Ask Arlene
Episode 61 (Episode 15 of Season 3) of WKRP in Cincinnati is called "Ask Jennifer." It originally aired February 14, 198 and Wikipedia describes it thusly:
Jennifer steps in as the voice of an advice talk show titled "Ask Arlene" when the planned host turns out to be a pill-popper. Jennifer quickly finds success, but wants out once a piece of advice goes wrong.
Jennifer Marlowe, played by Loni Anderson, is the station's receptionist and highest-paid employee. She looks like your stereotypical dumb blonde bombshell, but is actually highly competent.
I don't recall anymore if this was just talk amongst gamers as an example or an actual magazine write up, but in DND terms, she had an 18 charisma and 18 wisdom. In game terms, charisma is more than just looks or attractiveness. It's very like the actual definition of the word:
compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others:"she enchanted guests with her charisma"Similar:charmpresenceaurapersonalityindividualitymagnetismanimal magnetisma divinely conferred power or talent.
Wikipedia also has these blurbs about the episode Ask Jennifer:
In the episode "Ask Jennifer," she takes over as the host of a call-in advice show, using her intelligence and knowledge to give easy, offhand answers to all her callers' questions, but she does not think enough about the potential consequences of the advice she gives, and when a woman is beaten by her controlling husband as a result of taking her advice to stand up to him, a distraught and guilt-ridden Jennifer quits the show.In "Ask Jennifer", after she resigns as "Arlene", she sulks away at her desk, telling Andy and Arthur that she intends to simply sit at her desk and keep her mouth shut. Arthur tells her not to, and when she asks him why, he says it's because he needs her. "I don't want someone to need me," she says. "Oh yes, you do," counters Arthur. She asks the two men to leave her desk for a moment to be alone, to which they agree. As she is on the verge of tears, Arthur comes back to her desk, asking her to come into his office, because he needs her. When she asks why, he says his model train is broken. Happy at the thought of being needed for something she can actually be helpful with, she embraces her boss.
My recollection of the episode is that they go on the air, take the first call for Arlene and she has just passed out from whatever pills she's taking live on the air. So Jennifer grabs the mic and starts giving brilliant advice and she's a huge hit and for a time very much enjoys the role.
And then some woman calls in, describes her marital problems and Jennifer quips "Leave him!" A day or so later, the same woman calls back. Her husband had beat her up for trying to leave him.
Jennifer is aghast. It never occurred to her it could go like that. Jennifer is extremely competent and makes good money and handles endless sexual harassment she shouldn't have to face with relative aplomb.
While other people arrange for appropriate domestic violence intervention, Jennifer basically quits on the spot as the voice for "Ask Arlene."
I don't have the Jayne Mansfield body of Loni Anderson, but beyond that the character Jennifer Marlowe resonated with me and this episode in particular really stuck with me. And I have always positioned myself on the Internet as not wanting to give advice.
Unlike Jennifer Marlowe, who grew up in rural poverty but otherwise seems to have had an extremely nice life, I've been kind of slapped around by a drug addict brother who was molesting me and I'm keenly aware that I routinely pull stuff off that other people think is me telling tall tales and no one can actually do that. So I'm keenly aware that if I flippantly say something like "Leave him!" that may have disaster waiting to happen written all over it.
I have participated on many different support lists over the years and I went to great pains to say "This is not advice. You are not me. What worked for me may not work for you." My first parenting site was called Kids Like Mine because I absolutely hate labels and routinely said on TAGMAX "Kids Like Mine" sometimes benefit from...
On health lists, I worked at encouraging people to tell their story and actively tried to shut down list dynamics where people trended towards being either for or against something. If ten people replied and told their story about their experience with that surgery, I wanted you to have eight or nine unique insights relevant to your surgical decision rather than the list playing social politics with "Let's all either vociferously AGREE or equally vociferously DISAGREE with this surgery being a good idea."
I go to great pains to not give advice on my blogs either and to instead be adequately informative to make my writing genuinely useful information without ever telling you "Do x!" Or "Don't do x!"
Sixteen years ago, I helped an abused youth successfully escape an abusive family situation and that was successful because I took it extremely seriously that I was taking her life into my hands and there was no room for flippant "Aren't I so clever!" advice.
If someone is genuinely in an abusive relationship with the kind of person who practices DARVO, telling them to just leave is tantamount to telling them to jump out of a moving vehicle at high speed.
Abusive relationships are always at their most dangerous when you try to leave. People who were psycho controlling nutcases but never actually violent are most likely to become violent when you try to leave them.
You are at your greatest risk of dying by their hands when you leave.
I don't typically characterize my marriage as abusive in part because the divorce was amicable. The divorce was so cooperative and polite, I had my fears that we might stupidly decide we get along just fine and should stay together!
Furthermore, seriously abused wives typically don't manage to get an education or establish a career during the abusive relationship. Abusive husbands want her to be your stereotypical barefoot and pregnant, ignorant little wifey with no means and no hope of supporting herself.
Leaving your sole source of support with no means whatsoever to replace that lost income is a dire situation even if he's not abusive.
I think the best way to mitigate current tendencies for women to be excessively financially dependent on a man and therefore vulnerable to being pressured into doing things his way even if he's not trying to be a controlling nutcase is to promote things like education and opportunities for women.
And I am seriously concerned about some of the things I see online that position themselves as serving a target audience of victims of abuse. They look to me like a great way to put out the fire with gasoline.