The Price is Right is Getting a Male Model

The Price is Right has been around a long time.  I remember watching Bob Barker and his CBS hit as a child at my grandparents house.  Over the years, The Price is Right has always had girls showing off the prizes (and other stuff).  They didn’t talk much.  They were there to look pretty.  I think this is the way Bob Barker liked it given the issues he had with sexual harassment and discrimination that was going on backstage.  Don’t get me wrong, I liked Bob.  After all he put up a good fight in Happy Gilmore.

Given his history, I think it was pretty obvious that Bob Barker is a straight man. He likes girls.  I don’t think The Price is Right would be getting a male model right now if Bob was still on the show.  Although I don’t know Bob and I can’t speak for him, I don’t think he would have stood for this.  Bob Barker’s Beauties are supposed to be hot chicks, not guys.

Drew Carey took over The Price is Right in 2007.  Now The Price is Right is looking to get it’s first male model.  There have also been rumors about Drew Carey’s sexuality.  Is this just a coincidence?  Although Drew Carey has never admitted it, people have suggested he is gay or possibly bisexual.  Personally, I don’t believe the rumor but you never know.  It is a possibility.  People say that a lot of hot chicks hang around him but I think that is true of some gay guys too.  He was engaged to Nicole Jaracz but they broke it off in January of 2012.  That doesn’t mean a lot though.  Plenty of gay guys, who are having trouble coming out, get married and have kids.

I’m not sure about the demographic for The Price is Right, but a male model doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.  The Price is Right is not Chippendales.

When I watched the show in the 70s with my grandparents, I’m pretty sure my grandfather didn’t want to see a male model.  My grandmother watched too and although she was straight, I don’t think she would have wanted male models on the show either. Men weren’t really supposed to be objectified like that.  It was okay to objectify women of course, but it just seemed wrong to do it to men.

Let’s face it.  Men get turned on by hot models and pictures of showers. Women are generally more interested in relationships and feelings and stuff like that.  They aren’t going to have the same reaction to male models that men do to female models.  Gay men, on the other hand, are still men and they share the male ability to objectify people sexually just like straight men.

Okay, I know what some of you are thinking right now.  “Women objectify men too!”  Sure some do.  Count the number of strip clubs in your area that have female strippers and then count the number that have male strippers.  Doesn’t the book “Porn for Women” (see image) pretty much say it all?

Like I said, I don’t think this would have happened in Bob Barker’s era. The demographic for The Price is Right was my grandparents, not gay men.  Now with Drew Carey, we are getting a male model.  Does this mean that bringing Drew Carey on the show has somehow changed the demographic from my grandparents to gay men?  I don’t think so.  Is it because The Price is Right is primary watched by housewives?  There are less wives staying home now than in the 70s.  Besides, I think stay at home wives are more likely to be watching soap operas than The Price is Right, given that they also have hot guys.  In soap operas, the guys are also involved in relationships and not just pointing at prizes, which makes them much more attractive to the female audience.  So I guess, I’m just not really understanding the logic here.  Maybe equality is more important these days than giving viewers what they want.  If you know the reason, please let me know.

I haven’t watched The Price is Right in years and now with Drew Carey and his male models, I have even less motivation to tune in and watch. I’m sure my grandfather is rolling over in his grave.

Now this picture of Rachel Reynolds is what the models on The Price is Right are supposed to look like.  We don’t need to see Fabio doing the hand flipping thing to point at the prizes.  I think this is a mistake.  The Price is Right has been amazing successful for decades without male models.  I wouldn’t mess with the winning formula.

My next post will be a look back at Bob’s Beauties.  If you want to see more of these girls, make sure you come back!

The Price is Right is shown weekdays on CBS… just in case you want to check out the new male model.

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