Last night we were watching “The Voice” . It was actually a really good show…and I usually can’t stand these types of shows. I can’t get through five minutes of American Idol or Dancing With The Stars, but I thought the concept of The Voice was interesting and we were actually hooked after just a couple of minutes.
The artists are singing to impress the judges, one by one, and about halfway through, an attractive, young, married couple (Josh and Nicole) who call themselves Elenowen started singing. They were great, and some of the judges turned their chairs around to try and get the singers on their team (they have to listen to the artists without looking at them) for the rest of the contest. When it came time for the couple to choose which judge they wanted to work with, Nicole deferred to Josh to make the decision. He said something like, ”oh no, you can’t leave me to make this decision!” And here’s where the truly cringeworthy part comes in: she smiled and said “baby, you’re the leader!” Shudder. My husband immediately burst out laughing, as he knew what effect this would have on me.
I thought surely one of the judges (Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton) would say something or roll their eyes or do something to show that the whole submissive wife act didn’t work for them … but nothing. Just amused chuckles all around. Ugh.
Now, I’m not saying having one partner in a marriage make a decision is necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes it just works that way. But this couple is a singing duo and choosing which of the show’s judges should coach them through the rest of the competition is a big decision for both of them. And she didn’t act like she just didn’t want to make the decision so she was leaving it up to him…it was a definite case of deferring to him because he is “the man”. Doling out important decision making based on gender does not an equal partnership make. But if you must protect your delicate feminine brain from making big scary decisions, please don’t do it on national television.
