive allegations of sexual harassment against, the network has chosen to release a controversial ad campaign for its reality series Married at First Sight which features a man displaying misogynistic, controlling attitudes towards women.
It introduces potential viewers to cast member Dean, who wants a female partner who will "love, honour, and obey" him.
"It's hard to say without sounding sexist or something, but I like a girl that is a girl and she's girly, and knows that I'm the man and that I'm in charge."
(It would be difficult to say that without sounding sexist, because, well... it is inherently sexist.)
This yet-to-be-named woman will be meeting Dean for the first time at the altar.
"I want someone that listens to me," he continues. "I want to be the alpha male and she needs to respect me as the man. I think that's a traditional role that still exists in a lot of other countries in the world, and Australia's kind of lost that.
"A lot of guys are just afraid to be men now, and are just getting whipped by their women. I don't agree with it, I don't know why that's happened - I want to bring it back."
Responses to the video have been overwhelmingly negative, with people voicing their horror that Nine would cast someone who condones controlling behaviour and contentedly spouts sexist rhetoric - particularly as .
has seen an overwhelming amount of survivors (mostly women) coming forward about their experiences with sexual assault, rape, and harassment, and has received enormous coverage in the past few months. It's led to allegations against high profile people and celebrities such as , , , and many more.
As the name 'Married at First Sight' implies, this yet-to-be-named woman will be meeting Dean for the first time at the altar. This means she will be completely unaware of his stance on 'traditional' gender roles and demands for women's submissiveness - and so the channel is essentially setting a woman up for an inevitable fight for her autonomy and validity as a human being with independent thoughts and choices.
Dean's statements are common red flags that many women would find concerning, or threatening. His implication that he wants to control a submissive wife is harmful in general, but it's terrifying to know that the woman he is paired with won't have a chance to see the warning signs and make an educated choice on whether she should go ahead with the relationship or not.
Is this in any way appropriate, especially at a time when #MeToo is at the height of its power? No way. Is it ethical to place an unsuspecting woman in a relationship with an outspoken misogynist, and normalise his behaviour via a national television show? Absolutely not.
Many are also mortified that the network would include Dean in the show at all, considering the recent allegations of harassment and abuse against Channel 9 personality Don Burke.
This isn't the first time Married at First Sight has landed in hot water for being insensitive towards the issue of assault and harassment. In 2016, the show copped backlash for pairing Jono Pitman - who admitted to past violent behaviour, including assaulting a stranger in a pub brawl in 2008 - with Clare Verrall, who spoke about living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after being randomly attacked in the street the year before.
Verrall spoke out about the unethical pairing with Jono after the show had ended, saying, "I was very disappointed that, knowing my history of PTSD after a violent attack and knowing I had joined the show earnestly trying to put myself out there to find love, the show and psychologists partnered me with someone who had known anger management issues and who has been arrested for violent behaviour". She also called her season of the reality television show "a s**tshow from start to finish".
These decisions show that Channel 9 are willing to prioritise the ratings that come with a dramatic, 'explosive' (read: potentially abusive) pairing over eradicating misogyny, sexism, and sexual harassment.
Providing a platform for this kind of damaging and ethically void behaviour - particularly so quickly after the news that the network had been housing and promoting an alleged abuser for decades - is morally bankrupt, and a decision that the Nine Network should be ashamed of.
Currently, the rates are heartbreaking: , and . Those stats will never, ever lower if we choose to show misogynistic partners and relationships on national television as some form of sadistic entertainment. We cannot be content with popular networks normalising something that already desperately needs changing.
Channel 9, read the goddamn room. Nothing is worth jeopardising women's safety - especially not a trashy reality TV show.
