<p>In celebration of International Women’s Day, we begin by digging into gender inequality statistics before turning to one of British television’s strangest dystopias:&nbsp;<em>The Worm That Turned</em>, the 1980 eight-part serial from&nbsp;The Two Ronnies.</p><br><p>Set in a nightmare vision of 2012 Britain, the serial imagines a world where women rule, men are domesticated and forced into women’s clothing, and law and order is enforced by a PVC-clad female Gestapo led by screen siren&nbsp;Diana Dors. We follow the unlikely heroes Janet and Betty (Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett) as they flee the regime, seek out the resistance, and attempt to escape to Wales.</p><br><p>We place the serial in the political and cultural context of 1980 Britain — early Thatcherism, unrest, and rapidly shifting TV and music trends — and ask whether the comedy is mocking women’s power or exposing male fear of it. Along the way, we note the male-gaze elements and fascist aesthetics, but also the moments that highlight just how “shit” women’s lives are under patriarchy.</p><br><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcMd1F1acSo&amp;list=PL1DB02CB56C1C20C1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Click here to watch 'The Worm That Turned' on YouTube</a></p><br><p>GAZER HOMEWORK: Next week for Mother's Day we focus on the Hitchcock classic: PSYCHO from 1960.</p><p><a href="https://linktr.ee/theproblematicgaze" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Click here to follow us on all our socials</a></p><br><p>Don't forget to hit that FOLLOW button to get every episode of The Problematic Gaze downloaded and ready to listen!</p><br><p>Please leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. They really help to spread the word of The Problematic Gaze.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><a href="mailto:[email protected]" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">And if our fellow Gazers want to comment on what they've heard in our episodes, or to suggest future topics, please email us at [email protected]. We love hearing from you!</a></p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>