Jon and Kate Plus 8

For several years now, there has been a televised reality show called 'Jon and Kate Plus 8', a program that was designed to chronicle the lives of Jon and Kate Gosselin as they raised 8 children. In recent months, that paradigm has fallen apart, as Jon and Kate go through a contentious and heavily publicized divorce. It has recently intensified after TLC announced that the show would be renamed 'Kate Plus 8', and that Jon would have a less significant role on the show.

The shameful cause of their separation aside, the network's behavior is clearly sexist towards both parties, as it characterizes both Jon and Kate into the traditional roles of their respective genders. Irrespective of the fact that they have agreed to share custody of the children, it seems that TLC is all too happy to simply paint Jon out of the show, regardless of the fact that he has shown interest in continuing his presence in their lives off the screen. It also implies that either Jon is too uncaring or Kate too culpable for the children for there to be any situation other than Kate raising them as a single mother.

Furthermore, it is very telling about the state of the family in our society when something as personal as this merited an hour long special when news first came out, and the fact that we don't have the common courtesy to let all parties involved resolve this with some degree of privacy.