TV Is Good for You by Joel Waldfogel

Central Argument: TV is helpful for rual Indian women so they should watch TV.

I spend about four and a half hours a day watching TV at home. That is about one thousand six hundred hours a year, which is well over two months. Therefore, I cannot deny that I spend entire TWO MONTHS watching TV in a year. So now my question is what I actually learned from this habit of watching TV. I basically learned not to read books; I tend to watch daily news rather than to read an article, and I tend to watch movie rather than read a novel. Of course, there are many other negative effects of watching TV, which I did not mention such as causing us inactive, fat, and passive. Therefore, I generally agree that watching TV is relatively unhelpful.

But here is my question: “Is it true for all cases?” I would like to use rural Indian women as an example to show that TV can be indeed helpful. Without question, it is hard to deny that rural Indian women do not have a lot of control over their lives. According to the survey, “more than half need permission from their husbands to go shopping. Two-thirds need their husbands' permission to visit friends. Spousal beating is common and accepted: Sixty-two percent of women believe that it is sometimes acceptable. Thirty-four percent of the women surveyed believed a husband could hit his wife if she neglected the children, while nearly a third believed that showing disrespect and going places without permission warranted a beating. One fifth of women believe husbands are entitled to hit them for cooking a lousy dinner.” I totally have to agree that TV is good for women if it can change the mindset of these women: their own decisions about shopping, health, and whom they visit, and their attitude toward beating.

Surprisingly, according to TV Is Good for You by Joel Waldfogel, a new study shows that “in the 21 villages that got cable between 2001 and 2003, women’s attitudes changed quickly and substantially.” “After a village got cable, women's preference for male children fell by 12 percentage points. The average number of situations in which women said that wife beating is acceptable fell by about 10 percent. And the authors' composite autonomy index jumped substantially, by an amount equivalent to the attitude difference associated with 5.5 years of additional education. This clearly shows that idea that TV is unhelpful is not a case for rural Indian women.”

            In this case, it does not matter what method is used to change the mindset of rural Indian women as long as it can give them control in their lives. They should not be controlled by their husband. Women are equal to men. Therefore, they also deserve same amount of rights. The book of Genesis states that women should listen to their husband, but does that mean they should become slave of their husband who does not have any control in lives?

I am sure that no one cannot deny the fact that TV is in need for rural Indian women!